Scores of student organizations from various high schools in Taipei staged their first flash protest at the Taipei First Girls’ Senior High School yesterday in the hope of drawing more public attention to the issue of their opposition to the Ministry of Education’s controversial changes to the high-school curriculum guidelines.
Northern Taiwan Anti Curriculum Changes Alliance spokesman Chu Chen (朱震), a student at Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, criticized the process under which the ministry decided to adjust the high-school curriculum guidelines as overly rash and hasty, saying that even the Taipei High Administrative Court had ruled that the ministry had broken the law.
Chu was referring to the Feb. 12 High Administrative Court ruling that the ministry must make its information more transparent and complete for public scrutiny.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times.
If the ministry does not change its mind and insists on implementing the changes in August, the students’ demonstrations would continue, Chu said, adding that students would hold talks and seminars, and work with their peers in central and southern Taiwan to organize larger demonstrations next month.
Yesterday’s protest was the first and it was experimental in nature, Municipal Neihu Senior High School second-year student Huang Mao-shan (黃茂善) said, adding that the alliance would be holding flash protests at each school in Taipei to let everyone know the widespread discontent over the ministry’s changes.
Taipei First Girls’ Senior High School was chosen because it is opposite the Presidential Office Building, Huang said.
Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) appeared on the Executive Yuan’s “open microphone” YouTube broadcast last night to explain the guideline adjustments, reiterating that the ministry has decided that both the new and old versions of textbooks would be allowed.
The difference in material between the new and old versions would not be included in the college entrance examinations, Wu said, adding that the ministry was starting an immediate review of the changes.
Students yesterday urged Wu to answer questions about the controversial guidelines “sincerely,” or risk seeing students take to the streets in protest.
The first of the ministry’s planned meetings on campuses for students to communicate with the ministry over the guidelines was held at National Taichung First Senior High School on Tuesday night last week.
It ended with scuffles at the entrance to the campus, when several dozen students stood hand-in-hand to block a car carrying Wu from leaving after the two-hour meeting.
At 8:30pm on Friday, the ministry announced that it was postponing the remaining three hearings.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from