Taipei is to become the nation’s first city to abolish a rule observed by elementary schools since 1975 that asks students to work on school assignments during their summer and winter vacations.
The Taipei Department of Education yesterday announced that it had abolished a set of guidelines covering assignments that elementary schools give pupils before they go on summer and winter vacations.
Starting next year, pupils at elementary schools across the city are not to have assignments during summer and winter vaction, the department said.
Photo: Hua Meng-ching, Taipei Times
Department Commissioner Tang Chih-min (湯志民) said the cancelation of the assignments would help to create a “student-oriented” learning environment, thereby helping pupils to cultivate independent thinking.
Citing examples of assignments elementary schools typically made students do during winter and summer vacations, which included “finish five books and write down your thoughts,” “help your mother with chores” and “write four pages of calligraphy,” Tang said that these types of tasks had not helped pupils develop independent thinking.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) touted the policy on Facebook.
Citing the adage “You are limited only by your imagination,” Ko said the policy would allow children to decide what they want to learn about and called on parents to encourage children to think about what they want to do during vacations.
“Taiwan has a very passive education system. Children are told what to do and what not to do until their ability to learn is amputated. The nation demanding that children with different aptitudes work on the same assignment is rather strange,” Ko said.
Netizens have responded favorably to the announcement.
A Facebook user named Alice Yu said: “Parents are happy because they no longer have to do winter and summer assignments for their kids.”
Another user, Liu Pei-yu (劉佩妤), recommended that parents encourage their children to use the Internet to search for information on tourist destinations and Taiwanese cuisine and guide them through trips during vacations, adding that parents can give children an allowance as a reward for their efforts.
MILITARY BOOST: The procurement was planned after Washington recommended that Taiwan increase its stock of air defense missiles, a defense official said yesterday Taiwan is planning to order an additional four PAC-3 MSE systems and up to 500 missiles in response to an increasing number of missile sites on China’s east coast, a defense official said yesterday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the proposed order would be placed using the defense procurement special budget, adding that about NT$1 trillion (US$32,88 billion) has been allocated for the budget. The proposed acquisition would include launchers, missiles, and a lower tier air and missile defense radar system, they said The procurement was planned after the US military recommended that Taiwan increase
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
TWO HEAVYWEIGHTS: Trump and Xi respect each other, are in a unique position to do something great, and they want to do that together, the US envoy to China said The administration of US President Donald Trump has told Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) “we don’t want any coercion, but we want [the Taiwan dispute] resolved peacefully,” US ambassador to China David Perdue said in a TV interview on Thursday. Trump “has said very clearly, we are not changing the ‘one China’ policy, we are going to adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act, the three communiques and the ‘six assurances’ that were done under [former US president Ronald] Reagan,” Perdue told Joe Kernen, cohost of CNBC’s Squawk Box. The act, the Three Joint Communiques and the “six assurances” are guidelines for Washington
DEEPENING TIES: The two are boosting cooperation in response to China’s coercive actions and have signed MOUs on search-and-rescue and anti-smuggling efforts Taiwan and Japan are moving to normalize joint coast guard training and considering the inclusion of other allies, the Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. Both nations’ coast guards in June sent vessels to the seas south of the Sakishima Islands to conduct joint training, the report said, adding that it was the second joint maritime training exercise since the nations severed formal diplomatic ties in September 1972. Japan dispatched the Nagoya Coast Guard’s Mizuho, a 134m, 6,000-tonne patrol vessel which can carry a helicopter, while the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sent the 126m, 4,000-tonne Yunlin, one of its largest vessels, the report
RSS