Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) yesterday said that one of his greatest legacies is that education authorities at various levels have found no problems with the controversial curriculum guidelines.
Wu made the remark during his last question-and-answer session at a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee, where lawmakers were discussing a proposal to abolish the controversial high-school history curriculum guidelines.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) asked Wu what achievements he was most proud of from his tenure as minister.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Wu said the Ministry of Education had “bravely” stood up to the problems created by changes to guidelines and that despite the vastly different political views held by different groups, he was glad that education officials were able to demonstrate solidarity and internal harmony, as “from central to local government levels, we did not see any problems related to controversial curriculum guidelines.”
Wu’s remarks drew criticism from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤), who said that they were a far cry from the public’s understanding.
Rosalia Wu said that if the minister were to look himself up on the Chinese-language Wikipedia, he would see an entire section titled “Controversy on High School History Curriculum Guideline Alterations,” and she urged him not to dodge problems.
She said that had Wu Se-hwa’s bureaucrats not delayed communicating with protesters, who demonstrated last year from May until July, the students would not have breached the ministry compound in Taipei and the denouement where the ministry asked police to arrest students and pressed charges against them would not have occurred.
She asked him how he would respond to the protesters if he had a second chance.
Wu Se-hwa said he had attended a meeting with some of the protesters at National Taichung First Senior High School, where he saw that the students were being manipulated by “certain individuals.”
Rosalia Wu demanded that Wu Se-hwa name names, but the minister said: “I suggest that the Legislative Yuan establish a truth commission” to investigate possible instigators.
Rosalia Wu said the minister was not in a position to give orders to the incoming government of president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), just as he earlier in the day urged the incoming Cabinet to propose a draft bill on reshuffling the curriculum guidelines review committee and suggested that legislators drop the issue until then.
“If you believe this is something that needs to be done, you should propose a draft bill now,” she said.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
RSS