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.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RSS