Professors and staff from National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday blasted the Ministry of Education for being reckless in its decision to reconsider moving a primary school damaged in the 921 earthquake to forest land under the university's administration.
The government has favored reconstructing Neihu Elementary School (內湖國小) in Nantou at Yushuikeng (有水坑), a plot of government-owned forest land currently under the care of NTU's Experimental Forest Administration.
The university, after it previously rejected the government's decision, was criticized by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) as having been "unkind" to the elementary school's students.
Fan Sun-lu (范巽綠), vice minister of education, added to the attack, saying that the ministry and local villagers were "fed up with the lack of cooperation from the university."
KMT lawmaker Huang Hsien-chou (
The ministry has decided to conduct a more comprehensive evaluation on the use of the land in two months to settle the dispute.
NTU staff and professors yesterday claimed again that the university was simply concerned about the safety of the students and said it had been wrongly accused.
Liu Tsung-kwei (
Liu and Huang Hung-bin (黃弘彬), an agricultural engineering professor at NTU, explained that this type of soil had been deposited by previous mudslides and that more slides might occur.
Wang Ya-nan (王亞男), director of the forest administration, said she assumes that the education ministry is not interested in looking at safer sites on privately owned lands that have been proposed by the forest administration because it doesn't want pay compensation to the owners.
Wang also said it might not be worth cutting down the forest simply for the purpose of relocating the school.
Tsai Kuang-jueng (
He said the ministry is considering controls to cope with mudslide risks.
Another options being considered is building smaller wooden cabins instead of high buildings to allow the school to safely stand as a "forest education institution."
Tsai said he thinks that it would be a good idea to rebuild the school as a valuable lesson to illustrate how humans can deal with the aftermath of earthquakes and co-exist with the environment.
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
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
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
RSS