Minister of Education Huang Jong-tsun (黃榮村) yesterday said his ministry will continue to explain ongoing education reform schemes to the public and seek resolution to the education deadlock that has angered the nation's students and parents.
"People complain because they don't understand what exactly the contents of the reform measures are," Huang said yesterday.
"The main problem in Taiwan's education system is that too much emphasis is put on high school and university entrance exams and parents are worried their children might fall behind classmates early on," Huang said.
Huang was speaking in response to remarks by President Chen Shui-bian's (
The reforms are primarily aimed at improving the Multiple Enrollment Scheme (MES), designed to provide an alternative to the rigid joint entrance exams, which were previously the sole route for those seeking entrance into high school or university.
"We are trying to simplify and integrate the MES to make it a fairer system. During these changes, we will repeatedly explain our actions to the public," Huang said.
In a bid to limit confusion, Huang said, "The MOE is studying the possibility of pushing forward a K-12 schooling system."
The K-12 education system is expected to extend the current nine-year compulsory education to 13 years, including one year of kindergarten and three years of senior high school education. The current nine-year compulsory education spans six years of elementary education and three years of junior high school.
The MOE has said that the one-year compulsory kindergarten education would be put into practice starting in 2005, while the three-year compulsory senior high education has yet to be given a start date.
TSU legislator Cheng Chen-lung (程振隆), a member of the legislative education committee, yesterday dismissed Chen's remarks, saying you cannot overhaul the educational system by simply asking to reduce the pressure on students.
"There will inevitably be pressure in studying," Cheng said. "As long as the students like what they are studying and the degree of pressure is bearable, we will survive."
"But to simply ask for a non-pressure studying environment is not conducive to the cultivation of talents that Taiwan needs for high-tech development," Cheng said.
"The education material used in Taiwan is relatively easier than that used in other developed nations. To alleviate the pressure on students would undermine students' academic ability," the lawmaker added.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods