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Legislator says exam was biased

People First Party (PFP) Legislator Chin Wei-chu (秦慧珠) yesterday accused an Examination Yuan member of ideological bias for emphasizing Taiwan-centered history and geography in a civil-servant examination.

"The Ministry of Examination and the Examination Yuan owe an apology to the examinees at this year's civil service level-four examination, because they politicized test questions with personal political ideologies," Chin said at a press conference.

The level-four examination is taken by basic and low-level civil servant regional government recruits.

Chin explained that the test was biased as Taiwan's history and geography dominated the questions on "national history and geography."

"All of the 40 questions in the geographical test were relative to Taiwan, while 37 of the 40 on national history were about Taiwan," Chin said.

He said that "Examination Yuan Member Chang Cheng-shuh (張正修) should shoulder the majority of responsibility for this biased selection of test questions. The huge proportion of information on Taiwan tested in the special examination does not reflect the percentage of Taiwanese history and geography in school textbooks."

In textbooks, Taiwan history is part of Chinese history and Taiwan's geography is treated as that of one of the Republic of China's 36 provinces.

Chang said at least 25,000 people sat the examination and these biased questions apparently shocked many examinees.

She said she was protesting against what she called unbalanced questions after receiving complaints from a number of examinees.

Chin said that the impartiality of national examinations had been challenged, as a result of Examination Yuan members misconducting themselves by using Taiwanese dialects in a previous special examination as well as setting this unjust proportion of questions biased toward Taiwan.

Chang did not comment on Chin's accusation, while a Examination Yuan staff member invited to the press conference said his office would review the subject as long as a majority of people deemed that the selection of questions was improper.

But a historian endorsed Chang's decision to emphasize Taiwanese history and geography "especially as it was for testing potential civil-service officials."

"The dominance of information about Taiwan in the civil service special examination is extremely valid, since government employees must be familiar with local history and have local knowledge before they can be qualified to work for the citizens of this country. It doesn't matter if they know much about China in these government positions," said Hsueh Hua-yuen (薛化元), a history professor at National Chengchi University.

"Besides, the test questions prioritizing local history and geography is in accordance with a principle of pedagogy, which states that good examiners should test their examinees on immediate and vital affairs before examining their knowledge of other countries and abstract concepts," Hsueh said.
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