The questions on future national examinations for civil servants will not reflect examiners' political ideology, nor will they be based on Hoklo, Hakka or Aboriginal languages, the Examination Yuan has decided.
\nQuestions will not discriminate on racial or sexual grounds, nor will they test on classical Chinese composition or literature.
\nThe Control Yuan yesterday ended a year-long controversy surrounding the national examinations for civil servants after the Examination Yuan pledged that future national examinations would be fair and steer clear of bias by following a "four noes" principle reflecting these points.
\nExaminers will also be advised to note the proportion of Taiwan-centered questions in national geography and history tests.
\nThe Examination Yuan's resolution was reached during a review meeting in September last year and was later approved in a plenary session.
\nThe changes came in response to a controversy over the use of Hoklo-language questions on Chinese literature tests and over the number of Taiwan-centered questions on history and geography tests in four national exams offered last year.
\nAlthough the passages in the tests were written in Chinese characters, they make sense only to speakers of Hoklo, more commonly known as Taiwanese.
\nThe questions prompted pan-blue lawmakers, most of whom are of mainland Chinese descent, to claim the exams were biased. The questions also angered the Hakka community, as their language is spoken by one-fifth of the population.
\nSeeking to placate the Hakka minority, the Examination Yuan adjusted one of the four national examinations by adding points to Hakka candidates' exam scores.
\nThe move came after a visit by former Council for Hakka Affairs Chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (
BILINGUAL PLAN: The 17 educators were recruited under a program that seeks to empower Taiwanese, the envoy to the Philippines said The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines on Thursday hosted a send-off event for the first group of English-language teachers from the country who were recruited for a Ministry of Education-initiated program to advance bilingual education in Taiwan. The 14 teachers and three teaching assistants are part of the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which aims to help find English-language instructors for Taiwan’s public elementary and junior-high schools, the office said. Seventy-seven teachers and 11 teaching assistants from the Philippines have been hired to teach in Taiwan in the coming school year, office data showed. Among the first group is 57-year-old
Police have detained a Taoyuan couple suspected of over the past two months colluding with human trafficking rings and employment scammers in Southeast Asia to send nearly 100 Taiwanese jobseekers to Cambodia. At a media briefing in Taipei yesterday, the Criminal Investigation Bureau presented items seized from the couple, including alleged victims’ passports, forged COVID-19 vaccination records, mobile phones, bank documents, checks and cash. The man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and his girlfriend, surnamed Tsan (詹), were taken into custody last month, after police at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport stopped four jobseekers from boarding a flight to Phnom Penh, said Dustin Lee (李泱輯),
‘ORDINARY PEOPLE’: A man watching Taiwanese military drills said that there would be nothing anyone could do if the situation escalates in the Taiwan Strait Many people in Taiwan look upon China’s military exercises over the past week with calm resignation, doubting that war is imminent and if anything, feeling pride in their nation’s determination to defend itself. After a visit to Taiwan last week by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, China has sent ships and aircraft across an unofficial buffer between Taiwan and China’s coast and missiles over Taipei and into waters surrounding the nation since Thursday last week. However, Rosa Chang, proudly watching her son take part in Taiwanese military exercises that included dozens of howitzers firing shells into the Taiwan Strait off
TRICKED INTO MOVING: Local governments in China do not offer any help, and Taiwanese there must compete with Chinese in an unfamiliar setting, a researcher said Beijing’s incentives for Taiwanese businesspeople to invest in China are only intended to lure them across the Taiwan Strait, after which they receive no real support, an expert said on Sunday. Over the past few years, Beijing has been offering a number of incentives that “benefit Taiwanese in name, while benefiting China in reality,” a cross-strait affairs expert said on condition of anonymity. Strategies such as the “31 incentives” are intended to lure Taiwanese talent, capital and technology to help address China’s economic issues while also furthering its “united front” efforts, they said. Local governments in China do not offer much practical