Education reforms will not succeed unless the overall values of Taiwanese society changes, Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (
Giving a speech in Taipei on the challenges in education development, Tu said education reforms are bound to fail if they involve only changes in schools.
According to Tu, education reforms should be comprehensive, farsighted and persistent and aimed at enhancing personal quality, rather than simply teaching children to pass exams.
If parents get angry when their children get only 60 percent in exams but feel happy when their children get 100 percent, this reflects their values, which will hinder rather than help the reforms, Tu said.
He said parents should not show off just because their child works as a doctor or feel embarrassed because their child works as a cook.
While it is a deep-rooted cultural tradition to hold prejudgments about different professions, it is time for parents to change their concepts and try to help their children develop the fields in which they excel, instead of restricting their development by using a fixed model to educate them, he said.
On the issue of localized education, Tu expressed the hope that the concept of localization will be incorporated into teaching materials soon so that future education ministers will not need to emphasize the issue any more.
Education reforms carried out in Taiwan over the past decade have drawn much criticism from parents. Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (
Meanwhile, a group of teachers of native Taiwanese languages staged a demonstration yesterday against what they claim is the government's neglect of mother tongue education.
Gathering outside the Ministry of Education headquarters, the protesters accused the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government of suppressing native languages and the present government of being ignorant and incompetent for not declaring native languages the country's official languages.
Liu Feng-chi (
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday. The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus. Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said. People should move through the
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) today released images of the military tracking China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) movements during the latest round of Chinese drills around Taiwan. The PLA began "Justice Mission 2025" drills today, carrying out live-fire drills, simulated strikes on land and maritime targets, and exercises to blockade the nation's main ports. The exercises are to continue tomorrow, with the PLA announcing sea and air space restrictions for five zones around Taiwan for 10 hours starting from 8:30am. The ministry today released images showing a Chinese J-16 fighter jet tracked by a F-16V Block 20 jet and the
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