The Ministry of E`ducation is planning to hold a "Native Language Day" each week for elementary and high schools nationwide starting this fall to foster a better environment for students to learn their mother tongue, education officials said.
Liang Jung-mao (
Forty-two middle high schools also promote the use of Hoklo, Hakka and Aboriginal languages in school club activities, Liang said.
The majority of these schools are located in Kaohsiung City and County, in the southern part of the country, he said.
Last July, the education ministry test-ran similar activities at 36 elementary and junior high schools and was satisfied with the results, Liang said.
For example, students were asked to decorate their classrooms as Hakka villages, and principals and teachers were asked to speak in native languages during school hours, he said.
Liang said that it would be even better if native languages could be used to teach different subjects.
The education ministry has established a special committee to plan and carry out a "Native Language Day" in school. Details are still being discussed, but will be announced by the end of next month, Liang said.
Expected to be implemented nationwide this fall, schools will have to choose one day per week, and teachers and students will have to speak in Hoklo, Hakka, or an Aboriginal language during lunch hours, recess and other school activities, he said.
As for which language to use, that would be a matter for the schools to decide, Liang said, adding that it would most likely depend on the school's location.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping