A proposed legislative amendment by the Cabinet would create opportunities for people with no high-school degree to pursue a college education.
"As long as the applicant is above 25 years of age and has at least four years of working experience, he or she could qualify to take the college entrance exam," Cabinet spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (
The proposed amendment to the Supplementary and Continuing Education Law (
The amendment will be submitted to the legislature for final approval next week, he said.
Another proposed amendment to the law suggested that cram schools, with the exception of kindergartens, would be prohibited from taking in children below the age of six.
"This ban would apply to all cram schools, except those giving art lessons or specializing in sports and the physical development of children," Cheng said.
"Schools found to have broken that law would face fines ranging from NT$50,000 to NT$200,000 and the possibility of having their license suspended," he said.
Quoting the amendment, Cheng said that pre-school education should focus on health, morals and ethics.
All other topics -- except those helping physical development -- should be banned, he said, to protect young children's mental and physical health.
"Generally speaking, this is a ban to help avoid the potential abuse of our children's talents," Cheng said.
"Some things can wait but others can't. This is something we have to learn [as a society]," he said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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