The Taipei City Government yesterday shrugged off the Ministry of Education's plan to oversee high school admissions, saying it would go ahead with its proposal to hold competency exams with Taipei County and Keelung City in 2011.
The Ministry of Education published a draft amendment of the Senior High School Law (高級中等學校法) on Thursday which would authorize the ministry to regulate high school admissions and school districts.
At present, high schools and vocational schools fall under the jurisdiction of their local city governments.
"The ministry is trying to centralize power and prevent Taipei from holding its own exams. It's against the spirit of education deregulation," Commissioner of Taipei City's Education Department Wu Ching-chi (吳清基) told a press conference at Taipei City Hall.
Wu said the ministry's proposal would not affect the city's plan to standardize school textbooks in Taipei City, Taipei County and Keelung next year before holding competency exams in 2011.
Wu said the city government welcomed the ministry's move to label municipal high schools as "national" high schools, but added that standardized textbooks and local competency exams would reduce the burden on students.
"The ministry's proposal has already raised concerns among schools and parents and it is not certain that the draft will pass the legislature. We will just continue with our plans," he said, adding that the department would voice its opposition to the draft in a public hearing to be held next week.
The city government has been at odds with the ministry over the issues of standardization of textbooks and local competency exams.
During his election campaign, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) promised to standardize textbooks in the city to "reduce the burden" on middle school students.
The donation of offshore patrol vessel Kinmen to the Philippines includes provisions that protect Taiwanese fishers and facilitate security cooperation across the First Island Chain, officials said yesterday. The comment was made during the Cabinet’s comprehensive administrative report at the legislature after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) expressed concerns about the decision to give a ship to a country whose coast guard had in 2013 fired on a Taiwanese trawler and killed its captain without provocation. The Cabinet should lay out the safeguards that have been established to prevent the Philippine government from using the Kinmen to harass, expel
GROWING TIES: The CGA is planning a goodwill mission to the Philippines, in what would be the first time since 1975 a Taiwanese paramilitary vessel has visited the country The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) plans to significantly expand its participation in international security cooperative frameworks and its operational capabilities, a budget proposal for next year showed. The budget indicates a transformation of the CGA from a maritime law enforcement arm into a national defense and intelligence gathering entity capable of tackling larger regional security matters. The proposal showed that personnel from the coast guard’s Intelligence Division and Special Action Support Center are to participate in high-level national security talks with the US. As the CGA has dealt with China’s rising “gray zone” threats around Taiwan, it has become a valuable asset to
A patrol vessel donated by the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) to the Philippines was commissioned into the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Friday, a Philippine non-governmental organization said. The CGA on Sept. 16 confirmed media reports that Taiwan had donated a retired 500-tonne patrol vessel to the Philippines. The Manila-based We Protect Our Seas (WPS) foundation, which served as an intermediary in the transfer, said that the vessel was formerly the CGA’s 500-tonne petrol vessel Kinmen (CG123). The WPS, in a statement issued on Friday, said the vessel, renamed as the BRP Sarangani, had been commissioned into the PCG the
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: Beijing sent two China Coast Guard vessels to escort a ‘supposedly private research ship,’ a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman said The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday confirmed that it had recently deployed three patrol vessels to waters in Taiwan’s overlapping exclusive economic zone with the Philippines to monitor three Chinese vessels. CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said the agency regularly monitors Chinese vessels around Taiwan, and that the deployment south of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, was carried out in accordance with standard procedures. He added that the waters fall within the overlapping exclusive economic zones of Taiwan and the Philippines, which extend 200 nautical miles (370km) from their coastlines. Hsieh made the comments when asked about a
RSS