Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
The budget would be used to provide free preschool education to five-year-old children to ease parents' financial burden, decrease the number of students per class in elementary schools from 35 to 25 and to promote a "Horse Gallop" program, which would push for more foreign student exchanges.
"As a small country, we need to be more internationalized. The program will deepen the country's academic strength and broaden local students' vision," Ma told a press conference yesterday in Taipei.
In the space of four years, the exchange program would sponsor 10,000 Taiwanese students to attend foreign schools, while inviting 20,000 foreign students to attend local schools, Ma said.
In an effort to promote cross-strait exchanges, Ma also vowed to push for the recognition of diplomas earned at Chinese universities if elected.
Condemning Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) for injecting political ideology into the curriculum, Ma pledged to invite neutral academics and professionals to establish new education policies.
"Officials in education agencies should not be campaigning for politicians or promote a certain party's ideology," he said.
If elected, Ma said he would promote traditional Chinese culture through education and cultivate a "tolerant, open, deep and rich" self-awareness of the Taiwanese identity, rather than "shallow, narrow and self-pitying regionalism."
"Being Taiwanese doesn't mean that we can't appreciate Chinese culture and history ? We also need to prepare the next generation with global knowledge and language skills," he said.
Ma criticized the government's education reforms for confusing parents and students by complicating admission channels, and pledged to establish an evaluation committee to review the multiple school admission systems.
If elected, Ma said he would budget NT$10 billion to improve vocational education, while conducting a quality control review of the nation's colleges and universities.
"It's horrifying that it now only takes a score of 18 to be admitted to college. We need to have quality control in the country's higher education," he said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai