Print

Mail

wiki links

Chinese literature test could be axed

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday slammed the Examination Yuan over a proposal to remove Chinese literature from the list of required subjects in national examinations.

KMT caucus whip Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) told a press conference that it was "ridiculous" for the members to consider abolishing Chinese literature as part of national examinations on the grounds that students in the nation have spent quite some time studying the subject since they were in primary school.

"If the logic holds true, students wouldn't need to participate in the General English Proficiency Test at all because [some] children started to learn English when they were in kindergarten," she said.

Kuo was commenting on a Chinese-language China Times report yesterday that said a proposal aiming to annul the Chinese language examination in all national examinations will be discussed in today's Examination Yuan meeting.

The report said the proposal, suggested by Examination Yuan members Lin Yu-tee (林玉体), Lee Chiung-hsiung (李慶雄), Chen Mao-hsiung (陳茂雄) and Liu Wu-tse (劉武哲), said students in the nation had maintained a certain level of Mandarin proficiency given that they had spent a lot of time studying Chinese literature beginning when they are in elementary school.

The Chinese proficiency of participants has been covered in other examinations. Therefore, there is no need for students to make strenuous efforts on the subject during national examinations, the report said.

"If the members' argument is logical, then we can just abolish all kinds of examinations since students have all gone through some kind of `professional training' since they were little," Kuo said, adding that the members who endorsed the proposal "forgot their own origins."

KMT Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安), who was also at the conference, said the Examination Yuan members were trying to "contribute" to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government's campaign to "de-Sinicize" the nation.

In response, Examination Yuan President Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文), at a separate setting yesterday, said the task force responsible for deciding whether to annul the Chinese litarature examination had not yet come to a conclusion.

Yao said the current Chinese examination fails to assess the "language ability" of examinees, adding that what the exam tests is their "knowledge" of Chinese.

Although Yao said that the Examination Yuan had not yet decided to abolish the examination, he expressed disapproval of the examination questions.

"The examination questions had nothing to do with work performance. Examinees spend a lot of time reading archaic Chinese literature, but they don't need the techniques in their careers. There are other ways to enhance examinees' abilities in writing and speaking Chinese," Yao said.

"For example, archaic English is not included in TOEFL. What TOEFL tests is the language ability examinees need in their daily life, in their work, or in school," Yao said.

DPP caucus whip Wang Tuoh (王拓), on the other hand, told a press conference yesterday that the DPP caucus is against the idea of removing Chinese literature from national exam requirements.

Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan and Jimmy Chuang
This story has been viewed 1731 times.