When it comes to the education of students in rural areas, it will take more than money to improve their lot, National Taiwan Normal University professors Sharon Chen (
"Simply allocating sporadic funding or temporary aid, whether monetary or human resources, will not help," they told a press conference in Taipei.
In a two-year study supported by the National Science Council (NSC), Chen and Wang's team investigated 225 rural junior-high schools and found that the shortage of resources, teachers and funding hindered many students from academic success.
"Young teachers come for a year or two before they land permanent jobs in cities; the teachers are overworked because of staff shortages; the schools lack information technology facilities; and the community does not offer the public resources needed for youngsters to succeed in schools," Chen said.
Seventy-five percent of junior-high schools in eastern Taiwan and outlying islands are considered "rural," the study said, compared with less than 30 percent in the north, center and south of the country.
Schools that face the most difficulty are those that are "in-between states," meaning they are "not predominantly Aboriginal, nor are they so rural that they draw massive public attention," Chen said.
"The low socioeconomic status and education level of the parents and low level of cultural stimulation worsen the students' chances of getting into good tertiary schools," Chen said.
"City parents complain to teachers about assigning too much homework, since students have a lot of afterschool activities," she said. "But in rural areas the complaints come from the grandparents, who are rearing the children while their parents work in cities, because most of the homework is too difficult for the students, and the grandparents aren't capable of teaching the kids either."
Wang said the solution would require long-term commitment and a multi-disciplinary effort. Increasing the incentives for students to excel would also be key, she said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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