The nation’s junior high school students spend too much at school at the expense of personal time, a group of educators said yesterday, warning that excess study hours have adverse effects on a student’s cognitive and interpersonal development.
The Humanistic Education Foundation (HEF) yesterday released the results of a poll surveying 1,433 junior high schools students at 229 schools. Of the students, 81 percent spent more than 45 hours at school each week.
That means students put in more hours than the maximum work week set by the Council of Labor Affairs, the foundation said, adding that Taiwanese students spent twice as much time at school than their peers in Europe and the US.
“Prolonged study hours have zero benefits on a student’s ability to learn. Moreover, students have less time for an adequate sleep and leisure activities. The pressure that students face is no different now from what they faced 15 years ago,” HEF president Shih Ying (史英) said.
The foundation advocates a “3-8 plan” in which eight hours of a student’s day are spent on schoolwork and eight on sleeping, leaving another eight for leisure time.
The group also said many schools had unbalanced curriculums, sacrificing electives to make students put more hours into subjects like math and science.
More than 57 percent of the schools polled did not offer a well-rounded curriculum as required by law and at least 76 percent regularly allowed teachers of Chinese, math and English to take time from students’ physical education and art classes for extra lessons.
Mental health expert Teng Hui-wen (鄧惠文) said the junior high school period marks the most formative years for teenagers because it is a crucial time to develop independent and critical thinking.
The “fill-in-the-blanks” teaching method impedes a student’s intellectual growth, Teng said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost