Teachers in Tainan County took to the streets in a protest march in the county’s Sinying City (新營市) yesterday to voice their dissatisfaction with Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih’s (蘇煥智) education policies.
More than 1,000 members of the Tainan County Teachers’ Association and other teachers’ groups formed a procession more than 600m long that ended outside the county hall at about 11am.
Association chairman Hsu You-jen (許又仁) said that in Su’s six years of service, the county government’s education policies had sparked a lot of controversy.
He cited problems such as a lack of respect for grassroots teachers and professionalism, as well as administrative interference in schools’ operations — all of which he said had led to widespread dissatisfaction among county teachers.
The teachers are marching to express their concern about the county education system’s slipping competitiveness as a result of the local government’s policies, Hsu said.
At the county hall, a representative of the association presented a petition to Wang Kun-yuan (王崑源), director of the county’s education department, listing five of the association’s demands.
The demands included the pursuit of sustainable educational development, an increase in the education budget, the implementation of an impartial teacher evaluation system, respect for teachers’ autonomy and respect for the law in administering the education system.
Upon receiving the petition, Wang said he respected the right of teachers to express their dissatisfaction and to make a petition.
However, he said that the government would not change its position on the issue of teacher evaluation.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS