The Children’s Welfare League Foundation (CWLF) said yesterday that children are being worked too hard because up to 74 percent of them still go to cram school after a full day at school.
“We’re very concerned after we discovered in a recent survey that a lot of children in the country have to go to cram school or childcare centers — which is often just another name for cram school — after attending regular school during the day,” CWLF executive director Alicia Wang (王育敏) told a news conference yesterday. “This is not only bad for children’s health, but the facilities in many cram schools or childcare centers may jeopardize their safety as well.”
Wang citing the results of a survey conducted by the foundation in June with 954 valid samples randomly collected from elementary students across the country.
Besides showing that 74 percent of the children go to cram schools after school, survey results also showed that 58 percent of those children go to cram schools every day Monday through Friday.
While regular school classes for third and fourth graders begin at about 8am, the survey showed that 65 percent of the students stay at cram schools until 8pm and 11 percent stay until after 9pm before they can go home.
“It’s horrible that these kids have to stay away from home taking classes for more than 12 hours a day,” Wang said. “Do they really get enough rest and spend time with their families?”
Wang also voiced concern over the quality of cram schools, and the possible dangers they pose to the students’ safety and health.
Last week, instructors at a Tainan cram school — which was actually registered as a business consulting firm — were accused of asking students to eat fire and glass to train them to overcome fear.
Another fourth grader surnamed Chung (鍾) had to undergo surgery for gastric perforation because he went to two cram schools each day after school and never had dinner at a regular time.
The CWLF investigation also found that many cram schools are located in basements or that minibuses and vans used as “school buses” by cram schools were too crowded.
“Growing up like this is not good for the children’s physical or mental health,” Wang said. “If parents have to send their children somewhere after school, they should find a certified childcare center via official sources, and the government should come up with stricter regulations over cram schools and childcare centers.”
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS