The National Teachers’ Association (NTA) yesterday accused Taipei County of violating children’s human rights after the county last week announced plans to introduce extra English classes in every elementary school in the county.
In a press release, the NTA accused Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) of blindly believing that the extra classes are necessary for children while neglecting an individual’s right to choose their own schooling as stipulated in the Basic Education Act (教育基本法).
The NTA said although the county described the extra classes as an “experiment,” the plan would be bettered called an “arms race.”
“Commissioner Chou and the director of the county’s Education Bureau never tried to figure out how to improve teaching efficiency in the classes currently available,” the association said.
The NTA was responding to the county’s announcement last Wednesday that all elementary school students must take three extra English-related classes per week starting this fall.
Liu Ho-jen (劉和然), director of the bureau, said the county began a trial at 48 schools during the 2008 academic year and expanded the scheme to 85 schools last year.
A survey conducted by the bureau last month showed that around 80 percent of parents were in favor of implementing the curriculum, while as many as 90 percent of the students said they were more motivated after having taken the new lessons, Liu said.
Chou said it is necessary for children to begin English lessons when young so that they will be more competitive in terms of English proficiency.
But the Ministry of Education said the county could not force every student to participate in the new curriculum because it was experimental.
Nevertheless, Vice Minister of Education Chen Yi-hsing (陳益興) said the ministry would use the county government’s evaluation report on the curriculum as a reference when debating elementary school curriculum guidelines.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods