The low birthrate has had an impact on enrolment at junior high schools this semester, a Ministry of Education official said yesterday.
“We have set up a special group to study and manage the issue,” the ministry’s Department of Elementary Education Director Yang Chang-yu (楊昌裕) said.
Statistics show enrolment at elementary schools in the new semester is likely to have dropped to 215,683, down from 230,495 last year, while enrolment at junior high schools dropped to 287,400 from 313,407.
The phenomenon can be seen at Lao Song Elementary School in Taipei, Yang said. In 1966 it was the world’s largest elementary school with an enrollment of 11,110 students, but the number has now shrunk to fewer than 800.
“This is the first year that the low birth rate has strongly hit enrolment at junior high schools, which has dropped by almost 30,000 students,” Yang said.
The figures were calculated based on data compiled by the Ministry of the Interior, he said, adding that the Ministry of Education would announce an official enrolment figure in November.
“In recent years, we have gradually lowered the number of students in each class at elementary schools,” Yang said.
The number has dropped from 35 students per class to 32, 31, 30 and now 25 students per class.
Junior high schools, however, only began to lower the number of students per class last year. Yang said the number went from 34 students per class to 33 this year.
“We plan to have 30 students per class at junior high schools by 2013,” Yang said, adding that the policy for urban schools is to lower the number of students per class, but keep the same amount of classes to reduce the impact on teachers’ jobs.
The ministry encourages schools in remote areas to develop special features to attract students from other cities, he said.
Facing a low birthrate, “we have to consider that this problem will extend to senior high schools in 2013 and then colleges and universities in 2016,” Yang said.
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
Taiwan’s armed forces have established response protocols for a wide range of sudden contingencies, including the “Wan Chun Plan” to protect the head of state, the Ministry of Defense (MND) said today. After US President Donald Trump on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, concerns have been raised as to whether China would launch a similar “decapitation strike” on Taiwan. The armed forces regularly coordinate with relevant agencies and practice drills to ensure preparedness for a wide range of scenarios, Vice Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) told reporters before a
EVA Airways on Saturday said that it had suspended a pilot and opened an investigation after he allegedly lost his temper and punched the first officer several times as their plane was taxiing before takeoff at Los Angeles International Airport. According to a report published on Thursday by The Reporter, the incident occurred after the flight’s Malaysian first officer tried to warn the Taiwanese pilot, surnamed Wen (文), that he was taxiing faster than the speed limit of 30 knots (55.6kph). After alerting the pilot several times without response, the first officer manually applied the brakes in accordance with standard operating
Japanese Councilor Hei Seki (石平) on Wednesday said that he plans to visit Taiwan, saying that would “prove that Taiwan is an independent country and does not belong to China.” Seki, a member of the Japan Innovation Party, was born in Chengdu in China’s Sichuan Province and became a naturalized Japanese in 2007. He was elected to the House of Concilors last year. His views on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — espoused in a series of books on politics and history — prompted Beijing to sanction him, including barring Seki from traveling to China. Seki wrote on X that he intends
RSS