Hakka is likely to be incorporated into the Senior Civil Servant Examination starting next year, becoming the first ethnic language to be included in the testing of linguistic skills in the national examination program, the Minister of Examinations Tung Pao-cheng (董保城) has said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻), who is of Hakka descent, has repeatedly asked the Ministry of Examinations to add Hakka to the tests undertaken by hopeful civil servants. Government officials dealing with Hakka affairs must be fluent in Hakka, she added.
In response, Tung pledged that as early as next year, testing for Hakka proficiency could be included in part of the civil service examination.
Currently, the Senior Civil Servant Examination for “Hakka Affairs Administration” includes a test on Chinese literature, English proficiency and legal knowledge, as well as tests pertaining to administration law, public administration, sociology, public policy, Hakka history and culture and Hakka politics and economy.
With the planned addition of Hakka proficiency tests, one subject in the current “Hakka Affairs Administration” examination would have to be dropped, according to Tung, saying that it could either be Hakka history and culture, or Hakka politics and economy.
Officials have pointed out that four months advance notice is required for any changes to the Senior Civil Servant Examination and thus a decision on the matter would have to be made before February next year if a Hakka proficiency test was to be included in the exams set to be held next year.
Currently with the national examination system, it is only under the category of “News Administration” that examinees are required to be tested for either “Mandarin Broadcasting” and “Hoklo Broadcasting,” or “Mandarin Broadcasting” and “Hakka Broadcasting.”
However, neither Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) nor Hakka are considered official subjects to be tested.
Special examinations for Taiwanese Aboriginal people currently only involves Aboriginal history, Aboriginal regulations and policies and does not include testing in Aboriginal languages.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan