The Council of Indigenous Peoples said it has passed an initiative to help preserve the nation’s Aboriginal languages through further financial incentives, hoping to rear Aboriginal children in environments where they can hear their languages being spoken from birth.
Starting from October this year, the council will give an additional subsidy of NT$3,000 (US$100) for every Aborigine who becomes the caretaker of one child, ranging from newborn to two years old, and who has obtained caretaker qualifications, received a certificate in Aboriginal languages, or attended and passed 126 hours of caretaker classes.
The council added that it would also subsidize every family who hire such caretakers with NT$2,000 per month.
The Ministry of the Interior already subsidizes qualified caretakers with NT$3,000 per month.
According to the council, the funding for the initiative — totaling NT$20 million — is to come from Public Welfare Lottery rebates, and it will be able to subsidize up to 260 caretakers and 700 families.
The head of the council’s Education and Cultural Affairs section, Chen Kun-sheng (陳坤昇), said yesterday that the current regulations, under which children only start learning their Aboriginal tongues when they are in elementary school, have a very limited effect, hence the council’s initiative to start the learning process from the cradle.
Both caretakers and families who hire caretakers can apply for the subsidies at their local city hall, or the county or township offices where their residences are registered, after which the council will hire an Aboriginal elder well versed in the applicable language to interview a caretaker candidate, he said.
The council will also hire 30 additional staff members to make house calls and ensure that the caretaker is interacting with the child using the appropriate Aboriginal language, Chen said.
He added that a caretaker working for a family of the Paiwan tribe, for example, should be teaching an infant to use kama instead of the Mandarin baba (爸爸, father), and vuvu instead of the Mandarin words for grandfather and grandmother.
Caretakers who look after three infants are entitled to NT$18,000 in government subsidies per month and together with caretaking fees paid by the parents, a caretaker can have a monthly income of NT$50,000, Chen said.
Meanwhile, the council said it would hire a further 30 Aboriginal language assistant teachers. These positions are open to any person who is an Aborigine, has taken classes in a department of early childhood educare after high school, or has graduated with a diploma from such a department.
The council is to start accepting applications in November and its examinations are to be held in January next year, Chen said, adding that assistant teachers who qualify would be sent to Aboriginal-language daycare centers in counties and cities with large Aborigine populations.
The council would also send its assistant teachers to regions based on tribe population ratios, the reason being that some tribes had very few children in kindergartens, he said.
For instance, the Thao tribe currently has only one child between three and six years old that is studying at an Aboriginal-language kindergarten, Chen said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
Many Chinese spouses required to submit proof of having renounced their Chinese household registration have either completed the process or provided affidavits ahead of the June 30 deadline, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. Of the 12,146 people required to submit the proof, 5,534 had done so as of Wednesday, MAC deputy head and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. Another 2,572 people who met conditions for exemption or deferral from submitting proof of deregistration — such as those with serious illnesses or injuries — have submitted affidavits instead, he said. “As long as individuals are willing to cooperate with the legal
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
The Ministry of Environment yesterday held a seminar in Taipei for experts from Taiwan and Japan to exchange their experiences on the designs and development of public toilets. Japan Toilet Association chairman Kohei Yamamoto said that he was impressed with the eco-toilet set up at Daan Forest Park, adding that Japan still faces issues regarding public restrooms despite the progress it made over the past decades. For example, an all-gender toilet was set up in Kabukicho in Tokyo’s Shinjuku District several years ago, but it caused a public backlash and was rebuilt into traditional men’s and women’s toilets, he said. Japan Toilet Association