A lecturer in an undergraduate English-language course was surprised when no students turned up for her morning class last week.
The incident took place at Kainan University in Taoyuan County.
“My first thought was whether I had turned up at the wrong classroom,” said the lecturer, surnamed Lin (林).
She again checked the room allocation for her 10am class and called the administration office to verify the information.
The administration verified that she was in the right classroom — but not a single student was present for her class.
Lin took photographs of the empty classroom chairs and posted them on her Facebook page.
With the pictures, Lin wrote: “Oh my God! There is not even one student in the classroom.”
“Well, it’s up to them. Those students who show up for less than 80 percent of my classes will receive a ‘fail’ from me,” she wrote.
Her Facebook contacts added their views.
“Such is the low quality of students these days,” one said.
Another wrote: “I can understand students sleeping during an 8am class, but now no one wants to attend a class at 10am. Maybe all courses should begin at noon.”
A university official said it is every student’s responsibility to attend their courses or not, adding: “If they do not show up for one of their classes they are not necessarily bad students or lazy people.”
He added that the lecturer can decide whether to arrange an extra class at another time to catch up on the work the students had missed.
However, when Lin was interviewed by the media on Tuesday last week, the reason for the students’ absence was clarified.
She had spoken to her students and found out that they were lining up to change their courses, as it was the first week of classes and the process for changing courses started at 10am that day.
“It was just a matter of timing. The students went to change their courses. This week they have been attending my class,” Lin said.
However, reporters went to her 10am class and other classrooms this week to check up. They found classes starting at 8am, 9am and 10am still very empty.
Reporters also witnessed a number of students eating their breakfast in class, while others rested their heads on their desks and dozed off while teachers were lecturing.
Educators and social commentators said students must improve their attendance rate and be more diligent in their academic work. If not, they will lack competitiveness upon graduation in an increasingly globalized economy.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS