New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) separately yesterday urged the Ministry of Education to make the changes to the new 12-year national compulsory education system as junior-high school students who attended the first Comprehensive Assessment Program were bogged down with anxiety after they submitted their school preference forms.
Both mayors are Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members.
“This assessment program has put many parents and students through hell. It is supposed to reduce academic pressure on young students and alleviate parents’ worries, yet it ended up galvanizing far too many grievances and complaints,” Chu said during a meeting of the New Taipei City Council.
“More problems may ensue after the admission results are announced on June 20,” Chu said, calling on academics involved in the policymaking for the new system to conduct a thorough review.
Chu made the remarks hours before the deadline for submitting the school preference forms, which had been the main cause of unease among program participants and their parents over the past few weeks.
The most controversial part of the new education system, which is set to take effect in August, is the ranking system schools must adhere to when the numbers of students expecting to study in the schools exceed their enrollment quotas.
Under the ranking system, students will be evaluated based on their learning performance in different fields, their scores on the Comprehensive Assessment Program and how high the schools are placed on their lists of school choices.
Each section is worth 30 points and the students’ chance of admission are directly linked to the total score they receive.
For example, if students meet the enrollment qualifications for their first choice of school, they will get 30 points on the “school preference section;” if they are only eligible to enter their second choice, they will lose one point on that section, which could see students with high entrance exam scores ending up in a lower-ranked school.
Meanwhile, Hu said if an educational reform only causes pain, changes must be made.
“What kind of reform only brings more pains to young students and their parents?” Hu asked.
Hu added that the ministry had ignored his repeated calls for it to announce the number of students in each grade level to make the task of filling school preference forms easier.
Greater Taichung City Councilor Hsieh Chih-chung (謝志忠), whose son also attended this year’s Comprehensive Assessment Program, said the ranking system was so complex that he and his son had no choice but to ask for the advice of deities.
Hsieh also cited eight major problems of the entrance exam listed by the Alliance on Obligatory Education, including lack of information, puzzling rating system, insufficient time allowed for students to fill their school preference cards and a poorly designed grading system that categorizes test results into only three different levels.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
RSS