In an exclusive interview with SuperFM radio, former minister of education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) voiced his thoughts on the controversy over high-school social studies curriculum changes, saying that Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa’s (吳思華) name would be tarnished by the incident.
Panels assembled to inspect curriculum material primarily sought to find problems in textbooks that had already been compiled and were being used, Tu said.
When problems were found with textbooks, the ministry would convene another panel to correct them using an executive order, Tu said, but added that such corrections were usually tiny.
The changes made this time are significantly greater in scale, to the extent that it has become an entirely new curriculum, Tu said, adding that accusations the decisionmaking process was illegal has allowed the curriculum to supersede the curriculum agreed on 2012.
It is an extreme expansion of the ministry’s powers in terms of administrative orders, Tu said.
When asked about changes to the curriculum during the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, Tu said the alterations were on a small scale and only on inappropriate terms, such as the term, “mainland,” which could mean either a continent or China.
The consensus then was to change the term to “China,” he added.
Publishers were given the liberty of treating the consensus as a reference and allowed to make their own decisions, Tu said, adding that panel meetings were recorded and were given to lawmakers.
Everything was in the open and people invited to contribute were all experts in their fields, as opposed to the current changes, which saw history altered by people trained in finance and economics, Tu said.
Responding to claims by the pan-blue camp that the 2012 curriculum was based on a pro-independence ideology, Tu said that the issue should have been an academic one, but the pan-blue camp was trying to politicize the issue.
In terms of how the Ministry of Education handled the issue, Tu said Wu should be held accountable, as Wu did not recognize his role and function amid the controversy.
As minister, Wu had the power to stop the curriculum changes from going through, just as his successor did, stopping the 2009 curriculum from passing, Tu said.
By bringing charges against minors, he will go down in history with his name tarnished, Tu said, adding that Wu should step down, as that would do society a service.
Young people should have confidence in themselves and stand fast on issues where they should, but also give ground when they need to, Tu said.
The administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has always wanted to table its version of the curriculum, but no history expert would go along with it, Tu said.
Tu criticized the Ma administration, saying it “viciously” took advantage of the fact that the young protesters were not “professional revolutionaries and social activists,” who were at a disadvantage in social terms.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
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.
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
‘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
RSS