A group of students elected to the Ministry of Education’s curriculum guideline review committee yesterday held a rally in front of the ministry building in Taipei, calling for information relating to the controversial 2014 curriculum guideline revisions to be made public.
The ministry should publish the names of former committee members who approved the changes and release all the meeting minutes and voting results related to the decisionmaking process, the students said.
Twenty-one students elected to the committee last month signed a petition demanding that such information be made public.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
The 2014 guidelines for literature and history curricula triggered widespread protests last year, with critics saying that the planned changes introduced “Sinocentric” content and downplayed the significance of the 228 Incident.
“After the new government was sworn in on May 20, it quickly dismissed former curriculum guideline review committee members. So why is it still reluctant to make the meeting minutes public?” said Hsiao Chu-chun (蕭竹均), who is scheduled to become a member of the committee at general assemblies later this month.
In response to media queries on what the students’ next move would be if the ministry published the roster and meeting minutes, Hsiao said he just hoped that the information would serve as a “caution” for future curriculum review meetings.
K-12 Education Administration division chief Tsai Meng-kai (蔡孟愷) said the ministry would assess whether it would be appropriate to disclose the information requested by the students.
Hsiao called on students to attend public hearings he and other committee members are planning across the nation to gather a diverse range of opinions on the review process for curriculum guidelines.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai