The Ministry of Education in 2019 implemented a 12-year compulsory curriculum, also called the “108 curriculum.” Under the scheme, university admission requires not only taking the General Scholastic Ability Test, but also submitting an electronic learning portfolio. This year marks the introduction of the portfolio as a part of university admission.
The learning portfolio, also called an e-portfolio, includes records of courses, extracurricular activities and a catalogue of experiences that a student acquires during the final three years of high school.
The portfolio is meant to reduce emphasis on test-oriented education by relieving the pressure of achieving a high marks on exams. It is meant to help students present themselves to universities in the way a resume presents the best side of a person to an employer. This means that students need to begin exploring their interests and passions early in their high-school years by taking part in activities and groups.
The National Federation of Teachers’ Unions had concerns. For example, it said that National Taipei University of Technology was using the learning portfolio to create a commodity. The school was reportedly offering a five-day course priced at NT$8,000 to teach students how to prepare their portfolio documents and perform in an oral interview.
Although the university pulled the course from its Web site, the course was criticized for contravening admission ethics and turning the portfolio into an “arms race.”
Parents, teachers and students have shared concerns about the necessity and fairness of the portfolio since it was launched.
One criticism is that the portfolio favors wealthy families who can pay to put their children through elite extracurricular activities. Students from affluent families could send their children abroad to study during summer breaks, or enrol them in courses that offer respected certificates.
Another concern is that families in urban areas are said to have an advantage over those in rural regions, given the opportunities and resources available in cities.
A gap between private and public education also provides uncertainty. Private schools reportedly put more effort into motivating students to build their portfolios, partly by requiring a minimum number of activities to be completed each semester.
Teachers have concerns about how to coach students to write the reflections and essays the portfolio requires. Others wonder how seriously university professors would consider these writings during the admissions process.
For students, their workload becomes more burdensome. They must juggle academic subjects while feeling required to feign passion in subjects in which they might have no interest. In other cases, students might feel compelled to divert energy away from their true interests, and toward more rigorous clubs and activities that might look better in their portfolio.
One student said that the submission process was like turning their life into a story that could be compared with those of their peers.
While the portfolio of the “108 curriculum” was designed with good intentions, the ministry must monitor how the program is carried out, and whether its unintended consequences outweigh its proposed benefits.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017