Demonstrators took to the streets of Taipei yesterday against a new mechanism in senior-high school admittance, which they say is unfair because it does not take into account students’ grades.
The mechanism is part of the new 12-year national education system and deducts points from students each time they fail to be accepted by a school on their list, which effectively punishes children for aiming too high.
Hundreds of parents and teachers took part in the parade, organized by the Alliance on Obligatory Education.
Photo: CNA
They gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard, saying the mechanism is unfair because some students in the first phase failed to land a school, even though they obtained high grades in examinations.
“We have to save our own children, save our own future and our nation on our own,” they said.
“We want adaptive education and real democracy,” they chanted. “We want the point deduction mechanism abolished.”
The alliance said that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, having a majority of seats in the legislature, passed the Senior-High School Education Act (高級中等教育法) in June last year, and directly enforced the new 12-year national education system, without testing the system in advance.
This new senior-high school admittance process is like gambling, protesters said, adding that it deprives the parents of their right to choose the best education for their children.
“Why can the system not be made transparent so that students can choose the school they want according to their results?” one protester said.
“While the first phase of the admittance results have been announced, we want remedial measures in place for the second phase,” a parent said, while another parent shouted: “Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) step down from your post.”
A teacher surnamed Chang (張) said she was dissatisfied with the point deduction mechanism, which left six of her 10 highest-graded students without a school.
A parent surnamed Wang (王) said: “My son was shocked when he saw he was unable to land any schools, even though he scored 5 A’s and filled in 30 preferred schools.”
Another parent surnamed Lin (林) said there was no guidance for families to refer to when they filled in the school preference section, so it felt like gambling on their children’s future.
The protesters ended their demonstration at the Legislative Yuan, where they split into discussion groups for, what they called, “deliberative democracy on the streets” over two topics: whether point deduction should be enforced and how the entrance mechanisms should be redesigned.
The demonstrators also asked for grade intervals to be made smaller, as well as for the officials responsible for the flawed system to be punished.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
RSS