President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Saturday suggested replacing the English part of university entrance exams with proficiency tests, saying it would give students a better chance to test their English skills.
Tsai made the remark during an event in Taipei to exchange ideas with about 200 high-school students.
English proficiency tests meet societal and educational demands better than the English test that is part of the nation’s university entrance exam, she said.
Photo: Screen grab from a live stream
Should the English part of the exam be replaced with a widely accepted proficiency test, prospective students could take the test any time they like and focus on achieving a high score, she said.
Ministry of Education Department of Higher Education Deputy Director-General Chu Chun-chang (朱俊彰) said that the current Test of English Listening Comprehension for high-school students is offered on four levels and held twice a year.
The ministry would ask the Joint Board of College Recruitment Commission to discuss the feasibility of adopting English proficiency test results as a criterion for university entrance, he said.
National Sun Yat-sen University president Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) agreed with Tsai’s suggestion, saying that the new policy would help students meet international standards when seeking higher education or finding jobs.
An Examination Yuan meeting earlier this year passed an amendment that added B1 level English proficiency tests as a criterion for level 1 Civil Service Senior Examinations, starting in 2024, in a bid to replace the exam’s English tests.
The domestically designed Teng Yun 2 drone passed development milestones over the weekend, flying for more than 10 hours straight and circling Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in the longest flight of an indigenous uncrewed combat aerial vehicle. Developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the Teng Yun 2, or “Cloud Rider” (騰雲二型), recorded its longest flight yet over the weekend, after a three-hour test flight last month, followed by five and seven-hour stretches in the air. The Teng Yun 2 No. 1812 departed from Chiashan Air Base in Hualien County at 6:46pm on Saturday and flew on a
A slew of new measures are to take effect on Friday, including nationwide bring-your-own-cup discounts. The new rule requires chain beverage shops to offer discounts of at least NT$5 (US$0.17) to customers who bring their own cups, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said. The policy would apply to more than 50,000 chain retail locations, including beverage shops, convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and supermarkets. It aims to cut down on waste from single-use plastic cups, more than 2.2 billion of which were used in Taiwan in 2020, the agency said. For convenience, the EPA said it has asked retailers to display signs stating how
TIMING: 'The CHIPS Act funding is crucial for us. In other words, if the act’s passage is delayed for too long, we will certainly need to adjust,’ chairwoman Doris Hsu said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) plans to start construction on a US$5 billion wafer fabrication facility in Texas in November, after passage of the US$52 billion Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act. The fab would be the largest of its kind in the US and one of the largest in the world, with a monthly capacity of 1.2 million wafers, GlobalWafers said, adding that the investment would be the first new fab in the US in more than 20 years and critical to closing a semiconductor supply chain gap. The world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier said the project, which
COUNTERING CHINA: ‘When democracies demonstrate what we can do ... I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,’ US President Joe Biden said US President Joe Biden rebooted his effort to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) after an earlier campaign faltered, enlisting the support of G7 leaders at their summit in Germany. The Build Back Better World initiative, named after Biden’s domestic spending and climate agenda, struggled to get off the ground because not enough G7 partners contributed financially when it was unveiled a year ago, people familiar with its lack of progress said. “When democracies demonstrate what we can do — all that we have to offer — I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,” Biden said during