High schools are to be given more autonomy to set their own schedules, including making morning self-study sessions optional and banning tests in the eighth period, the Ministry of Education said on Tuesday.
The new rules would be implemented with the beginning of the new school year in September, the ministry said.
Requirements that high-school students arrive on campus by 7:30am for flag-raising ceremonies and self-study sessions have faced public criticism, including a petition on the government’s public policy platform in 2020.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Education
The petition called for lessons at high schools to start at 9:30am, but the ministry had to consider the time that parents start work, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said.
After lengthy discussions, all sides agreed to increase the time that students can use independently, Pan said.
Morning self-study sessions would become optional and the requirement that those who arrive late be recorded would be waived, he said.
The number of scheduled flag-raising ceremonies and morning gatherings would also be reduced, he said.
The ministry would post a final draft of the new rules next month, as it is seeking to give schools enough time to prepare for their implementation, he said.
The new rules would be limited to high schools, as younger students more commonly depend on their parents for transportation to school, Pan said.
The ministry might announce separate, less far-reaching amendments for junior-high schools, he added.
The ban on tests in the eighth period at junior-high schools would remain, he said, adding that the ministry might change junior-high school hours.
RESILIENCE: Deepening bilateral cooperation would extend the peace sustained over the 45 years since the Taiwan Relations Act, Greene said Taiwan-US relations are built on deep economic ties and shared values, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday, adding that strengthening supply chain security in critical industries, enhancing societal resilience through cooperation and deepening partnerships are key to ensuring peace and stability for Taiwan in the years ahead. Greene made the remarks at the National Security Youth Forum, organized by National Taiwan University’s National Security and Strategy Studies Institution in Taipei. In his address in Mandarin Chinese, Greene said the Taiwan-US relationship is built on deep economic ties and shared interests, and grows stronger through the enduring friendship between
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
RSS