Six hundred students died and 3,460 were injured in 2,941 accidents on school grounds or while traveling to or from school during the 1999 academic year, which ended last June, a report released by the Ministry of Education (MOE) yesterday said.
The fatal accidents include deaths or injuries caused by traffic accidents and injuries caused during school activities and suicides. The numbers represent a 42 percent increase over figures for the 1998 academic year. Accidents on school grounds went up last year by 51 percent.
The report said that 669 accidents could be attributed to insufficient security facilities on school grounds.
Another report released by Kaohsiung Kai-suan Psychiatric Hospital (高雄凱旋醫院) and Taichung Veterans General Hospital (台中榮民總醫院) said that, among students between 10 and 19 years old, accidents accounted for 44 percent of deaths. Cancer was the second leading cause of death at 6 percent, while suicide accounted for 3.5 percent of fatalities.
In response to the new figures, Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) said young people were clearly growing up unable to cope with pressure and frustration and that it was teachers' responsibility to educate students about life and how to cherish it.
Tzeng declared this year "life education year," saying the ministry would develop new teaching materials that emphasize "the value of life."
Chen Ying-hao (陳英豪), a former head of the department of education under the Taiwan provincial government, currently working with the MOE, said the education ministry has drawn up plans for the four-year "life education" program, which will target mainly high school students.
To avoid violence and suicides among teenagers, An Tien-shiang (安天祥), an instructor at the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University (師大附中) said that students are under enormous pressure from school work and that teachers needed to pay constant attention to students' emotional status and said more counseling resources should be available to students.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station
RSS