Vice Minister of Education Fan Sun-lun (
She said that students should not be victimized due to partisan feuds in the Legislative Yuan.
PHOTO: LIAO RAY-SHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Students stricken by hunger have been a much-talked-about subject since last month when Chinese-language media reported that more than 70,000 primary school students could not afford to pay for the lunch meals provided by schools, and schools could not offer any help either, because the subsidy was frozen by the legislature.
As there has been no development on the issue because of differing views between the ruling and opposition parties on the issue, Fan yesterday voiced her concern and called on the lawmakers to seek for a timely solution for the sake of students.
For this fiscal year, NT$433 million has been apportioned to local governments for the lunch meals of elementary students.
However, in accordance with a newly passed legislative resol-ution, the Executive branch must first gain approval from the legislature at a monthly meeting regarding how the funding will be used, so that the legislature can better monitor the executive departments.
Fan said because of this regulation, the budget earmarked for the lunch meal was rejected twice this year -- on March 27 and April 26 respectively, when the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (主計處), under the Executive Yuan, reported to the legislature because the opposition alliance disapproved part of the subsidies for local governments.
The vice minister stressed that her appeal was not meant to prompt partisan feuding, but was to prevent students from suffering because of political conflicts.
But Fan also dismissed media reports that students were stricken with hunger.
She said no students should be suffering from hunger nowadays because -- although being strapped for cash -- the local governments have managed to cover part of the fees for students who are from low-income families. And, along with the assistance from charity groups and faculty members at the schools, she said, no students should be afflicted by starvation.
Opposition lawmakers, however, did not consider it fair for them to shoulder the blame.
They accused the ruling administration of fault, and said that the DPP was spreading wrong information intended to mislead the general public.
"The budget bill was not sent to the legislature until March. How can we finish the reviewing process now?" said PFP lawmaker Diane Lee
DPP lawmakers said the opposition alliance was "opposed for the sake of opposing," and its request solely indicated how the legislative power had overridden the executive power.
"It is absolutely unreasonable for the Executive branches to report to the legislature every month in detail how its budget is used. By doing so, [opposition parties] just attempt to gain control of the authority to distribute financial resources," said DPP lawmaker Wang Li-ping (
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