Two days ahead of the Examination Yuan's final decision on how the nation's history and geography should be handled in January's entry-level national civil service examinations, a member of the Examination Yuan yesterday criticized the review committee's decision-making pro-cess in a statement.
"It's an extremely uncivilized manner to reach such a decision without discussing the four proposals separately," Chang Cheng-shuh (
The Examination Yuan's review committee on Monday decided that January's entry-level national civil service examinations will include national history and geography, but the proportion of questions dealing with Taiwan and China has to be finalized by the Examination Yuan tomorrow.
Three alternatives to scrapping the history and geography tests have been proposed. The first is to remove tests on the nation's history and geography, as well as civics education, from national civil service examinations, starting with January's entry-level national examination.
The second proposal is to change the names of the tests to exclude the word "national" and specify the scope and percentage of questions that deal with Taiwan and China.
The third proposal is to maintain the names of the tests and specify the scope and percentage of the questions. This proposal does not stipulate specific percentages.
In addition to these three proposals, Chang and another Examination Yuan member, Chen Mao-hsiung (
Chen said yesterday that it makes sense to test entry-level civil servants on Taiwan's history and geography, because it is the Taiwanese people they will be serving.
"I personally think that it's sufficient to test entry-level civil servants on Taiwan's history and geography, and higher-level civil servants such as diplomats on global history and geography," he said.
Chen said he was doubtful whether specific percentages could be set for the questions, because it would be difficult to separate Taiwan's history from that of China and the rest of the world.
Another Examination Yuan member, Lin Yu-tee (林玉体), who caused a stir recently after saying he would only allow questions about Taiwan's history and geography to appear in national history and geography exams, said yesterday that he would leave it to the Examination Yuan to decide the scope and percentage of the questions tomorrow.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
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A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
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