The Public Television Service (PTS) yesterday denied that it had mishandled a national competition to select potential diplomats from high schools, after some parents of participating students criticized the competition's grading process.
The competition, initiated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the Ministry of Education, is part of the government's response to President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) call for "people's diplomacy."
In the first round of the competition, high school teams from around the country were divided into three groups according to their geographical location. Winning teams from the three groups are to take part in the final round of the competition, which is slated to take place at the PTS studio in Taipei on Dec. 4.
Teams taking part in the first round are required to stage group singing, dancing or dramas in English. In addition, each team has to choose a representative to take part in an English speech contest. The group performance counts 70 percent of the team's final result and the English speech contest counts for 30 percent.
At the weekend, 66 high schools from the northern Taiwan regional group, took part in the first-round competition at Jingmei Girls' High School in Taipei.
After six school teams were announced as winners, students and parents from the losing teams poured out complaints about the way judges had graded the performances on the opinion board on the PTS' Web site.
According to the China Times Express, one parent, identified only by his surname, Cheng, accused the PTS and the judges of manipulating the results by giving absurd marks to certain teams.
Cheng said that he had approached a judge after the group performance of the Keelung Girls' Senior High School, where his daughter is a student. He said he was stunned to discover that the school got zero points in the group performance.
"I could not believe it. Every school was supposed to get some points, no matter how bad its team performed," Cheng said, adding that the judges would not allow him to see the other teams' results.
An organizer of the competition at PTS said that the station has received a number of phone calls from schools and parents complaining about the way the teams' performances were graded.
The organizer said that a technical mistake was to blame for the judges awarding Keelung Girls' Senior High School zero points for their performance, but that the mistake has been corrected.
"We cannot publicize other school teams' results in the competition," the organizer said.
MOFA spokesman Michel Lu (
"It would be too far-fetched indeed for some people to suggest the ministry was carrying out some behind-the-scenes manipulation of the competition," Lu said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
RSS