More than a decade has passed since efforts to reform the educational system were launched, but despite the policies passed in that time, many problems have yet to be addressed, activists from several civic groups concerned with educational reform said yesterday at a Taipei forum.
“The educational reform campaign started around 1994. More than a decade has passed — have we really achieved anything?” asked Ku Chung-hwa (顧忠華), a sociology professor at National Chengchi University and the first chairman of the National Association for the Promotion of Community University.
“Are [the new high school and university entrance exams] really any different from the old united entrance exams? Have we fundamentally changed the exam-driven education system?” Ku asked. “Maybe we must try to change the mentality of parents and schools first.”
When the educational reforms began, the united senior high school entrance exam and united college entrance exam were required to apply for senior high school or college admission. A diversified entrance system was eventually adopted in which students may also apply for admission based on their performance at school.
Humane Education Foundation (HEF) executive director Joanna Feng (馮喬蘭) agreed.
“Elitism is still the mainstream philosophy in the minds of educators and parents. If we don’t change [their thinking], any educational reforms will be modified once they reach them,” Feng said, using a Banciao school to illustrate her point.
“We visited Jiangcui Junior High School in Banciao [板橋], Taipei County, just a couple of weeks ago because the school illegally puts students into separate classes according to their grades,” Feng said.
Students judged to be “better” based on their grades are put in classes with more teaching resources, she said.
The HEF learned about the policy from a teacher at the school who knew it was illegal but was scared to speak out because most of the teachers and parents supported it, Feng said.
By the time HEF’s staffers left the school “we were surrounded by angry parents who called us junk,” Feng said.
Wang Hao-chung (王顥中), a college student, said that instead of lobbying politicians and lawmakers, “educational reform groups should, from now on, do more grassroots work to convince parents and teachers and bring about a fundamental change in their mentality.”
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai