The Ministry of Education (MOE) yesterday rejected a plan by the Taipei County Government to have elementary-school students take three additional English-related classes per week.
Vice Minister of Education Chen Yi-hsing (陳益興) told reporters yesterday afternoon that legal and curriculum experts as well as teachers invited by the ministry to review the plan still had doubts about the project.
The reviewers said the consistency of the nation’s elementary school curriculum should be maintained and that a student’s right to education should not be affected by regional differences, Chen said.
They urged the county government to propose a mechanism to ensure parents and students had the right to choose whether to join the plan since it is experimental, Chen said.
Chen said the county government had only proposed an opinion poll to support its plan, but reviewers would like to see a report on the plan’s expected effect.
The county government should improve its plan and submit it to the ministry again for review, Chen said.
The government sparked controversy after it announced on April 14 that elementary school students would have two extra English classes and an “advanced reading” class each week starting next year.
The county government argued that a survey in March showed that up to 80 percent of county parents supported the plan.
Elementary school students nationwide start English classes in the third grade, with two classes per week.
In Taipei City and Hsinchu, students begin the classes as early as first grade.
The ministry does not ban the practice, but it also does not provide subsidies for these classes.
The county’s Education Bureau said later yesterday that it would take the ministry’s suggestions into consideration, but that the timetable for implementing the new curriculum remained unchanged.
The plan is meant to provide children with more opportunities to practice English and to help them develop more confidence in using the language, the bureau said.
Meanwhile, the Taipei County Teachers Association announced it would take to the streets on Sunday to protest the plan.
“This is a plan that violates our national [elementary school] curriculum guidelines and infringes upon the human rights of children,” said Lee Min-jui (李敏瑞), convener of the demonstration.
National Teachers Association president Liu Chin-hsu (劉欽旭) told a press conference that an opinion poll conducted by the Taipei County Teachers Association showed that as many as 60 percent of the parents did not support the new curriculum.
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