The low birthrate has had an impact on enrolment at junior high schools this semester, a Ministry of Education official said yesterday.
“We have set up a special group to study and manage the issue,” the ministry’s Department of Elementary Education Director Yang Chang-yu (楊昌裕) said.
Statistics show enrolment at elementary schools in the new semester is likely to have dropped to 215,683, down from 230,495 last year, while enrolment at junior high schools dropped to 287,400 from 313,407.
The phenomenon can be seen at Lao Song Elementary School in Taipei, Yang said. In 1966 it was the world’s largest elementary school with an enrollment of 11,110 students, but the number has now shrunk to fewer than 800.
“This is the first year that the low birth rate has strongly hit enrolment at junior high schools, which has dropped by almost 30,000 students,” Yang said.
The figures were calculated based on data compiled by the Ministry of the Interior, he said, adding that the Ministry of Education would announce an official enrolment figure in November.
“In recent years, we have gradually lowered the number of students in each class at elementary schools,” Yang said.
The number has dropped from 35 students per class to 32, 31, 30 and now 25 students per class.
Junior high schools, however, only began to lower the number of students per class last year. Yang said the number went from 34 students per class to 33 this year.
“We plan to have 30 students per class at junior high schools by 2013,” Yang said, adding that the policy for urban schools is to lower the number of students per class, but keep the same amount of classes to reduce the impact on teachers’ jobs.
The ministry encourages schools in remote areas to develop special features to attract students from other cities, he said.
Facing a low birthrate, “we have to consider that this problem will extend to senior high schools in 2013 and then colleges and universities in 2016,” Yang said.
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.
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.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
PROMOTION: Travelers who want a free stopover must book their flights with designated travel agents, such as Lion Travel, Holiday Tours, Cola Tour and Life Tours Air Canada yesterday said it is offering Taiwanese travelers who are headed to North America free stopovers if they transit though airports in Japan and South Korea. The promotion was launched in response to a potential rise in demand for flights to North America in June and July next year, when the US, Canada and Mexico are scheduled to jointly host the FIFA World Cup, Air Canada said. Air Canada offers services to 13 of the 16 host cities of the tournament’s soccer games, including Toronto and Vancouver; Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey in Mexico; Atlanta, Georgia; Boston; Dallas; Houston;
RSS