Incidents of violence, parental neglect and aggression involving teachers and students appear to have grown significantly last year and reflect a five-year upward trend, Ministry of Education schoolyard safety reports say.
Reports obtained by the Taipei Times showed that violent incidents, including cases related to bullying, rose 36 percent last year. Overall, schools across the nation reported 2,703 cases of violence during the year, with 47 percent occurring in high schools and 34 percent at junior high schools, the reports said.
The reports showed clashes between teachers, students or parents grew 37 percent with 285 cases reported last year, compared with 208 the previous year. Those incidents were again mostly concentrated in high schools and junior high schools, together accounting for more than 69 percent of reported cases.
PHOTO: CNA
Of this figure, 57 included cases of violence or serious abuse between students and educators, the reports said.
The number of reported cases five years ago was 15.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲), who sits on the Education and Culture Committee, attributed the increase to lax enforcement by local governments and school officials, exemplified by a recent controversy at Bade Junior High School in Taoyuan County.
Wu Chia-ku (於家穀), the school’s former principal, was suspended on Tuesday, after a petition from more than 60 teachers at the school accused her of turning a blind eye to rampant bullying and abuse. Over the past year, students had gone as far as to threaten teachers with guns, the petitioners said.
Senior ministry officials “tried to complicate the issue and dodge responsibility” following the incident, Kuan said, pointing to comments made by Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) on Tuesday to the effect that bullying was a “small matter” as he addressed students at the school.
“Making those remarks when figures suggest [otherwise] gives us the impression that he is … out of the loop,” Kuan said. “We should be treating schoolyard bullying as a matter of great concern.”
Problematic behavior addressed in the reports includes gang-related beatings in schoolyards, alleged shootings and armed robbery. Nine high school students were suspected of murder over the year, the report for last year said, although official charges didn’t appear to have been finalized.
The reports recorded an increase of 58 cases in the number of fights involving high school students last year, bringing the total to 375, two more than the number recorded by junior high school officials. Also, 378 high school and junior high school students were suspected of taking drugs on school grounds.
On Wednesday, a poll showed that 40.2 percent of all students had witnessed violent incidents at school.
Scrambling to contain the fallout, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday said all bullying cases should be prosecuted equally under the law.
While the ministry has insisted it spends as much as NT$182 million (US$6.09 million) a year ensuring safe school environments, documents provided by Kuan showed the majority of the funds was spent on school safety certification and an anti-bullying Web site.
The remainder amounted to less than NT$6 million, she said.
The anti-bullying Web site (www.peacefulschool.org) is severely lacking in information, containing a short three-line paragraph underneath “Understanding Bullying” and blank spaces elsewhere.
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
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
RSS