Following a petition signed by more than 700 high school teachers, other teachers have initiated a petition on the social networking Web site Facebook urging the Ministry of Education to scrap plans to list Confucian classics as required reading for high school students.
The Confucian classics in question, otherwise known as the “Four Books,” referring to Doctrine of the Mean (中庸), Great Learning (大學), Analects of Confucius (論語) and Mencius (孟子), were chosen by Zhu Xi (朱熹) in the Song Dynasty as an introduction to Confucian theories and ideas.
Last month, the ministry announced that it intended to make the Four Books required reading in high schools to combat widespread bullying, drug use and gang problems among youth.
Currently, courses on the Analects of Confucius and Mencius are elective in high school. Mandatory courses on the books would begin in the next school year, at the earliest.
Vice-Minister of Education Chen Yi-hsing (陳益興) has been quoted as saying the Four Books were back on a list of compulsory teaching materials in response to widespread bullying, drug use and gang problems among high school students.
National Alliance of Parents Organization chairman Hsieh Kuo-ching (謝國清), however, said there was no academic proof that studying the texts would address those problems, and urged the ministry to concentrate on the 12-year national education plan.
A teacher from National Tainan Girls’ Senior High School surnamed Chiu (邱), who started the “Save High School Students” petition on Facebook, said the group would bring the matter to the Control Yuan if the ministry forced students to study the Four Books.
Chiu said the Four Books would take up valuable education time from other non-tested materials, in effectively depriving students of a more diverse education.
“We suspect that the MOE has ulterior political motives and we aren’t sure if the entire process is strictly legal,” he said.
National Teachers’ Association president Liu Chin-hsu (劉欽旭) said the ministry’s move to rush through draft modifications at the beginning of this year to the Chinese curriculum for high school students was overly hasty, as their content had been discussed for five years prior to its release in September last year.
Liu said ministry claims that the mandatory courses would have a minimal impact on elective courses were lies.
Chang Ming-wen (張明文), director of ministry’s Department of Secondary Education, said the majority of teachers attending the public hearings did not object to the basic Chinese cultural materials per se, adding that most teachers seemed to be worried that other subjects would suffer.
A discussion to be held by the Curriculum Development Committee will finalize the issue, he said.
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