Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday visited Taipei Confucius Temple to pray for students ahead of the first high school joint entrance exams the city has organized with New Taipei City and Keelung City this weekend, assuring students that the questions would be drawn from the single-version textbooks adopted by the three cities.
The first joint entrance exams will be held tomorrow and Sunday under the single-version textbook policy, one of Hau’s major campaign promises to standardize middle school textbooks and reduce exam pressure on students.
Heading a delegation of city officials visiting the temple yesterday, Hau prayed for the blessing of more than 70,000 examinees and prepared 200 gifts, which included pencils and cakes symbolizing good luck in an exam, for students and their parents.
Photo: Chen Ching-min, Taipei Times
When asked about some the lack of air conditioning in schools on exam days, Hau said it was the Ministry of Education’s decision to ban air conditioning at all schools because some are not equipped with air conditioners.
“It’s the policy to ban air conditioning at all schools to ensure fairness. I am worried about high temperatures on exam day, but hopefully students will be able to handle the heat,” he said.
The ministry said all schools would complete the installation of air conditioners by July at the latest, thereby making air conditioning available for the second joint entrance exam early that month.
A secretary at the temple, Shih Shu-li (施淑梨), said 200 free gifts would be sent out today and 1,000 tomorrow and she invited students and parents to visit the temple and claim them before the test.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS