Junior-high school students are over-burdened with tests, according to survey released yesterday by the Humanistic Education Foundation (HEF).
The survey showed that about 90 percent of students had tests before their first class in the morning and about 40 percent had tests every day.
It also showed that a week before midterms and finals, 70 percent of junior-high students had at least four tests per day, and 5 percent had more than 10 tests per day.
Foundation president Feng Chiao-lan (馮喬蘭) said the endless cycle of tests and exams skews the quality of education.
She said implementation of a 12-year compulsory education, scheduled for 2014, could help ease the problem if the proposed change is executed well.
However, if the emphasis is still on examinations, the reform may only add to the pressure on students, she said.
The Ministry of Education should concentrate on resource redistribution, as well as the effective integration of educational resources, she said.
National Alliance of Parents Organization head Gordan Hsieh (謝國清) said he was hoping the proposed 12-year compulsory education system would reduce the number of tests students have to take, but that might not be the case.
Even though the ministry has forbidden reference books and test books in schools, the situation has not improved, Hsieh said, adding that he hoped the ministry could legally regulate the test load to eliminate the problem.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive