The legislature on Friday approved an amendment to the Aboriginal Education Act (原住民族教育法) requiring an increased minimum of 1.9 percent of the annual education budget — up from 1.6 percent — to be used to fund Aboriginal education projects.
As a result of the revision, the total allocated education budget for aborigines will stand at NT$3.936 billion (US$130 million), an increase of 52 million.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Jeng Tian-tsair (鄭天財) and Kung Wen-chi’s (孔文吉) proposal for a minimum 2 percent of the education budget, was rejected by the Ministry of Education.
Separately, the legislature approved an amendment to the Electricity Act (電業法) that requires electricity suppliers to provide the cheapest possible rates to people with a disability who need electric assistive devices and their families to buffer impacts of the electricity hike on the most vulnerable.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲), who initiated the proposal, said that the amendment was designed to defend the fundamental rights of patients who rely heavily on high power-consumption assistive devices.
Meanwhile, the legislature enacted the Statute for Establishment of National Chung-shan Institute of Science and Technology to turn the institution from a subordinate of the Armaments Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense into a non-departmental public body to give it more flexibility in budget allocation and personnel recruitment and selection.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
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