Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) campaign headquarters yesterday promised to cautiously review high-school entrance programs, following a demonstration by a parents’ group, demanding that the Basic Competence Test for Junior-High School Students (BCT) be restored as the qualifying exam for senior high-school admission.
Holding placards reading: “Restore the BCT to make people worry-free” and “Parents support whoever supports parents,” members of the National Parents’ Alliance for 12-year Compulsory Education yesterday rallied outside Tsai’s campaign headquarters in Taipei, saying that if elected, Tsai should restore the BCT, as the current senior high-school entrance programs are too complicated.
“We demand the BCT be restored because it better accommodates the characteristics of different students. For instance, students with special talents might be directly admitted into high school without taking the exam, but for the 12-year compulsory education program, everyone is required to follow the Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior High-School Students [CAP] exam,” alliance president Chow Mei-li (周美里) said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Junior high-school graduates might, to some extent, decide whether they would like to attend a senior-high school or a vocational school based on the results of the BCT, Chow said.
They would also have the ability to choose to apply for admission based on their own academic records and extracurricular activities, as well as whether they would like to attend a school near their home, the alliance said.
They might also choose not to take the BCT if they meet the criteria to be admitted to the schools they would like to attend, the alliance said.
On the other hand, the CAP is compulsory for all junior high-school graduates, making the threshold for senior high-school admission higher, as students have to be prepared for not only the exams, but also extracurricular activities.
Alliance vice president Chen Chi-chen (陳綺貞) called on Tsai to increase communication with parents whose children are actually in junior-high school and are seeking senior high-school admission.
“A platform for communication should be established, so that [Tsai] will not only listen to the opinions of some think tanks or ‘tenured parents,’ whose children have already graduated,” she said.
The parents were addressed by the DPP’s Taiwan Academy for Democracy director Yiong Cong-ziin (楊長鎮), who said that the party could not say whether the BCT would be restored if the DPP returns to the power, but promised that the DPP would gather more opinions and make careful considerations before coming up with a policy.
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS