Rule changes that profit a closed university in Pingtung County risk setting a dangerous precedent as the nation prepares for massive school closures and consolidations, union members said yesterday in a protest outside the Ministry of Education.
“Because the ministry knew that Yung Ta Institute of Technology and Commerce would not be able to transition before August and it did not want to disband its board and auction off its property, it chose in January to stealthily amend the rules,” Taiwan Higher Education Union director Chen Shu-han (陳書涵) said, criticizing a portion of the amendment that grants schools closed prior to implementation of the rules an additional three years to transition.
The private institute was closed in 2014 due to dwindling student numbers, the second school in what is expected to be a massive wave of closings as the nation’s student population plummets after years of low birth rates.
The school submitted multiple transition plans, which were repeatedly rejected by the ministry.
“Today, Yung Ta is a test case for public schools, because if the ministry does not take over its property, it is effectively giving it to the private school board,” union secretary-general Chen Cheng-liang (陳正亮) said.
Union members also said there was a NT$400 million (US$13.14 million) drop in school property holdings to NT$1 billion over the past three years, according to general financial reports, and called for public scrutiny of its books and a ban on schools donating property to other non-profits with connections to board members.
“The new rules add a requirement that schools must finish their transition and will be disbanded if they do not,” said Chang Chia-yu (張嘉育), a senior specialist at the ministry’s Department of Technological and Vocational Education.
Provisions extending Yung Ta’s deadline were designed to avoid legal liability, she said, adding that the ministry could have been sued if it had applied the new rules retroactively.
A study published by online booking platform Expedia revealed searches for travel to Taipei have ballooned 2,786 percent following the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions due to the city being a “designation dupe” for Seoul. The TikTok trend for duping — referring to substituting a designation for a more inexpensive alternative — helped propel interest in Taipei, it said in a consumer survey titled “Unpack ‘24,” which was conducted from September to October in 14 countries. Location dupes are “every bit as delightful as the tried-and-true places travelers love,” Expedia trend tracker Melanie Fish said of the year’s popular alternatives, which
SAFETY IN REGULATION: The proposal states that Chiayi should assess whether it is viable to establish such a district and draft rules to protect clients and sex workers The Chiayi City Council passed a motion yesterday to assess the viability of establishing a regulated red-light district. The council yesterday held its last session of the year, at which its fiscal 2024 budget was approved, along with 61 other proposals. The proposal to assess the viability of establishing a red-light district was put forward by independent Chiayi City Councilor Molly Yen (顏色不分藍綠支持性專區顏色田慎節). The proposal cited 2011 amendments to the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), which stipulate that city and county governments can pass autonomous regulations on the sex trade to manage the industry and guarantee industry workers’ rights. A ban on the
A small-scale protest that called on the government to cancel its plan to welcome Indian migrant workers in a bid to tackle Taiwan’s labor shortage was held in Taipei yesterday. During the protest, comprised of a few dozen people staged in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard, the protest’s chief initiator, a woman identified only as “Yuna” said they wanted the central government to reconsider allowing migrant workers from India to enter Taiwan. Most people in Taiwan had little knowledge about the potential plan to allow in Indian migrant workers until a report in the media last month, she
STABILITY AND CHANGE: Flagging in recent polls, Ko this week pledged to maintain President Tsai’s foreign policy, with an emphasis on improving China relations Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday reiterated that he is “deep-green at heart” in response to accusations that he is pivoting his campaign to align closer with the ideology of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the face of flagging polls. Ko made the remark at an agricultural policy conference in Taipei, repeating his comments from an interview with CTS News a day earlier. Ko told the CTS host that he would continue to pursue President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) national defense and foreign policy in general, but with an emphasis on establishing a rapport with
RSS