The Ministry of Education is rushing to finish a review of the curriculum guidelines for its 12-year national education program by the end of the month.
The ministry held five review sessions over the weekend, but it is still on a tight timeline if it wants the new guidelines to go into effect at the start of the 2019 school year.
Minister of Education Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) began hosting review sessions on July 21, five days after taking office.
On Saturday, Yeh hosted the 58th, 59th and 60th review sessions at the National Academy for Educational Research’s Taipei branch.
He said he understands the education sector’s expectations for the new curriculum and the ministry’s goal is still to implement the guidelines at the start of next year’s fall semester, as planned.
To implement the new rules next year, the ministry must finish reviewing them by the end of the month. However, it has so far published only one-third of curricula, including for mathematics, Mandarin and English.
Guidelines for the natural sciences, arts, special areas of study, and parts of the specialized programs at technical and vocational high schools, which make up another third of the guidelines, are still being reviewed.
The ministry has not yet started reworking the guidelines that pertain to social studies subjects including history, geography, and civics and society, or those for the remaining parts of the specialized programs at technical and vocational high schools.
The K-12 Education Administration said it hopes to begin reviewing the plans for social studies subjects, which have received the most public attention, by the middle of the month.
High schools are to begin selecting textbooks in May next year. However, even if all guidelines are published by the end of the month, publishing companies might not have enough time to write, edit and send their textbooks to the ministry for review.
Academy president Sheu Tian-ming (許添明) said that while they would be rushed for time, the ministry and publishers could establish a joint review system to speed up the process based on consensus among editors, members of the review committee and researchers.
The ministry could also allow publishers to send in material on a book-by-book basis, rather than demanding three years’ worth of books, as is usual, to reduce pressure on publishing companies, Sheu said.
The rush to implement the new curriculum could lead to errors in teaching materials, delays in students’ learning and other problems, Alliance on Obligatory Education director-general Wang Li-sheng (王立昇) said, adding that children should not be used as experimental subjects.
When the review for social studies subjects begins, controversies could delay the review process, National Parent Education Volunteer Association director-general Wu Fu-pin (吳福濱) said.
Rushing to implement the new curriculum guidelines could have adverse consequences, he added.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS