The Ministry of Education (MOE) has sent inspectors to investigate the finances of the Chang Jung Girls’ Senior High School in Tainan after school dean Tai Chih-hsun (戴智勳) confirmed that the school is on the brink of insolvency and cannot pay its faculty.
In August, the school’s board of directors declared a salary cut, which led to the dismissal of two board members: Wang Chao-ching (王昭卿), who doubled as the school’s dean, and Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), the deputy minister of the interior.
Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) told reporters yesterday that he and K-12 Education Administration Director-General Peng Fu-yuan (彭富源) agreed to dispatch a task force to the school as soon as possible.
Photo: Hung Jui-chin, Taipei Times
The school has a decent record and 3,000 students, Pan said, adding that the ministry hopes to bail out the school after gaining a better understanding of the situation, as high-school education is tuition-free.
The ministry sent a K-12 Education Administration official to the school after receiving Tai’s confirmation yesterday morning.
Enrollment has dropped from 5,000 to 3,000 due the nation’s falling birthrate, resulting in reduced income, the school said.
The school was unable to repay NT$20 million (US$662,076) of loans in the first half of this year, and needed to borrow another NT$40 million, it said.
While repaying NT$65 million after receiving NT$85 million of student funds for this school year, personnel and administrative costs quickly burned through the remaining funds, it added.
The school only has NT$10 million on hand, which is not enough to cover personnel costs for one month, Tai said.
“The school will not be able to pay faculty members this month’s salary on time,” Tai said, adding that the school cannot, even though it wants to.
Taking out bank loans is not a long-term solution and, while the school owns NT$40 million of real estate, its hands are tied by the Private School Act (私立學校法), Tai said.
“We hope the K-12 Education Administration will try to understand the school’s situation from all angles,” Tai said.
The teachers’ union at the school had threatened to take action if the school did not resolve matters by tomorrow, Tai said, adding that the school is in talks with the union while meeting with the board to find a solution.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
RSS