More than 2,300 students have signed a petition urging the Ministry of Education (MOE) to ensure that schools do not penalize students for dress code violations, as the ministry prepares new guidelines, organizers said yesterday.
The petition was launched on Wednesday by the Taichung Child and Youth Representative, the KH Student Union and the National Students’ Rights Seminar in Taiwan, and has been backed by more than a dozen groups, including the Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy, the Humanistic Education Foundation and the Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare.
“On President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) first day in office in 2016, the Ministry of Education held a news conference to say that schools cannot use attire as reason to penalize students,” the organizers said.
Photo: CNA
“However, over the past four years, most schools have still applied ‘roundabout penalties’ for dress code violations by assigning community service or campus service or by other means,” they said.
The ministry last week proposed new guidelines that, if approved, would no longer allow schools to assign “public service” to students who break the dress code, the groups said.
The draft also states that at least one-third of dress code committee members at senior-high schools should be students and calls for schools to review their dress code policies every three years, they said.
The groups said that they hope the ministry could ensure that if the new guidelines are passed, schools will actually follow them.
The petition has five demands: immediate implementation of the new guidelines; clear indication of which alternative measures schools can take if the code is contravened; supervision of schools following the guidelines’ implementation; assurance that student representatives have real influence over dress-code policy decisions; and the inclusion of student opinions in the formation of dress policies at the elementary-school level.
A dozen lawmakers — including Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲), Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶), New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) and independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) — have signed the petition, organizers said.
Students and group representatives yesterday gathered outside the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei before the ministry’s K-12 Education Administration was scheduled to hold a meeting to explain the proposed guidelines to students.
The dress code policy is a human rights issue, Taichung Second Senior High School Student Association president Yeh Tsung-yi (葉宗益) said, urging officials to “give students back the rights they deserve.”
Several schools have recently adopted distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Fan, who was there in support of the students.
The lack of a dress code for distance learning shows that it has “nothing to do with learning outcomes,” she said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS