Nearly 40 percent of children in Taiwan spend less than an hour a day playing, while 40 percent of children aged nine to 12 spend their free time playing online games, a survey released on Monday last week by the Child Welfare League Foundation showed.
Although the Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF recommends that every child have at least one hour of play time every day to promote healthy development, 37.7 percent of children aged six to nine in Taiwan have less than an hour of free play every day and 40 percent of children aged nine to 12 play for no more than one hour per day, the foundation said.
The survey also showed that 43.7 percent of elementary-school students have less than one hour of play time during weekdays and usually only play on weekends.
As children grow, they generally spend more time at school, doing homework and taking part in extracurricular activities, leaving little time for leisure activities, the foundation said.
The survey also showed that 40 percent of children aged nine to 12 often play online games and 80 percent of parents consider such games to fall within the scope of “free play.”
Children playing video games passively receive a large amount of audio-visual information, but they seldom have opportunities for active participation or creative play, the foundation said.
The survey also showed that more than 40 percent of parents spend at least five days a week playing with their children, while 15.3 percent seldom or never play with their children.
In addition, only 54.3 percent of children regularly go to outdoor areas, such as parks, while 38 percent regularly visit indoor places, such as supermarkets, shopping centers, department stores or convenience stores.
The survey was conducted by the foundation from Dec. 24 last year to Jan. 22, using online questionnaires sent to parents of children aged one to 12. A total of 707 valid samples were collected.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
RSS