The Ministry of Education (MOE) must re-evaluate its suicide prevention strategy and address a lack of professional counselors at schools to improve the mental health safety net on campuses, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said on Tuesday.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents in Taiwan after accidents, DPP legislators Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉), Lo Mei-ling (羅美玲) and Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) said in a statement, citing statistics released last year by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
A report published by members of the Control Yuan this month showed that suicides among people aged 15 to 24 increased almost two-and-a-half times from 4,365 in 2016 to 10,659 last year, Chiu told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Moreover, a shortfall of professional counselors serving students has worsened, he said.
As of June, there was a shortfall of 174 professional counselors, compared with a shortage of 140 last year, he said.
Throughout their academic career, students struggle with issues related to their studies, families and social lives, Chiu said.
The government should offer them a good counseling program so that such problems are properly addressed, he said.
Education authorities from the central government to the local level have a responsibility to help students through such difficulties, he added.
The Student Guidance and Counseling Act (學生輔導法) stipulates that there should be at least one guidance counselor for every 1,200 students at junior-high school level and above, Lo said.
However, that ratio is not sufficient, she said.
There are still schools — public and private — that have not attained that requirement, including some that have no professional counselors, she said.
“Who are students supposed to turn to with their problems?” she asked.
The turnover rate among professional guidance counselors is high, Lo said.
Students who are seeing a counselor might have the process interrupted by a resignation and face problems transitioning to a new counselor, including possible loss of trust, she said.
The education ministry must spend more time considering how it can reach out to students in a timely fashion, she said, adding that the central government must pay more attention to the counseling needs of international students in Taiwan.
POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Japan and the US are expected to hold in-depth discussions on Taiwan-related issues during the meeting next month, Japanese sources said The holding of a Japan-US leaders’ meeting ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China is positive news for Taiwan, former Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association representative Hiroyasu Izumi said yesterday. After the Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide victory in Japan’s House of Representatives election, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is scheduled to visit the US next month, where she is to meet with Trump ahead of the US president’s planned visit to China from March 31 to April 2 for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Japan and the US are expected to hold in-depth discussions on Taiwan-related issues during the
‘LIKE-MINDED PARTNER’: Tako van Popta said it would be inappropriate to delay signing the deal with Taiwan because of China, adding he would promote the issue Canadian senators have stressed Taiwan’s importance for international trade and expressed enthusiasm for ensuring the Taiwan-Canada trade cooperation framework agreement is implemented this year. Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) in an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) said he was increasingly uneasy about Ottawa’s delays in signing the agreement, especially as Ottawa has warmed toward Beijing. There are “no negotiations left. Not only [is it] initialed, we have three versions of the text ready: English, French and Mandarin,” Tseng said. “That tells you how close we are to the final signature.” Tseng said that he hoped Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday bestowed one of Taiwan’s highest honors on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Ambassador Andrea Clare Bowman in recognition of her contributions to bilateral ties. “By conferring the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon on Ambassador Bowman today, I want to sincerely thank her, on behalf of the Taiwanese people, for her outstanding contribution to deepening diplomatic ties between Taiwan and SVG,” Lai said at a ceremony held at the Presidential Office in Taipei. He noted that Bowman became SVG’s first ambassador to Taiwan in 2019 and
A man walks past elementary school artworks at the Taipei Lantern Festival in Ximen District yesterday, the first day of the event. The festival is to run from 5pm to 10pm through March 15.
RSS