A wave of high-school student protests against the Ministry of Education’s controversial adjustments to high-school curriculum guidelines has escalated, with students from at least 16 high schools campaigning in nationwide, coordinated action.
Following a sit-in organized by National Taichung First Senior High School students earlier this month, the initiative has drawn support from fellow students at National Hsinchu Senior High School, Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School and National Wuling Senior High School in Taoyuan, among others.
Opposition to the modified curriculum set to be implemented in August stems from perceived procedural flaws by the ministry, as well as changes to history textbooks that critics say reflect a “China-centric” view.
Photo provided by a student
The ministry has been “too dogmatic” in bulldozing through the curricular adjustments, students at National Chu-pei Senior High School in Hsinchu County said, adding that they hope that history teachers can be freed from political interference and join the students’ cause.
Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School student Ho Wei-tzu (何蔚慈) said that the school’s student association is set to organize larger protests nationwide in collaboration with fellow students at National Hsinchu Senior High School.
The anti-curriculum campaign aims for the revocation of the adjusted curriculum and a re-evaluation of the curriculum-reviewing mechanism, he said.
“The ministry, as the governing body [of education], is culpable by failing to maintain procedural justice [in modifying the curriculum], on which civic education has placed great emphasis. The new curriculum of civic education is thereby problematic,” he said.
Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School teacher Tseng Yi-ming (曾宜敏) said that she was pleased to see students respond to social issues, as the purpose of education is to foster students’ ability to think critically and act correspondingly.
New Taipei Municipal Zhonghe Senior High School student activist Liang Yan-jou (梁艷柔) said that students organized a forum to debate changes to the curriculum on the campus last week, attracting more than 200 students and teachers.
A series of activities organized by high-school students against the curricular adjustments include a panel discussion moderated by spokeswoman of the Black Island National Youth Front Lai Pin-yu (賴品妤) at Jianguo High School yesterday; a demonstration marching from Jhongli Station in Taoyuan tomorrow; a forum at National Tainan Girls’ Senior High School on Wednesday next week; and a panel discussion at SuSu Second-Hand Bookstore and Guesthouse chaired by education activist Chou Wei-tung (周威同) in Taitung County on Thursday next week.
Facebook communities have been established to mobilize more students to advance the campaign.
Additional reporting by Weng Yu-ming and Wang Chun-chieh
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS