The questions on future national examinations for civil servants will not reflect examiners' political ideology, nor will they be based on Hoklo, Hakka or Aboriginal languages, the Examination Yuan has decided.
Questions will not discriminate on racial or sexual grounds, nor will they test on classical Chinese composition or literature.
The Control Yuan yesterday ended a year-long controversy surrounding the national examinations for civil servants after the Examination Yuan pledged that future national examinations would be fair and steer clear of bias by following a "four noes" principle reflecting these points.
Examiners will also be advised to note the proportion of Taiwan-centered questions in national geography and history tests.
The Examination Yuan's resolution was reached during a review meeting in September last year and was later approved in a plenary session.
The changes came in response to a controversy over the use of Hoklo-language questions on Chinese literature tests and over the number of Taiwan-centered questions on history and geography tests in four national exams offered last year.
Although the passages in the tests were written in Chinese characters, they make sense only to speakers of Hoklo, more commonly known as Taiwanese.
The questions prompted pan-blue lawmakers, most of whom are of mainland Chinese descent, to claim the exams were biased. The questions also angered the Hakka community, as their language is spoken by one-fifth of the population.
Seeking to placate the Hakka minority, the Examination Yuan adjusted one of the four national examinations by adding points to Hakka candidates' exam scores.
The move came after a visit by former Council for Hakka Affairs Chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (
Calling such questions unfair and unconstitutional, People First Party (PFP) Legislator Chin Huei-chu (
She also asked the Control Yuan to determine whether it was acceptable that Taiwan's geography and history dominated questions in the tests, since current textbooks do not reflect this focus.
The Control Yuan report released in June called it unfair for the Examination Yuan to test candidates on a particular dialect, and said this had harmed examinees.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS