A civil group representing parents and teachers said yesterday it would continue to oppose government plans to offer free lunches to all elementary and junior high school students.
The plan, which is expected to cost NT$17.2 billion (US$519 million) annually, would significantly squeeze already scarce funding for education, said Wu Chung-tai (吳忠泰), president of the National Teachers’ Association, adding that the group would continue to raise public awareness on the matter.
Representatives of the groups met Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) on Thursday, but “the disagreement was not resolved,” he said.
The meeting came in the wake of a statement by the group in a newspaper opposing the free lunch service for schoolchildren from wealthy families.
Liu made the promise that the national program would begin in September at the earliest while answering a question from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆) in the legislature last month.
While the government has yet to provide details about the plan, it has said it could postpone implementation until early next year.
Opposition to the program has continued to mount, with Wu saying that Liu’s promise meant that funding for other areas of education would suffer as a result.
“According to regulations, the annual education budget is capped at no less than 21.5 percent of government net revenues for the previous three years. In view of decreasing tax revenue, the education budget will only diminish,” Wu said.
Free lunch services for school students are available in eight cities and counties, while students from low and medium-income families, families that suffer sudden financial losses or students who are considered by their teachers to be in need are also covered by the service.
Asked by Liu to conduct a policy evaluation, the Ministry of Education recently proposed another plan — which would come at a cost of an additional NT$1 billion annually — to expand the free lunch service to Aboriginal students and students living in remote areas.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
RSS