A group of teachers from across the country yesterday began a hunger strike outside the Ministry of Education building in Taipei, accusing the ministry of having political motivations behind its recent adjustment of curriculum guidelines.
“We are gathered here today [yesterday], because Feb. 28 is a symbolic day. It’s a day that is marked with the quest for social justice and civil liberties for Taiwanese,” said Wang Hsi (王希), spokesman of the Alliance of Awakened Citizens, which joined the teachers in their action.
“Injustice still exists today, such as the government’s political intervention in the new education curriculum, and we’re glad that a group of teachers are here, telling the government that they will not accept this,” he said.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The recently announced curriculum guidelines have been described by many academics and teachers as changing the current Taiwan-oriented approach to history into a Sinocentric approach, as well as finding excuses for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) authoritarian rule in civics education.
“A committee within the ministry began talking about curriculum change in December, and finalized the plan and the curriculum guidelines by January, without even asking academics who are opposed to it for their opinions,” said Nieh Sung-ling (聶松齡), a civics teacher from Kaohsiung Municipal Wenshan Senior High School.
“The ministry claims that the committee members have fully discussed all opinions, but how is that possible? If, as the ministry says, it consulted teachers during the process, can it give us just 10 names of the teachers they consulted?” Nieh asked.
Hsu Shih-jung (徐世榮), a professor at National Chengchi University’s Department of Land Economics, said that many Cabinet members have stepped down recently, but Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) should also have resigned.
“Taiwan is a nation of immigrants, people moved here at different times and so it is natural that different groups may have different views on history,” Hsu said. “As a democracy, we should try to respect people instead of trying to wipe out all other views with a ‘Greater China’ ideology.”
A civics teacher from National Tainan Girls’ High School, Yang Su-fang (楊素芳), who was among the people in the hunger strike, showed a copy of the new curriculum released by the ministry and compared it with the current one.
“Currently, the textbook is critical to the government’s rule from the late 1940s to the 1980s, calling it the ‘White Terror Period,” Yang said. “But in the new one, it would be explained as a necessary evil, that the authoritarian rule was something the government did not want to carry out at the time, but was obliged to.”
Yang added that this is not what civics education should do, “because the purpose of civics education is teaching students about the values of human rights, not finding excuses for human rights violations.”
“We civics teachers standing up to injustice is also part of that education,” Yang said.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but