A group of student protesters rallied in front of the Ministry of Education building yesterday, demanding the withdrawal of a set of controversial high-school curriculum guidelines that the ministry plans to implement in August — despite a decision by the High Administrative Court on Thursday last week ruling against the proposed changes.
More than 50 protesters — joined by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Chou Ni-an (周倪安) — held placards protesting against what they called the ministry’s illegal act of drafting and implementing the new curriculum guidelines.
The draft amendments to the history curriculum only focus on Taiwanese history, with certain chapters having more than half of their contents revised, National Chengchi University’s Graduate Institute of Taiwan History associate professor Lee Fu-chung (李福鐘) said.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
The proposed curriculum would replace a pluralistic, global perspective on Taiwanese history with a distinct pro-China bias, as it stresses the contributions of the Qing Dynasty to Taiwan’s development and downplays the role of Japan, he said.
It also reintroduces an outdated term quan fu (光復) — meaning the recovery of Taiwan by the Republic of China from Japanese rule, he said, adding that the term is a throwback to former president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) regime.
Ordinary teachers have been excluded from the ministry’s decisonmaking process, Dazhi Senior High School teacher Huang Yi-chung (黃益中) said, and the official notification that a curriculum hearing was to be held arrived only after the registration deadline had expired, Huang said, adding that the ministry refused to disclose records of the hearing in the name of personal data protection.
He said the “defective curricula” should be revoked and teachers should be consulted before curricula are drawn up.
Youth Group in Defense of Taiwan Culture and History activist Lan Shih-po (藍士博) said they held protests against the ministry’s curricular adjustments last year, and he regretted that the ministry had ignored their appeals.
He demanded that the ministry redraft the curriculum guidelines, saying that the ministry’s draft proposal was procedurally flawed according to the High Administrative Court’s ruling. Restoration of Taiwan Social Justice activist Lin Yu-lun (林于倫) said that the ministry’s proposed changes do not do justice to the period of Japanese rule or aboriginal history, adding that the ministry should not serve as a mouthpiece for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or China.
In response, K-12 Education Administration director Wu Ching-shan (吳清山) said the ministry would consider appealing the court’s ruling after it receives the verdict documentation.
However, the court’s ruling was based on the ministry’s information disclosure, rather than the contents of curricular adjustments, he said.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,
RSS