Students yesterday urged Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) to answer questions about controversial curriculum guidelines for textbooks “sincerely,” or risk seeing students take to the streets in protest.
The first of four planned meetings on campuses for students to communicate with the ministry over the proposed guidelines — to be implemented in August — was held at National Taichung First Senior High School on Tuesday night.
It ended in chaos at about 8pm at an entrance to the campus, where several dozen students stood hand-in-hand to block the car carrying Wu from leaving after the two-hour meeting.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
The protesters demanded that Wu apologize to students for being evasive in answering questions they raised at the meeting.
“Students are not rioters,” Apple Tree Commune Club spokesperson Liao Chung-lun (廖崇倫) said in a statement released yesterday.
To disrupt what they called the “unequal power relationship” between the ministry and the students, “the only weapon we have is our bodies,” the high-school group’s spokesperson said.
The ministry repeatedly said that Wu was there to listen to what the students have to say and to communicate with them about the guidelines in a sincere manner, Liao said.
“However, he did not answer our questions in good faith,” Liao added.
Liao said the move to block Wu’s vehicle from leaving was to let the minister know that his replies skirted around the students’ questions rather than facing them squarely.
Club member Chen Chien-hsun (陳建勳) said that some of the students were hit by Wu’s bodyguards — who allegedly elbowed them in the melee — adding that the students condemned the use of violence by Wu’s entourage.
The second and third meetings are to be held at National Tainan Senior High School and the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei on Saturday, while the fourth is planned for National Hsinchu Senior High School on Sunday.
“We are formulating plans — for example, a rally — to have the minister face up to his political responsibility if he continues to be evasive in the next three meetings,” Chen said.
Wu said yesterday that his dialogue with students should be conducted in a peaceful and rational manner, adding: “Campuses should be free from political interference.”
Action Coalition of Civics Teachers spokesperson Huang Yi-chung (黃益中) said Wu’s implication that the students were politically motivated in their opposition to the guidelines was wide of the mark.
It was the curriculum adjustment task force led by Wang Hsiao-po (王曉波), a professor at Shih Hsin University known for his pro-unification stance, who injected politics into the curriculum guidelines, said Huang, who is a teacher at Taipei Municipal Dazhi High School.
“How could Wu stigmatize students and teachers?” Huang asked. “Is being the minister of education such a prize that he has to create rumors to keep his job?”
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to