A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) poll released yesterday suggested that more than 70 percent of the public think that implementation of the Ministry of Education’s new high-school curriculum guidelines should be postponed, while more than 60 percent think it is inappropriate for the ministry to prosecute students who stormed the ministry’s building last week.
As many as 72.1 percent of respondents said they support postponing the implementation of the controversial adjustments to the curriculum guidelines, which are scheduled to take effect tomorrow, the survey by the DPP’s poll center showed.
The poll also showed that 61.8 percent of respondents do not support Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa’s (吳思華) decision to file lawsuits against students who broke into the ministry compound last week.
Meanwhile, only 12.8 percent are opposed to postponing implementation of the revised guidelines, and 31.7 percent support the minister’s decision to sue the protesters, DPP poll center director Cheng Chun-sheng (鄭俊昇) said.
Asked whether they back the campaign against the curriculum guideline changes, 54.2 percent of respondents said they are “supportive” or “very supportive” of it, while 30.6 percent said they are “opposed” or “very opposed” to it, Cheng said.
Asked whether they support the changes initiated by the ministry, 40.4 percent of respondents said they are unnecessary, while 23.7 percent believe they are necessary and 35.8 percent had no comment, Cheng added.
“What is more, 35.3 percent of pan-blue supporters also believe that the changes are unnecessary, higher than the 30.4 percent who think they are necessary,” he said.
The poll was conducted from Monday to Tuesday with 986 valid samples randomly selected from across the country via telephone, with a margin of error of 3.1 percent points, Cheng said.
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