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.
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