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.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS