The Ministry of Education’s meeting on the 12-year national education curriculum is to convene at the National Academy for Educational Research (NAER) today to review the draft guidelines for social science subjects, with Minister Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) chairing the panel.
The ministry has been rushing to finish its review of the guidelines by the end of the month, which is necessary for the guidelines to take effect at the start of the schoolyear next year. Over the summer, it has increased the frequency of review sessions, which were previously held on Sundays.
Draft guidelines for social science subjects propose to reduce the amount of rote memorization at high schools and shift the focus of history textbooks from a Han ethnicity-centered history to the history of Taiwan over the past 500 years.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Education
The draft curriculum proposes to turn the three subdivisions in history textbooks — History of Taiwan, History of China and World History — into three separate courses worth two credits each, named “Taiwan and related history,” “China and East Asia” and “Taiwan and the World.”
According to social science subjects panel convener Chang Mau-kuei (張茂桂), history is about the cause and effect of events and students should learn to view history from a broader regional perspective instead of the angle of one nation and one people.
The new curriculum is not seeking to place Chinese history in the category of East Asian history, nor is its purpose to supplant Chinese history with East Asian history, Chang said.
The draft proposes instead to understand Chinese history on a regional scale instead of by the dynastic history of China, he said.
The new curriculum seeks to emphasize the link between Taiwan, China, Eurasia and world history, and show the necessity of globalization in the modern era, deputy convener Chin Shih-chi (金仕起) said.
National Dong Hwa University student Hsiao Chu-chun (蕭竹均), the student representative on the review committee, said that he would demand that more Taiwanese history be included, with the ultimate goal of having no less than half of all class hours spent on Taiwanese history.
Hsiao was among a group of students protesting curriculum changes in 2015 and calling for greater transparency in how guidelines are changed, the retraction of the changes and a more culturally diverse curriculum.
Hsiao said that historic justice and transitional justice should be taught in History and Civil Ethics class.
The panel should consider teaching the history of Aborigines, exploring the slander and discrimination they have faced, Hsiao said.
Advocating localization and embracing internationalization do not necessarily clash, National Sun Yat-sen University professor Yen Ching-hsiang (顏慶祥) said.
The more a nation seeks to embody and to be represented by the cultural history of their nation, the more the international community will consider its culture “unique,” Yen said, adding that Taiwanese students should develop more confidence about their feelings for their country.
Acting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Culture and Communications Committee Director-General Tang Te-ming (唐德明) yesterday said that it was unusual that NAER president Sheu Tian-ming (許添明) on Wednesday last week resigned from his function and the review committee if the review is urgent.
Vice Premier Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉) is left to head the academy now that its vice president has also resigned, which raises the question of political intervention, Tang added.
Placing China’s history in the greater context of East Asia means forgetting one’s roots, Tang said, adding: “How would the Xinhai Revolution [which ended imperial rule in China and led to the establishment of the Republic of China by Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙)] be explained from the context of East Asian history?”
If young people do not understand the greatness of their nation and the difficulty of its founding, it would be difficult for them to identify with the country and its history, Tang said.
If that were to happen, the Democratic Progressive Party would accomplish its political goal of desinicizing Taiwan entirely, he added.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
The Civil Aviation Administration yesterday said that it is considering punishments for China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines for making hard landings and overworking their cabin crew when the nation was hit by Typhoon Kong-rey in October last year. The civil aviation authority launched an investigation after media reported that many airlines were forced to divert their flights to different airports or go around after failing to land when the typhoon affected the nation on Oct. 30 and 31 last year. The agency reviewed 503 flights dispatched by Taiwanese airlines during those two days, as well as weather data, flight hours
Three people have had their citizenship revoked after authorities confirmed that they hold Chinese ID cards, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday. Two of the three people were featured in a recent video about Beijing’s “united front” tactics by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), including Su Shi-en (蘇士恩), who displayed a Chinese ID card in the video, and taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲), who mentioned he had obtained a Chinese ID card in a telephone call with Chen, Liang told the council’s weekly news conference. Lee, who reportedly worked in
RSS