Additional action by students, families and school faculty is required to support the Ministry of Education’s efforts to curtail improper education at schools, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) said yesterday.
Many schools, whether to “diversify” education content or simply to cover a shortage of teachers, are hiring uncertified people to teach classes, Fan told a news conference in Taipei.
Chen Yi-hsuan (鄭益瑄), who is a university student, said via teleconferencing that she had been forced to sign a “celibacy vow” by volunteer workers from the Rainbow Family Life Education Association when she was in elementary school.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Wu Shao-chiao (吳少喬), a parent at the news conference, said that a volunteer from the Champions Education Association had told her class at an elementary school in Taichung that “homosexuals can now marry, but we should not respect them, because they cannot bear children.”
These acts contravene the Education Fundamental Act (教育基本法) and the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法), Fan said.
There were 65 complaints submitted against the two associations from August last year to April, Fan said, citing data from the ministry’s K-12 Education Administration and other information gathered by her own office.
Of the complaints, eight have been ameliorated, 14 resulted in a termination of collaboration with the associations and 31 were dismissed, Fan said, adding that 12 are yet to be resolved.
Chang Ya-hui (詹雅惠), an official of the K-12 Education Administration, said that on May 26 it issued notices that schools must review the content of courses or events that are taught by people who are not school employees, and ensure that their content is compliant with the acts.
The K-12 administration would maintain close contact with schools via local governments to ensure that they implement the measures, Chang said.
The ministry this month mandated that teachers whose class time was assigned to non-faculty individuals must be in attendance and the course content previewed, Fan said.
Local education authorities should oversee such courses and should compile a list of offenders, she said, adding that the offenders should not be eligible for subsidies and should face sanctions.
The ministry should establish an authority to oversee such matters, she added.
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