Weekly classes in one of Taiwan’s bentu (本土, “local” or “native”) languages or Taiwan Sign Language would from 2022 be mandatory for first and second-year junior-high school students, and optional for third-year students, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Saturday.
The announcement came at a meeting of the ministry’s curriculum review committee hosted by the Taipei branch of the National Academy for Educational Research.
Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠), the convener of the committee, presided over the meeting.
The curriculum changes passed include that seventh and eighth-grade students would from 2022 have one mandatory weekly session of Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese), Hakka, an Aboriginal language or Taiwan Sign Language
For ninth-grade students, these subjects would be optional, it said, adding that schools would conduct surveys to find out whether their students are interested.
To protect the rights and interests of Aboriginal students, schools would offer at least one session of an Aboriginal language per week to ninth-graders, the ministry said.
For high-school students, at least two credits in one of the languages would be mandatory, it said.
In addition, as part of their own curriculum, high schools could offer elective credits in the languages, the ministry said.
The changes were made to comply with the Development of National Languages Act (國家語言發展法), which went into effect on Jan. 9, 2019, stipulating requirements for mandatory classes in Taiwan’s “national languages … at all stages of compulsory education.”
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS