The Ministry of Education (MOE) must re-evaluate its suicide prevention strategy and address a lack of professional counselors at schools to improve the mental health safety net on campuses, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said on Tuesday.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents in Taiwan after accidents, DPP legislators Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉), Lo Mei-ling (羅美玲) and Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) said in a statement, citing statistics released last year by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
A report published by members of the Control Yuan this month showed that suicides among people aged 15 to 24 increased almost two-and-a-half times from 4,365 in 2016 to 10,659 last year, Chiu told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Moreover, a shortfall of professional counselors serving students has worsened, he said.
As of June, there was a shortfall of 174 professional counselors, compared with a shortage of 140 last year, he said.
Throughout their academic career, students struggle with issues related to their studies, families and social lives, Chiu said.
The government should offer them a good counseling program so that such problems are properly addressed, he said.
Education authorities from the central government to the local level have a responsibility to help students through such difficulties, he added.
The Student Guidance and Counseling Act (學生輔導法) stipulates that there should be at least one guidance counselor for every 1,200 students at junior-high school level and above, Lo said.
However, that ratio is not sufficient, she said.
There are still schools — public and private — that have not attained that requirement, including some that have no professional counselors, she said.
“Who are students supposed to turn to with their problems?” she asked.
The turnover rate among professional guidance counselors is high, Lo said.
Students who are seeing a counselor might have the process interrupted by a resignation and face problems transitioning to a new counselor, including possible loss of trust, she said.
The education ministry must spend more time considering how it can reach out to students in a timely fashion, she said, adding that the central government must pay more attention to the counseling needs of international students in Taiwan.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,912) for advertisements that exceed its approved business scope, requiring the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license may be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter enforcement of Chinese e-commerce platforms and measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan in response to US President Donald Trump’s heavy tariffs on China. The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee met today to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,900) for advertisements that exceeded its approved business scope and ordered the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license would be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter supervision of Chinese e-commerce platforms and more stringent measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan as US President Donald Trump’s administration cracks down on origin laundering. The legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday met to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report on the matter. Democratic Progressive Party
RSS