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.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) yesterday apologized after the suicide of a civil servant earlier this month and announced that a supervisor accused of workplace bullying would be demoted. On Nov. 4, a 39-year-old information analyst at the Workforce Development Agency’s (WDA) northern branch, which covers greater Taipei and Keelung, as well as Yilan, Lienchiang and Kinmen counties, was found dead in their office. WDA northern branch director Hsieh Yi-jung (謝宜容), who has been accused of involvement in workplace bullying, would be demoted to a nonsupervisory position, Ho told a news conference in Taipei. WDA Director-General Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) said he would
RSS