Of the 13 schools that received the “Model Schools for Promoting Reading Habits in Rural Areas” award on Wednesday, Yongan Junior High School in Taoyuan has seen the most significant improvement in student grades, it said.
The Association of Literacy and Education Taiwan presented the award. It has since last year worked with corporations to support schools in rural areas to develop diverse and innovative education programs that promote good reading habits.
To date, 3,114 students from 34 schools have benefited from the program.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
“Rural areas have inherent difficulties in stimulating culture,” Yongan Junior High School dean Gu Ju-yu (古如毓) said.
The school has tried to foster reading habits by using tablet computers, Gu said, adding that technology must be used to shorten the educational divide between urban and rural areas.
When the program first started, the school was short on tablet computers and at one point had to ask for donations of second-hand tablets, Gu said.
The program gained traction after a Ministry of Education program was established to provide funding to improve or establish computer networks at schools, Gu said.
The school first encouraged using tablets for reading during self-study sessions before establishing a dedicated weekly digital reading class, Gu said.
“The results of our program were incredible,” Gu said, adding that the number of students receiving “A” grades increased significantly, while those with “C” grades decreased.
Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Department of Electrical Engineering and one of the program’s founders, said he had seen many passionate educators who lacked the resources to increase reading skills.
About 30 percent of students in participating schools no longer have to receive remedial education for Mandarin or math, Yeh said, urging more corporations to help the association.
Separately, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said that reading habits are critical in acclimatizing students to more rigorous learning and, eventually, preparing them for work life.
“We are faced with a rapidly shifting environment and our learning methods must shift to compensate,” Pan said
The 2019 curriculum focuses on fostering students’ abilities to learn autonomously, to learn through interaction and through mutual collaboration, he added.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
‘POOP ON STAGE’: The song, which talks about the reluctance to graduate and anxiety about a lack of job opportunities, resonated with many students’ feelings The original song Poop on Stage has been chosen as National Taiwan University’s (NTU) graduation song this year, sparking much debate regarding the song’s title and content, which describes students’ anxiety about post-graduation unemployment. The title, Shang Tai Da Bian (上台大便), is a play on words that literally means “go on stage to poop.” The first three characters, shang tai da (上台大), also mean “to attend NTU,” as “Taida” is a common abbreviation for the university. The last character, bian (便), can mean “convenient” or “then,” but is more commonly associated with defecation. The lyrics of the song describe students’ reluctance to graduate and
RSS