The National Federation of Teachers’ Unions (NFTU) yesterday urged the government to relieve teachers from traffic warden duty, citing the case of a teacher who became paralyzed after being hit by a vehicle.
The teacher, surnamed Liang (梁), was struck by a vehicle as she helped students cross a road in Koahsiung in 2021.
Liang’s family has not received any compensation or consolatory payment, because the Kaohsiung Education Bureau and the school she worked at have been trading blame, Kaohsiung Teachers’ Association president Yu Chu-cheng (于居正) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
The family also cannot access millions of New Taiwan dollars from fundraising efforts, due to a complication with opening a special case account with the Kaohsiung Social Affairs Bureau, Yu said.
Following talks with the union, the Kaohsiung City Government agreed that teachers should not be required to serve as traffic wardens, and that it would furnish guidelines to improve faculty and student safety on the road, he said.
The city government should work with schools to appoint volunteer traffic wardens who would help students reach school safely, and make improvements to traffic arrangements and signage on the roads around campuses, he said.
The Teachers’ Union of Taichung also reached a similar agreement with the Taichung City Government after filing an administrative arbitration, which ended in the union’s favor in 2016, Taichung Teachers’ Association president Chang Yung-ching (張永青) said.
Pedestrian safety around schools should be protected by police officers or volunteer traffic police who have the authority to carry out the task, Yilan Teachers’ Association president Yeh Ming-cheng (葉明政) said.
Protecting students from vehicles is not part of a teacher’s job and student safety on the road should be handled by government agencies, Pingtung Educational Industry Union president Huang Fu-tien (黃莆田) said in an appeal to the Ministry of Education.
Taoyuan is lagging behind other cities and counties in phasing teachers out of the ranks of traffic wardens, Taoyuan Teachers’ Association president Chen Chun-yu (陳俊裕) said, adding that better use of technology and cooperation with police is needed to resolve the problem.
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
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,
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
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