Taiwan was identified as one of only four countries and economies demonstrating “overall resilience” amid COVID-19 disruptions a Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Ministry of Education (MOE) said last week.
Taiwan along with Japan, Korea and Lithuania was also one of only four countries and economies where the education system displayed overall resilience, the PISA report conducted last year.
Taiwan maintained student well-being and math performance across all social groups, with 87 percent of Taiwanese students reporting a sense of belonging at school, which improved from 85 percent in 2018, the report said.
Photo: CNA
PISA is a tri-annual Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) assessment that measures the knowledge of 15-year-olds.
It was originally planned to take place in 2021.
However, the assessment was postponed a year due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year’s assessment, which focused on mathematics, reading and science, found that the average world performance fell.
The scores for math and reading dropped 17 and 11 points on average in OECD nations, while scores in science fell by 4 points.
Although this decline could be attributed to the COVID- 19 pandemic, PISA said that performance trends had been falling before the pandemic, indicating that other factors were also at play.
Taiwan, which was named “Chinese Taipei” in the PISA report, was one of the few countries and economies that bucked that trend, as it had scores and rankings in all three subjects moving upward.
The average Taiwanese student scored 547 in math, which is higher than the OECD average of 472 and put Taiwan third among 81 participating regions.
Taiwan scored 515 in reading, higher than the OECD average of 476, ranking fifth overall.
In science, Taiwan had a score of 537, significantly higher than the OECD average of 485, ranking fourth.
At a news conference on Tuesday reporting on the PISA results, the MOE said that the performance gap between students from different socio-economic backgrounds has slowly improved.
Students from the poorest 20 percent of households scored an average of 471 in math, just under the OECD average of 472.
Peng Fu-yuan (彭富源), head of the ministry’s K-12 Education Administration, said that digital learning, which received a big boost from the pandemic, has helped close the gap between urban and rural areas.
The success of digital-based education can be attributed to its speedy adaptation by teachers on the front line, Peng said.
The resilience of Taiwanese students is highlighted by their exceptional performance, 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
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
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
RSS