Shouting, arguing mars curriculum discussions

PLAYGROUND FIGHTS:Legislators tussled over motions on controversial curriculum changes, while the education minister pledged to fight a ruling on review procedures

By Abraham Gerber and Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporters

Legislators argue over whether the Ministry of Education should appeal to a higher court after losing a lawsuit about its curriculum guidance adjustment for senior-high school history courses.

Photo: CNA

Controversy over proposed high-school curriculum adjustments continued yesterday, with arguments breaking out in a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee.

Claiming violations of procedural rules, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators boycotted a motion by the committee chair Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) seeking to pick up a motion from the committee’s session on Monday — which was cut short after Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) left early for a meeting.

The boycott lead to two hours of shouting and arguing between members of the KMT and DPP caucuses before the committee moved to send the motions directly to the general assembly for resolution.

The dropped motions called for the committee to take a position on a lawsuit faced by the Ministry of Education over controversial changes to the national high-school curriculum.

The Taipei High Administrative Court ruled last month that the ministry should publicize materials related to the National Academy for Educational Research’s resolution to revise the curriculum guidelines, which fueled controversy over what some critics deemed “sinicization.”

Even if passed, the motions would have been symbolic, lacking legal power to obligate the ministry to publicize the material.

Meanwhile, Wu yesterday reiterated that the ministry would appeal the court’s ruling last month that it publicize its curriculum review procedures — including a list of review board members and meeting minutes.

Wu said that the appeal is to be filed to obtain clarification on to what extent the transparency of review committees should be maintained for future reference.

Also, as review committee name lists are made public only after the implementation of curriculum adjustments for fear of unnecessary hassles that the exposure might cause during reviews, Wu said, the ministry would protest to the court for maintaining its current practice.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said during the committee’s question-and-answer session on Monday, based on the review meeting minutes she posted the night before on Facebook, that the curriculum adjustment was “illegally initiated” in 2013.

She accused the review committee — originally convened to examine wording in textbooks — of overreaching its authority by launching extempore motions to make “minor adjustments” to the curriculum guidelines.

Saying that there is no need for Wu to bear former minister Chiang Wei-ning’s (蔣偉寧) liabilities, Cheng called on Wu to halt and revoke the rollout of the curriculum.