Unifor ESL teachers ratify agreement after strike

TORONTO, June 6, 2015 /CNW/ - English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers, members of Unifor Local 40, have ratified a collective agreement with Kaplan International after nearly four weeks on strike. The agreement includes annual wage increases, vacation enhancement and key improvements to language on job security. 

"It takes time, effort and knowledge to be a great teacher," said Josephine Petcher, Unifor staff representative. "Our dedicated ESL teachers care about their students, and were unwavering in their commitment to stand up for a fair contract that protects job security."

The agreement was ratified with an overwhelming majority on June 4.

Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector, representing more than 305,000 workers. It was formed Labour Day weekend 2013 when the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers unions merged.

SOURCE Unifor

 For further information: please contact Unifor Communications Staff Representative Shelley Burgoyne atshelley.burgoyne@unifor.org or (cell) 902-717-7491.

INTERVIEW: ‘Taiwan-centric’ studies a must: Tainan student group

As high-school students nationwide rally against the Ministry of Education’s adjustments to high-school curriculum guidelines, members of the Nanman club at National Tainan Girls’ Senior High School, which is spearheading protests at the school, expounded on the club’s views in a recent interview with staff reporter Jennifer Huang of the Chinese-language ‘Liberty Times’ (the sister newspaper of the ‘Taipei Times’)

Tue, Jun 16, 2015 - Page 3

Liberty Times: What is your understanding of the ministry’s curriculum adjustments? Why are you protesting against the adjustments?

Students: Last year, we conducted a survey of all the textbooks ever used in Taiwan. The textbooks used in the Japanese colonial era put great emphasis on familiarizing students with Taiwan and students even had to climb Yushan as a graduation requirement.

However, the textbooks used since the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government retreated to Taiwan in 1949 have sought to make students memorize a slew of facts about Chinese history and geography, making students learn where the Yangtze River and Yellow River flow in China, without knowing where the Tsengwen River traverses Taiwan.

That “China-centrism” in the curriculum remains even to this day — when almost all students have grown up in Taiwan — with only a small proportion of the curriculum dedicated to Taiwanese studies, let alone giving the attention due to Aborigines and immigrants [to Taiwan].

A Taiwan-centric curriculum should be put at the center of educational reform, but the ministry is backtracking on reform by reinstating an anachronistic Chinese nationalist agenda at the expense of pluralism, which goes against the fundamental principles of education and which has provoked students’ major dissatisfaction.

LT: Is the National Tainan Girls’ Senior High School pressured to select certain textbooks?

Students: A high-school principal said that all students need to do is study and not to be involved in the anti-curriculum protests, which is typical of those educators with a conservative mindset.

Our club members read out a declaration in opposition to the adjusted curriculum at a student council meeting, officially announcing that students at our school have joined forces with the anti-curriculum protesters.

When asked to clarify its position on the curriculum issue, our school said that it “did not understand the issue” and “refused to be asked to reveal its stance” on the issue.

How could teachers and school administrators hedge at the issues of curriculum and textbook selection, which are a major part of high-school education?

Is it not educators’ duty to expound on their educational philosophy to students? Otherwise, how can students accept what they are taught?

LT: How do you plan to protect your right to education in the future?

Students: A teacher at a junior-high school in Tainan told a group of third-year students after a final examination last year: “When you were struggling to write down correct answers for better grades, there were people organizing sit-in protests against the “black-box” curriculum in front of the Ministry of Education headquarters. They are fighting for your right to education and I hope you can find out the problems and answers [of the curriculum] by yourselves.”

Some of those students entered our school this year and joined the opposition against the adjusted curriculum after studying the issues.

In addition to starting an online campaign, we plan to set up more stalls on campus for students to write down their opinions and to make a video voicing those opinions as an alternative form of signature collection to petition against the curriculum adjustments.

Hong Kong students initiated hunger strikes against China’s “brainwashing” national education and halted its implementation in 2012. It might not be necessary for Taiwanese students to follow in Hong Kongers’ footsteps, but it is clear that students’ reflection on high-school education has been growing.

Translated by staff writer Chen Wei-han

Students stage flash protest in Taipei

TAKING TO THE STREETS:The students warned that should the Ministry of Education fail to revise its changes to curriculum guidelines, they would organize larger protests

By You Pei-ju and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with Staff writer

Members of the Northern Taiwan Anti-Curriculum Changes Alliance yesterday afternoon stage a flash protest at the Taipei First Girls’ Senior High School in the hope of drawing more public attention to their opposition to the Ministry of Education’s changes to high-school curriculum guidelines.

Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times.

Scores of student organizations from various high schools in Taipei staged their first flash protest at the Taipei First Girls’ Senior High School yesterday in the hope of drawing more public attention to the issue of their opposition to the Ministry of Education’s controversial changes to the high-school curriculum guidelines.

Northern Taiwan Anti Curriculum Changes Alliance spokesman Chu Chen (朱震), a student at Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, criticized the process under which the ministry decided to adjust the high-school curriculum guidelines as overly rash and hasty, saying that even the Taipei High Administrative Court had ruled that the ministry had broken the law.

Chu was referring to the Feb. 12 High Administrative Court ruling that the ministry must make its information more transparent and complete for public scrutiny.

If the ministry does not change its mind and insists on implementing the changes in August, the students’ demonstrations would continue, Chu said, adding that students would hold talks and seminars, and work with their peers in central and southern Taiwan to organize larger demonstrations next month.

Yesterday’s protest was the first and it was experimental in nature, Municipal Neihu Senior High School second-year student Huang Mao-shan (黃茂善) said, adding that the alliance would be holding flash protests at each school in Taipei to let everyone know the widespread discontent over the ministry’s changes.

Taipei First Girls’ Senior High School was chosen because it is opposite the Presidential Office Building, Huang said.

Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) appeared on the Executive Yuan’s “open microphone” YouTube broadcast last night to explain the guideline adjustments, reiterating that the ministry has decided that both the new and old versions of textbooks would be allowed.

The difference in material between the new and old versions would not be included in the college entrance examinations, Wu said, adding that the ministry was starting an immediate review of the changes.

Students yesterday urged Wu to answer questions about the controversial guidelines “sincerely,” or risk seeing students take to the streets in protest.

The first of the ministry’s planned meetings on campuses for students to communicate with the ministry over the guidelines was held at National Taichung First Senior High School on Tuesday night last week.

It ended with scuffles at the entrance to the campus, when several dozen students stood hand-in-hand to block a car carrying Wu from leaving after the two-hour meeting.

At 8:30pm on Friday, the ministry announced that it was postponing the remaining three hearings.

Students manipulated: lawmaker

By Chen Yen-ting and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Shu-hui berates opposition parties in the legislature on Friday.

Photo: Chen Yen-ting, Taipei Times

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) are manipulating students and are the source of discontent in schools nationwide in ongoing controversy surrounding the Ministry of Education’s planned adjustments to high-school curriculum guidelines, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Shu-hui (陳淑慧) said.

Chen was referring to students in more than 200 senior-high schools nationwide who have petitioned against the ministry’s decision to make changes that students said reflect a “China-centric” view.

The students also said the planned changes are illegal, referring to a Feb. 12 High Administrative Court ruling that the ministry must make its information more transparent and complete for public scrutiny.

Chen on Friday said the opposition parties and pro-Taiwanese independence groups are manipulating and misleading the students because students lack sufficient information about the current affairs of the educational system.

“Complaints on materials listing the Himalayas as the nation’s highest peak are false and we are offering an award of NT$5,000 to anyone who can find any mention [in the adjusted curricula] that the Himalayas are the Republic of China’s highest peak,” she added.

Chen also defended the ministry in its appeal against the Taipei High Administrative Court.

While the court ruled that the ministry should make public the members of the Committee of Curriculum Review, the ministry has released other information, such as meeting records, and has not conducted any so-called “black box” meetings, Chen said.

KMT Legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) suggested that the ministry abandon the proposed changes, adding that it should negotiate with students about the content of the curriculum guidelines.

The process of learning is supposed to go both ways, after all, she said, with students learning from teachers and the teachers benefiting from students’ questions.

The approaching summer vacations might cause concerned parents to take to the streets in protest, and the nation could ill afford any accidents, Yang said, adding that as the ministry has taken a step back and not insisted on the exclusive use of new textbooks, the issue is not as pressing as it might appear.

“We should all sit down and talk about the matter,” Yang said.

DPP Legislator Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) rejected the accusations of misleading students.

The KMT government and Chen are attempting to escalate the issue to a confrontation of pro-localization and pro-unification camps, Cheng said.

The issue is a question of the confrontation between truth and falsity, and the confrontation of education and politics, she said.

However, without full disclosure, the case should be considered as lacking transparency, Cheng said, adding that the ministry was afraid of making the list of members public because whether the ministry “cheated” would be easy to discern once the list is disclosed.

Lack of transparency is the very definition of a “black-box” operation and infringes on procedural justice, Cheng said, adding that the ministry is withholding information to keep the public in the dark and to buy time until the changes go into effect in August, creating a de facto victory.

Students rally as ministry axes reviews

SUNFLOWER REDUX:Sources said the government is concerned student discontent could lead to protests on a scale similar to those held by the Sunflower movement

By Rachel Lin  /  Staff reporter

Students yesterday tear up a picture of Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa during a protest against proposed new high-school curriculum guidelines outside the Ministry of Education in Taipei.

Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times

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Students yesterday protested in Taipei and Tainan against the unexpected cancelation by the Ministry of Education of three hearings scheduled for this weekend that would have reviewed the curriculum guidelines for high-school textbooks.

Holding two large banners that read “anti-brainwashing” and “oppose the adjustments made to the curriculum guidelines,” as well as various smaller placards expressing their dissatisfaction, dozens of students, some wearing their school uniforms, called for Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) to listen to their demands outside the ministry yesterday afternoon.

In Tainan, students from Tainan First High School (TFHS), National Tainan Girls’ Senior High School and Kuang Hua High School yesterday morning protested at the TFHS entrance, where a hearing was supposed to take place.

In a video clip on the Chinese-language Apple Daily’s Web site, students were heard saying “[you are] lying, lying” in response to a school staffer telling reporters that the school was unable to host the hearing because it was understaffed due to a high-school entrance exam.

At 8:30pm on Friday night, the ministry announced the postponement of the TFHS hearing, as well as the others at the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University (HSNU) in Taipei yesterday and at National Hsinchu Senior High School in Hsinchu City today.

Wu is scheduled to appear on the Executive Yuan’s “open microphone” YouTube broadcast at 7pm tomorrow to explain the guideline adjustments, the ministry said.

As the hearings that were to be held to dispel doubts over what critics have called “China-centric” guidelines “have gone amiss,” the government has decided to proceed with the implementation of the guidelines in August without the hearings, sources said.

The first hearing, held at National Taichung First Senior High School on Tuesday last week, apparently fueled student furor over the changes, the source said.

Concerns have been raised within government circles that high-school students could react angrily if the hearings fail to address their issues regarding the amendments, triggering a civic movement similar to the student-led Sunflower movement last year against a cross-strait service trade agreement, the sources said.

Speaking to reporters on Friday night, Wu apologized to students, teachers and parents who had signed up for the three cancelled hearings, adding that he would answer their questions during the “open mic” session.

“I thought it was a satirical piece when I first heard that today’s hearing was canceled in a news broadcast,” HSNU student Chung Hsin-ting (鍾欣庭) said yesterday. “This is ridiculous. Is the ministry deliberately trying to infuriate students?”

Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School student Ho Wei-tzu (何蔚慈) said he knew students in Yilan County and Taoyuan who had made time in their schedules to attend the Taipei hearing.

“There was no reason for the meetings to be canceled,” Ho said.

“We were disappointed, because many of us have been studying the guideline changes so that we could discuss them with the minister,” an anti-curriculum amendment alliance member said.

The decision to hold the four hearings was announced by the ministry on June 5.

Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan and Liang Pei-chi and Hung Mei-hsiu

Students demand answers from Wu

PROTEST PREPARATIONS:National Taichung First Senior High School’s Apple Tree Commune Club said that it was making plans to put more pressure on the minister

By Su Meng-chuan  /  Staff reporter

Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa, center front, leaves a seminar at National Taichung First Senior High School amid protesters yesterday.

Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times

Students yesterday urged Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) to answer questions about controversial curriculum guidelines for textbooks “sincerely,” or risk seeing students take to the streets in protest.

The first of four planned meetings on campuses for students to communicate with the ministry over the proposed guidelines — to be implemented in August — was held at National Taichung First Senior High School on Tuesday night.

It ended in chaos at about 8pm at an entrance to the campus, where several dozen students stood hand-in-hand to block the car carrying Wu from leaving after the two-hour meeting.

The protesters demanded that Wu apologize to students for being evasive in answering questions they raised at the meeting.

“Students are not rioters,” Apple Tree Commune Club spokesperson Liao Chung-lun (廖崇倫) said in a statement released yesterday.

To disrupt what they called the “unequal power relationship” between the ministry and the students, “the only weapon we have is our bodies,” the high-school group’s spokesperson said.

The ministry repeatedly said that Wu was there to listen to what the students have to say and to communicate with them about the guidelines in a sincere manner, Liao said.

“However, he did not answer our questions in good faith,” Liao added.

Liao said the move to block Wu’s vehicle from leaving was to let the minister know that his replies skirted around the students’ questions rather than facing them squarely.

Club member Chen Chien-hsun (陳建勳) said that some of the students were hit by Wu’s bodyguards — who allegedly elbowed them in the melee — adding that the students condemned the use of violence by Wu’s entourage.

The second and third meetings are to be held at National Tainan Senior High School and the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei on Saturday, while the fourth is planned for National Hsinchu Senior High School on Sunday.

“We are formulating plans — for example, a rally — to have the minister face up to his political responsibility if he continues to be evasive in the next three meetings,” Chen said.

Wu said yesterday that his dialogue with students should be conducted in a peaceful and rational manner, adding: “Campuses should be free from political interference.”

Action Coalition of Civics Teachers spokesperson Huang Yi-chung (黃益中) said Wu’s implication that the students were politically motivated in their opposition to the guidelines was wide of the mark.

It was the curriculum adjustment task force led by Wang Hsiao-po (王曉波), a professor at Shih Hsin University known for his pro-unification stance, who injected politics into the curriculum guidelines, said Huang, who is a teacher at Taipei Municipal Dazhi High School.

“How could Wu stigmatize students and teachers?” Huang asked. “Is being the minister of education such a prize that he has to create rumors to keep his job?”

Professional Portfolio - O.R. 4-29-02: How can we organize details for a body paragraph?

Education Emancipation Organization blog presents the David Barry Temple Professional Portfolio. In these posts you shall find my collection of observation reports, letters, newspaper articles, photographs and other documents spanning my career as a teacher of English as a Second Language, from 1979 up to the present for your information and usage

Pro-localization groups support student demands

‘CHINA-CENTRIC’:The groups said they would provide students protesting curriculum adjustments to mobilize their peers in staging a nationwide rally

By Lee Shin-fang and Rachel Lin  /  Staff reporters

Members of the Northern Taiwan Society hold a press conference in Taipei yesterday to voice their support for students’ opposition to adjustments to the curriculum guidelines.

Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times

Pro-localization groups yesterday rallied to support a growing movement involving students from more than 200 high schools nationwide against the implementation of “China-centric” curriculum guidelines.

Restoration of Taiwan Social Justice convener Lin Yu-lun (林于倫) said that should Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) insist that the guidelines be adopted for senior-high school textbooks on the Chinese language and social sciences in August, “we will [take the fight] to the street in July.”

“Wu Se-haw, get ready to step down,” Lin said at a news conference.

Senior and vocational high school students are planning to hold a rally in Taipei next month against the policy, Action Coalition of Civics Teacher spokesperson Huang Yi-chung (黃益中) said.

The groups said that they would provide the students with the resources to arouse and mobilize their peers nationwide in the build-up to the rally, including legal assistance should the young people face prosecution over their actions.

“We have been receiving phone calls from the public in recent days urging us to step forward in supporting the appeals made by the nation’s seedlings,” Northern Taiwan Society chairman Chang Yeh-shen (張葉森) said.

“Your [The students’] courage to change the destiny of the nation has our support,” Chang said.

Despite a ruling by the Taipei High Administrative Court in February in favor of Taiwan Association for Human Rights against the ministry over the procedure by which the “minor adjustments” to the guidelines were made, Wu has repeatedly vowed that the new guidelines would be adopted as planned.

Senior and vocational high school students have become the latest group to protest the policy, following in the footsteps of academic, high-school teachers and parents’ groups, as well as non-governmental organizations.

The latest movement involves students from at least 221 senior and vocational high schools.

In a bid to quell growing dissatisfaction with the policy, the ministry yesterday said it would host four hearings in campuses next week to hear what students and teachers have to say about the curriculum guidelines.

The first hearing is to be held on Tuesday at National Taichung First Senior High School, the first school where students staged a sit-in against the curriculum guidelines earlier last month.

It will be followed by two on Saturday next week, at National Tainan Senior High School and at the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, and one on Sunday next week at National Hsinchu Senior High School.

The ministry said it was happy to see the enthusiastic discussions about the subject on the Facebook Page created by the students, a reflection of youth participation in public issues, and hoped to communicate further with students during the hearings.

Meanwhile, members of the pro-unification Concentric Patriotism Association yesterday gathered outside the ministry to throw their support behind Wu, who they said is a “minister of courage” who dares to “right the wrong.”

Hosting Spelling Bee at Shuang-Wen Middle School, Taichung.

David Temple added 4 new photos.

Spelling Bee at Shwang-Wen Middle School.

Hosting Readers' Theater at Miao-Li Middle School

David Temple added 3 new photos.

Readers' Theater at Miao-Li Middle school

American Eagle Poetry Speaking Contest 2015, Taichung.

You added 4 new photos.

Poetry Speaking Contest 2015. Four of seven finalists and top vote-getter from my class!