Taipei court rules against education ministry over curriculum adjustments

By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Taitung Girls’ High School teacher Chou Wei-tung brings a hammer to the guidelines for teachers in Taipei on March 1 last year.

Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times

The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled against the Ministry of Education in a case involving the ministry’s controversial “minor adjustments” to high-school curriculum guidelines.

The court said the ministry should make its information more transparent and complete for public perusal.

The “minor adjustments” made to the guidelines for history, civic and social studies, Chinese and geography in January last year sparked controversy, leading to protests by civic groups, high-school teachers and academics — who called the changes “de-Taiwanization and Sinicization” of the education system tailored to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) view of history — and prompted the Taiwan Association of Human Rights to bring the case to court.

Examples of the contentious changes to the history curriculum included revising the term “Japanese-governed period” to “Japanese occupation period,” and naming the period during which Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), ruled Taiwan in the 17th century the “Ming Cheng period,” with “Ming” signifying China’s Ming Dynasty, despite the Ming not, in official terms, claiming sovereignty over the island, the groups said soon after the changes were announced.

The Taiwan Association of Human Rights filed an administrative lawsuit against the ministry in October last year after its administrative appeal, filed in March, was rejected.

The association said that even before the appeal, it had asked the ministry and the National Academy for Educational Research for information related to a resolution to adjust the curriculum, including a complete list of the review members, complete meeting minutes and ballot results.

The two agencies denied the request and simply offered abridged meeting records that “concealed key decisionmaking processes,” the association said.

According to Article 9 of the Freedom of Government Information Act (政府資訊公開法), individuals “may request government agencies to provide government information,” which means people have the right to request information related to the curriculum outline changes because it “is a national policy that concerns people’s rights to education,” it said.

“The Ministry of Education has repeatedly said that information about the changes should not be made public, which is brazenly against rights protected by the law and made us wonder whether its reluctance has something to do with its flawed decisionmaking process,” the association said.

The court’s ruling has safeguarded the public’s right to know and up held democracy, the association said, while calling on the ministry to immediately make public the information it has withheld and not appeal the ruling.

Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) yesterday said that the information was not entirely transparent due to concerns over the possibility that personal information could be leaked, adding that a new review process would be more thorough once put in place.

He said that the ruling would not affect the rollout of the curriculum adjustments this year, adding that the ministry would discuss with the National Academy for Educational Research about whether to file an appeal.

Additional reporting by Wu Po-hsuan

Students give up on tough English exam
英文科題目難 不少學生放棄

The National College Entrance Examination English exam took place on the morning of Feb. 2. Many students found the topic too difficult and gave up.
二月二日大學學測英文科，不少學生認為題目很難乾脆放棄。

Photo: Liao Shu-ling, Liberty Times
照片：記者廖淑玲攝

The National College Entrance Examination‘s English exam took place on the afternoon of Feb. 2. The English essay section of the exam gave two separate book titles and asked examinees to imagine the possible contents of each, then choose which one of the books they would like to read, providing a reason for its selection. A large number of students found the topic was too difficult and gave up. Most students believe this year’s exam was tougher than last year’s, especially the English essay, which was not a traditional “picture-story telling” style of question.

A student surnamed Chen from Yang-Tze Senior High School, who sat the exam, said one of the book titles was about admiring other people’s strong points, while the other was concerned with how to obtain the abilities of a leader. He chose “look upon others with admiring eyes,” because it was an easy topic to develop. Another student named Lin said the English exam was too difficult and it was hard not to throw in the towel, adding that it even caused a nearby student to laugh out loud.(Liberty Times, translated by Edward Jones)

大學學測二月二日上午考英文，英文作文要考生就兩本不同書的書名設想可能的內容，並說明選擇想看那一本書的理由，不少學生認為題目很難乾脆放棄。

大多數考生認為考題較往年難，尤其英文作文不是傳統「看圖說故事」的題型，而是用兩本書的書名封面，要考生選擇想念其中的哪一本，並說明理由。

揚子高中的陳姓考生說，考題中的兩本書，一本是欣賞別人的優點，一本是有關於如何具備領導統御的能力，他選擇用欣賞的眼光看待別人，不難發揮，倒是有另一名林姓考生說，英文考太難了，讓他不放棄都難，引得一旁同學哈哈大笑。

(自由時報記者廖淑玲)

TODAY’S WORDS
今日單字

1. tough adj.

困難 (kun4 nan2)

例: That’s a really tough question, let me think it over.

(那真是個很難的問題，讓我好好想想。)

2. admire v.

欣賞 (xin1 shang3)

例: He may have a fiery temper, but I admire his steely resolve.

(他或許脾氣暴躁，但我欣賞他鋼鐵般的決心。)

3. throw in the towel v. phr.

放棄 (fang4 qi4)

例: When the going gets tough, Fredrick always throws in the towel.

(每次一遇到難題，費德烈就放棄了。)

Professional Portfolio - O.R. 5-24-99 "How can we compare descriptions of our forests?"

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 pleasure and information