Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Textbooks spark call for boycotts

Taipei Times

Action Coalition of Civics Teachers spokesman Huang I-chung, right, holds up a textbook during a news conference in Taipei yesterday, calling on the Ministry of Education to withdraw certain curriculum changes.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

Civic groups yesterday announced a new alliance targeting Ministry of Education curriculum adjustments, urging local governments to boycott textbooks based on the new guidelines.

Representatives from 21 organizations urged the ministry to withdraw the adjustments, publish relevant meeting records and draft new rules mandating public participation in future changes.

Voting Tsai could make Taiwan a true nation

Lee Min-yung 李敏勇

The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has to endure the ignominy of being simultaneously watched over by the US and confined by China. The US likes to keep a close eye on Taiwan, because although Japan renounced Taiwan as a colonial territory, under the terms of the US-directed San Francisco Peace Treaty — which entered into force in 1952 and officially ended World War II in the Asia-Pacific region — Taiwan was not reassigned to any other nation. The US’ Taiwan Relations Act also contains relevant clauses, while China’s continued persistence in its claim of sovereignty over the ROC squatters on Taiwan means that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has yet to break free from China’s spell.

Magnitude 6.3 earthquake rocks nation

Taipei Times

A Taipei stacked parking lot lies in disarray after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit Taiwan yesterday.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times

The nation was struck by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake and four large aftershocks yesterday, killing one person and damaging infrastructure and private properties in the north.

After the main earthquake hit at 9:42am, an aftershock measuring magnitude 5.0 occurred seven minutes later, with the two epicenters only 13.2km apart.

Groups team up to protest curriculum

Taipei Times

A group of civic organizations yesterday announced that today it would form an alliance to protest the Ministry of Education’s handling of the high-school social sciences curriculum and the 12-year national education plan which they alleged was designed in a “black-box,” or non-transparent, manner.

As the Taipei High Administrative Court in February ruled against the ministry’s decision to implement a controversial curriculum adjustment — which the ministry implemented anyway — the groups said the ministry should attempt to make information more transparent and easily accessible to the public.

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