BOYCOTT:The National Federation of Teachers’ Unions said its members would reject invitations to participate in public hearings on proposed curriculum guidelines
Taipei Times
Date: Aug 16, 2015
By: Abraham Gerber and Sean Lin / Staff reporters
The approval process for a new 12-year education plan continues to use the same
Chang Hsu-cheng, president of the National Federation of Teachers’ Unions, right, speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
opaque procedures behind earlier controversial adjustments to high-school curriculum guidelines, a teachers’ union alleged yesterday, calling for the process to be “rebooted.”
“The ‘fine-tuning’ of history curriculum guidelines was already unacceptable, but we care even more about the process under which new guidelines for all subjects are to be produced,” National Federation of Teachers’ Unions president Chang Hsu-cheng (張旭政) told a news conference in Taipei. “While in the past the Ministry of Education has tightly controlled the drafting of guidelines, we feel the process should be opened up to allow for a more diverse range of opinions to be represented.”
Chang said that all appointments to new guideline drafting committees were made by committee conveners directly appointed by Ko Hwa-wei (柯華葳), president of the National Academy for Educational Research, the agency that oversees the creation of curriculum guidelines, adding that a reliance on personal relationships had resulted in “like-minded” committee members making decisions that did not reflect the public’s point of view. [FULL STORY]
