Reducing Required Credits in High School Chinese and Math Ignites Controversy

 Reducing Required Credits in High School Chinese and Math Ignites Controversy

Source: All Taipei News

Date: June 5, 2014

The National Academy for Educational Research (NAER) released a draft outline for 12-Year Compulsory Education, which stipulates that required credits in Chinese for senior high school students be reduced from 24 to 20, and required credits in mathematics be reduced from 16 to 12 in the first three semesters, with 4, 6, 12 additional credits required (必選學分) for the remaining semesters, depending on the divisions of the students. The reduction in required credits has ignited a great controversy, and people from all sectors have signed petitions voicing their opposition.

“The Rescue Chinese Education League” initiated a petition drive to oppose the reduction of required credits in Chinese. The petition drive was signed by Yu Kuang-chung (余光中), a well-known poet and a Professor Emeritus at National Sun Yat-sen University, Cho-yun Hsu (許倬雲), an academician of the Academia Sinica, Sun Zhen (孫震), a former president of National Taiwan University, etc.

Yu Kuang-chung, who has been publicly emphasizing the importance of Chinese education, has stated that Chinese culture is like a circle, and the Chinese language its radius. The size of the circle depends on the length of its radius. If the Chinese language education is undermined, Chinese culture will wane. If the Chinese language loses its power of social cohesion, the Chinese people will become alienated from each other.

The reduction of required credits in mathematics was also opposed in a petition signed by 93 academicians of the Academia Sinica. These academicians have criticized that if the government reduces the required credits in mathematics, students who are not interested in math will no longer take elective math courses. This would cause Taiwan to lose its competitive edge in technology on the world stage, the academicians have added.

However, Fan Hsin-hsien (范信賢), an NAER official, has stated that, under the 12-Year Compulsory Education, all senior high school students must take a mimnum of 12 required credits in math in the first three semesters. Students will take 4 more required credits in the humanities division, 6 in the commerce division, or 12 in the science division. In either case, it is not a reduction of required credits in comparison with the current math requirements, Fan has added.

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