Native education for democracyBy Lee Chuan-hsin 李川信The Ministry of Education in 2002 established the Native Education Committee to draw up a blueprint and propose the development of a policy to implement native cultural education. Founded last year, the Center for Native Education integrates educational resources across Taiwan and publishes journals such as Newsletter of Taiwan Studies (台灣學通訊), Research in Taiwan Studies (台灣學研究) and ChaiTe Homeland Education (在地). To consolidate the foundations of native cultural education formed by the Taiwanese Cultural Association a century ago with the support of Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水), the ministry invited experts and academics to attend a conference intended to be a retrospective of 30 years of native cultural education and to look to the future. Taiwan went through a linguistic dark age when native languages — such as Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), Hakka and indigenous languages — of different ethnicities were suppressed. The government aspires to cultivate modern citizens with a humanistic spirit through the implementation and promotion of native cultural education.

Source: Taipei Times September 10, 2022 22:29 UTC