Anti High School Curriculum Adjustments Movement

Event description

The education system in Taiwan follows the policy of "one curriculum, multiple textbooks." The Ministry of Education's Curriculum Review Committee proposes the "curriculum outline," and then various textbook publishers independently compose the content. In 2013, the Ministry of Education established a "review group" to make "minor adjustments" to the curriculum, citing reasons such as correcting typos, supplementing content, and ensuring constitutional compliance. By January 2014, after the announced "minor adjustments," the Chinese language curriculum reduced articles related to Taiwan, and the civic and social studies section deleted content related to the February 28th Massacre and the White Terror.

In the history curriculum, specifically the part about Taiwanese history, there was a reduction of 36.4% on the contents regarding Taiwan. This sparked social controversy because the review group's members and composition were non-transparent, and their ideology was questioned for leaning towards the "unification faction." Consequently, this adjustment was criticized by the public as a politically driven maneuver directed by the Ministry of Education from the top down.

In May 2015, just as the new curriculum textbooks were about to be implemented, protests began with students from the "Apple Tree Community" club at Taichung First Senior High School. On July 5, various high school student groups across Taiwan, including the National High School Student Alliance, took to the streets to protest, demanding the withdrawal of the new curriculum. On July 22, students, dissatisfied with the lack of response from the Ministry of Education, initiated a movement to surround and occupy the ministry's offices overnight. Next night, students stormed the ministry's office in protest, attempting to occupy it. They were later forcibly evicted by the police, but the crowd continued to gather in front of the ministry's building, expressing their discontent.

However, the movement took a tragic turn when a participating student in the anti-curriculum protest, Lin Kuan-hua, died by suicide at home on July 30, shocking the public. Although the exact cause of Lin Kuan-hua's suicide was unclear, his active involvement in the anti-curriculum movement led some to speculate a possible connection. On the morning of August 4, student representatives from the anti-curriculum movement announced their withdrawal.

Outcome

After the movement, the Ministry of Education allowed local education bureaus in each municipality to choose whether to adopt the new curriculum. Some regions opted for the old curriculum, some for a combination of the old and new curricula, and only Nantou County adopted the new curriculum.

On April 29, 2016, the Legislative Yuan passed a resolution to abolish the content of the curriculum adjustments. On May 21 of the same year, the newly appointed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government's Minister of Education, Pan Wen-chung, officially abolished the content of the 2014 curriculum adjustments. Concurrently, the new "Twelve-Year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines Review Committee" added 22 student representatives.

Participating Organizations