Social studies curriculum could downplay Chinese history

Taipei, June 19 (CNA) A draft of new curriculum guidelines for social studies in senior high school is expected to be published in July and set to be implemented in 2019 as part of the 12-year national education program, the National Academy for Educational Research (NAER) said Monday.

To collect the public's opinions on the draft, the NAER is planning to hold a series of public hearings around the country, starting in September.

According to Monday's edition of the pro-Taiwan independence Liberty Times, the new curriculum guidelines will significantly change the way history is taught in senior high school, focusing more on the history of Taiwan over the past 500 years.

While the history of China will be discussed as part of East Asian history, world history will also give more attention to Taiwan's interaction with the rest of the world, the daily said. Up to now, history of China has been taught independent of that of the rest of the world.

Hung Yung-shan (洪詠善), chief of the NAER's Research Center for Curriculum and Instruction, noted that the draft has not been finalized and will be published, probably in July, after it has been reviewed by the Curriculum Research and Development Committee under the academy.

The academy hopes to complete the guidelines by early 2018 and submit them to the Ministry of Education for review, he said.

(By Hsu Chih-wei and Y.F. Low)ENDITEM/J