wfn.org | Taiwan Church News: Funding promoting Taiwanese slashed from government budget

["Lydia Ma" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>Taiwan Church News

>2971 Edition

>February 2~8, 2009

Funding promoting Taiwanese slashed from government budget

>Reported by Chiou Kuo-rong

>Written by Lydia Ma

According to National Taiwan Normal University Graduate Institute of  Taiwan Culture, Languages, and Literature Professor Li Khin-huan, the  national legislature’s decision to slash budget allocated toward  promoting Taiwanese was purely a politically motivated gesture to  undermine Taiwanese culture and education. Li believes it is  unacceptable that the government is slashing $40 million NTD  (approximately $1.2 million USD) allocated to promoting Taiwanese and  Taiwanese certification programs when it could have trimmed spending on  other expensive programs.

Li points out that Hakka and aboriginal languages all have public  certification programs, while Taiwanese remains the only national  language without a certification program to this date. This is a  humiliating phenomenon when Taiwanese is the most spoken national  language in Taiwan for most Taiwanese. The lack of certification and  testing also discourages students from taking seriously the mastery of  Taiwanese when it is taught in schools.

The lack of certification has a negative effect on the development and  promotion of Taiwanese education, language, and culture across the  country, prompting Li to claim that using political power to slash  funding used to promote Taiwanese is an ideology-driven political  calculation and totally unacceptable.

According to reports, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Taiwanese  Language Testing Center was ready to begin tests and issue  certifications beginning this year. However, when Nationalist (KMT)  legislator Hung Hsiu-chu proposed that the legislature slash all funding  allocated to certification programs for Taiwanese, the center was forced  to post-pone public certification programs open to the public. It is  unclear when a budget allowing the program to resume will be passed,  said a testing center employee.

According to Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) Ethnic Languages  Committee Chair Pastor Guo Yan-bo, the fact that a KMT controlled  legislature would agree to withdraw funding for Taiwanese certification  was completely predictable and she could see it coming. “This is an  abnormal country producing an abnormal legislature,” she said,  adding that the fact that an important cultural program costing a mere  $40 million NTD would be slashed is a clear indication of a politically  motivated gesture.

Whether local churches within the PCT will lead the public in promoting  Taiwanese and raising awareness remains to be seen, but Guo is not  optimistic that it will happen. She points out that while more and more  people in Taiwan are showing increased enthusiasm and interest in  Taiwanese, the trend is going in the opposite direction within PCT  churches with each passing day. “I am pessimistic when it comes to  the church’s attitude toward preserving Taiwanese, but optimistic  when it comes to the general society’s attitude,” said Guo.

The slashing of funds toward certification of Taiwanese is alarming to  those supporting another certification program designed to train and  support individuals to teach aboriginal languages in public schools. One  supporter criticized the Ma administration for bungling aboriginal  language programs at elementary schools through accumulated back pay for  teachers spanning over a period of more than six months, or since the  time the government took office.

According to reports, teachers who taught aboriginal languages have not  been paid for several months, bringing aboriginal programs and language  classes to a halt in elementary schools across the nation.

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