Tsai Ing-wen visits church-operated Sunflower Academy and shares philosophy on education

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

3106 Edition

September 5-11, 2011

Local Church News

Tsai Ing-wen visits church-operated Sunflower Academy and shares philosophy on 
education 

Reported by Chen Wei-chien

Written by Lydia Ma

On September 1, 2011, presidential candidate and DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen 
visited Chutang Presbyterian Church’s Sunflower Academy to show concern for 
student dropouts enrolled at the academy and support the church’s ministry. The 
visit was also an opportunity for her to get acquainted with local pastors.

The church’s pastor, Rev. Chuang Hsiao-sheng, welcomed Tsai and asked that she 
direct more government agencies to help these children if she were elected 
president in the future.

Chutang Presbyterian Church was flooded by Tsai supporters from Changhua area 
on that day, many of whom had come to get a glimpse of the presidential 
candidate. After a prayer led by Changhua Presbytery Moderator Rev. Li 
Chen-chien, Tsai was presented with a commemorative key by presbytery 
officials, a symbol of hope that she would open up doors of opportunity for 
disadvantaged students. 

Accompanied by Changhua County Magistrate Ong Chin-chu, Chuang gave Tsai a tour 
of the academy and showed her some of the students’ crafts that were displayed. 
Throughout the tour, Tsai asked questions about the school and its curriculum.

After the tour, Tsai said that though she wasn’t a Christian, she attended a 
Presbyterian kindergarten and still remembered the love she experienced there. 
“In the past 100 years, the PCT has contributed significantly to Taiwanese 
society. This is especially true and noticeable in remote areas of Taiwan such 
as Hualien and Taitung.”, she said.

But she also went on to emphasize that, “the government must be the one 
ultimately responsible for education. There are many bright students and many 
struggling students. Governments need to change the way they do education – 
both at the national and local levels.”

Responding in agreement, Chuang underscored that as the world focused on 
training prodigies, “we must point out that education is a human right.” He 
hoped the government would reform structural problems prevalent in Taiwan’s 
educational system soon.

********************

Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Taiwan's local languages. 

You may translate and re-use our articles online only if you acknowledge the 
source as "Taiwan Church News" and list the names of the reporter and writer. 
Contact us before reprinting any of our articles for print publications. 

Direct comments and questions about this article to: enews@pctpress.org

Visit our website for more news at: http://enews.pctpress.org/ (English) or 
http://www.pctpress.org (Chinese) 

********************