Incoming Cabinet spokesperson Tung Chen-yuan is calling on the education ministry to abolish its history curriculum guidelines immediately. Tung was speaking Saturday.
Tung is set to take office on May 20th after his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) takes the reins from the KMT.
He was responding to calls by a group of students for the DPP to keep its pledges to remove the guidelines after it takes power and create legal procedures for mapping out future guidelines.
At a press conference held in front of the DPP’s headquarters Saturday, students also threatened to hold a rally during the summer if the party does not take steps towards following through with these pledges.
There has been tremendous controversy over the guidelines approved by President Ma Ying-jeou’s KMT administration in 2014. The most contentious issues center around the teaching of Taiwanese history. Incoming education minister Pan Wen-chung has accused the current education ministry of “lacking a sense of procedural justice and professionalism” when it adjusted the history curriculum guidelines.