A senior's response to a civic midterm question at Kaohsiung's Gangshan High School erupted into controversy across Taiwan.
At one point in the response, the student used the title of "The Republic of China," where the question had requested the wording of "Taiwan." The phrasing was later circled in red by the teacher and not scored.
"How does writing the formal name of our own country result in losing points?" thestudent asked in a post onThreads. In the post, theyasserted that "Taiwan" and "The Republic of China" refer to the same political entity and should both be accepted in any response, comparing the situation to using"U.S." to refer to"TheUnited States of America."
The news sparked much public discourse online. Some netizens criticized the student for "overcomplicating the issue," others supported their use of Taiwan's official name, while still otherscriticized the teacher fornitpicking and the education system for "forcefully instilling ideology."
School Clarifies
The high school clarified on Wednesday that the student's retelling of events was not the whole story.
The controversial midterm question containeda chart listing "Taiwan" amongst various other countries' names as the standard answer to a question. While the teacher did circle the student's nonstandard response of"The Republic of China" as potentially incorrect, they deferred any final decision on scoring.
Because midterm scores impactseniors' classrankings and university applications, teachers only make preliminary markings and bring unique answers to departmental meetings for discussion to avoid any unfair influence of individual bias, the schoolemphasized.The civics teacher ultimately agreed that "Republic of China" would be counted as correct.
The school reminded students to follow the rules when answering questions in a formal exam, and alsoadmitted that the instructions and responses to the question could have been better formatted. It promised to review questions more carefully to prevent similar controversies in the future. （Related： DPP Nominates Candidates for New Taipei and Miaoli Mayoral Elections ｜ Latest ）
