To Establish Guidelines for Facilitating Character and/or Moral Education Programs, and to Cultivate Character and/or Moral Culture in the Republic of China (Taiwan)
According to Article 2 of the Educational Fundamental Act, the purposes of education are to cultivate modern citizens with a sense of national identity and international perspectives by fostering the development of a wholesome personality, democratic literacy, ideas of rule of law, and humanitarian virtues; and to enhance respect for basic human rights, including both understanding and respecting different cultures.
In order to foster the atmosphere of character and/or moral education in schools, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced the Guidelines for Facilitating Character and/or Moral Education Programs in 2004. To correspond with social development and in combination with the meaning of the Curriculum Guidelines of 12-Year Basic Education and the needs of the teaching environment, the MOE announced a revised program on June 12, 2019: primary, junior, and senior high schools were to be guided in utilizing the methods of coherence, integration and topic incorporation to complete the instructional design and implement this in various fields/subject courses; colleges and universities were encouraged to utilize the methods of cross-educational levels cooperation, to work together with communities, private organizations and the schools’ local counties and local cities to fulfill university social responsibilities and implement the concepts of taking the initiative, engaging in interaction, and seeking the common good.
Meanwhile, the MOE has encouraged schools at all levels to integrate core values of morality in accordance with the concepts of this project, including Respect for Life, Filial Piety, Fraternal Duty, Benevolence and Love, Honesty and Credibility, Self- discipline and Responsibility, Humility and Tolerance, Appreciation and Gratitude, Caring and Beneficence, Fairness and Justice, and Uprightness and Self-restraint. Through the integration of resources, the depth and breadth of the implementation of character and/or moral education will be enhanced and will cultivate students with humanistic literacy, professional skills, the ability to make a living and diverse soft power. Nurturing citizens with literacies of modern citizenship including character and/or morality, civil literacy, knowing gratitude, knowledge of the rule of law, uprightness, and respect for human rights thus intensely cultivates character and/or moral culture in the Republic of China (Taiwan).