News

    On the May-11 plenary interpellation session convened by the Nantou County Council, Councilor Wu Kou-Chang was very concerned with the lunch subsidy in kindergartens. County Magistrate Lin Ming-Chen indicated that currently students from all six grades in elementary schools and all three grades in junior high schools in Nantou County are able to enjoy free lunches with County Government subsidies. To offload some burden off the parents, starting from next academic year, the County Government will spend NT$20 million subsidizing lunches in public kindergartens. A total of 3,087 people from 92 kindergartens will benefit from this subsidy.

    Councilor Wu pointed out that County Magistrate Lin has a long-running concern for students’ lunches. So far only two counties/cities across the nation are providing free lunches, and Nantou is one of them. Presently, junior high school and elementary school students are provided with free lunches, but parents with preschoolers in kindergartens would have to foot the lunch bill themselves. Thanks to County Magistrate Lin who will, Nantou County Government finance permitting, provide lunch subsidies starting from next academic year, this is great uplifting news believed to be great help with raising the birth rate.

    County Magistrate Lin stated that besides providing public kindergartens with free lunches, the County Government will tackle the childcare issue, where working parents are not home to take care of their toddlers aged 2 to 4 who are too young to attend kindergartens, by building childcare centers in Nantou City. The construction work is being planned and subcontracted. The Stage-I engineering cost will be about NT$50 million. The Zhushan Childcare Center planning is now underway, while the County Government is still seeking available county-owned lands in Caotun and Puli. With completion of childcare centers, where little ones will be taken care of, young people can then feel reassured enough to give birth and go out to work.

    Regarding the rising temperatures and increasing numbers of midges, Pan Yi-Chuan, the Council Deputy Speaker, and Councilor Wu Jui-Fang, pointed out that they hoped the County Government would raise the budget for midge prevention and increase the frequency of conducting disinfection. Chen Jui-Ching, director for County Government’s Agriculture Department said that currently for the midge prevention, the County Government has an annual budget of NT$900,000, distributed amongst 13 townships for execution. Most township offices conduct disinfection in summer when midges are rampant. The Central Government is now appealing for less use of environmental agents and advise the general public to work on home environment improvement instead and wear long-sleeved garments as protection when going outdoors.