From next year students in Taiwan will no longer be tested on the thoughts of Dr Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of the republic of China in 1912, in their entrance exams.

A committee of university heads voted by a large majority to abolish the exam. It has been decried by generations of students as a meaningless exercise in memorisation.

The ideology test was put in place by the nationalist government after Chiang Kai-shek's defeated forces fled to Taiwan in 1949. Since then aspiring university students have been tested on Dr Sun Yat-sen's three Principles of the People.

References to them are everywhere in Taiwan, with main streets in the capital Taipei called People's Rights, People's Livelihood and People's Unity.

Political changes

Reflecting the views of the many within the education establishment, the principal of Taiwan's most prestigious university said it had become increasingly difficult for examiners to think of challenging questions.

He said there was a widespread feeling that the exam did not test students' abilities in any meaningful way.

Lee Teng-hui: Pursuing de facto policy of independence

Alongside these reasons, it is also clear that Taiwan's increasingly pluralistic political atmosphere is responsible for the shift.

Since the lifting of martial law in 1987 the governing nationalist party, the KMT, has gradually moved away from its traditional claim to be the rightful government of the whole of China.

President Lee Teng-hui, the first leader to have been born on Taiwan, has increasingly pursued a course of de facto independence, while not speaking out in favour of a formal breakaway for what China regards as a rebel province.

But moves to have all this reflected in the education system remain controversial. The head of one Taipei university called for the abolition of the Sun Yat-sen thought exam to be given more careful consideration.

The education minister has made it clear that while students may be relieved of the tests from next year, the subject will stay on the high school curriculum for the time being at least.