The National Development Council yesterday proposed eight major policies to Premier William Lai (賴清德) in a plan outlining how to turn Taiwan into a Chinese-English bilingual country by the year 2030 to embrace global competition.
The plan, which the council delivered to the premier in a report, would devise key performance indicators for evaluating the effectiveness of the policies in a year.
The eight major policies are: making all official government Web sites bilingual, making official documents used by foreigners bilingual, providing bilingual frontline services in public settings, making the government’s public data available in English, making laws and regulations that pertain to foreigners bilingual, promoting bilingual services in cultural and educational settings, training civil servants to conduct business in English, and making professional and technical licensure exams available in English.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
An online English database should be created within three months, and within a year, laws and regulations related to education should be amended, the council said.
Within a year, more than 50 percent of official documents and licensure exams used by foreigners should be made available in English, 60 percent of frontline public services should be available in English, and 70 percent of the laws and regulations that pertain to foreigners should be available in English, it added.
Lai in September instructed the council to spearhead a plan to make Taiwan a bilingual nation by 2030, in response to globalization, and to improve the nation’s proficiency and competitiveness in English.
While previous policies have focused on national English proficiency exams, the council’s plan seeks to raise the nation’s overall competitiveness, sources quoted Lai as saying yesterday, adding that the policy aims to motivate the entire nation to learn English.
The council is expected to present the plan to the Executive Yuan tomorrow.
Laws must be amended to establish a flexible and innovative way in which students can learn English, the council said, adding that regulations in the Primary and Junior High School Act (國民教育法), the Senior High School Education Act (高級中等教育法) and the Private School Act (私立學校法) might need to be relaxed.
Lai said that education is the most important task in the plan, and he has instructed the Ministry of Education to propose draft amendments to the regulations within three months.
The council’s plan suggests incorporating digital technology, such as livestreaming, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and other resources to create opportunities for personalized learning accessible to everyone.
The plan’s goals include having English classes at elementary and junior-high schools taught only in English and pushing for some subjects in elementary and junior-high schools, and all skill-based courses at vocational high schools, to be taught in English.
While the council would oversee the plan, it would be an effort across departments.
The deputy directors of participating government agencies would form a committee to promote bilingualism and execute the strategies.
Local governments would implement the plan based on the unique characteristics of their city or county.
Hsu Sung-ken (許松根), a former national policy adviser and a professor of industrial economics at Tamkang University, said he supports the policy, adding that the government should set the goal of having English as “a communication tool for the next generation.”
As a trade-oriented economy, Taiwan can use English as an important means for connecting with the international community, Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute (元大寶華綜經院) president Liang Kuo-yuan (梁國源) said.
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his
‘SOVEREIGN AI’: As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for having computing power of 103 petaflops. The governments wants to achieve 1,200 by 2029 The government would intensify efforts to bolster its “Sovereign Artificial Intelligence [AI]” program by setting a goal of elevating the nation’s collective computing power in the public and private sectors to 1,200 peta floating points per second (petaflops) by 2029, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The goal was set to fulfill President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision of turning Taiwan into an “AI island.” Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks. One petaflop allows 1 trillion calculations per second. As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for
STAY WARM: Sixty-three nontraumatic incidents of OHCA were reported on Feb. 1, the most for a single day this year, the National Fire Agency said A total of 415 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurred this month as of Saturday, data from the National Fire Agency showed as doctors advised people to stay warm amid cold weather, particularly people with cardiovascular disease. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a low temperature warning nationwide except for Penghu County, anticipating sustained lows of 10°C or a dip to below 6°C in Nantou, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as areas north of Yunlin County. The coldest temperature recorded in flat areas of Taiwan proper yesterday morning was 6.4°C in New Taipei City’s Shiding District (石碇). Sixty-three nontraumatic OHCA
RSS