The Ministry of Education will start recruiting foreign teachers from English-speaking countries next month to teach English in Taiwan's public elementary and secondary schools, Deputy Minister of Education Fan Sun-lu (范巽綠) said yesterday.
Under the ministry's plan, the goal is to have at least 1,000 foreign teachers ready for the school year starting in August.
"The teaching program is being introduced in accordance with the implementation of the government's six-year national development plan -- Challenge 2008," said Fan. "Through this program, we wish to build a bridge from Taiwan to the world and boost Taiwan's competitiveness as Taiwan youngsters boost their English proficiency."
Under the Employment Services Act (就業服務法), public schools are prohibited from hiring foreign nationals as teachers. However, as consensus among legislators builds with regard to allowing foreign nationals to teach at public schools, recruitment will be able to start as early as next month, once the law is amended.
Aside from teaching students at schools, another function of foreign teachers will be to help train Taiwan's English teachers.
Fan added that, in a long run, the ministry wishes to hire 1,000 foreign teachers every year and to realize Premier Yu Shyi-kun's expectation to have at least one foreign English teacher in each of Taiwan's 3,300 elementary and secondary schools.
Yu suggested last year that English should become Taiwan's second official language.
Fan said that the ministry has notified foreign representative offices in Taiwan, including those of Britain, the US, Canada and Australia, of the ministry's plan and has asked them to help in recruiting teachers from their countries.
According to the ministry's plan, prospective foreign teachers must be under 45 and come from an English-speaking country with English as their mother tongue.
They must have a college degree in a linguistics-related fields, be proficient in basic Mandarin Chinese and have no record of drug abuse. Previous teaching experience is recommended.
Each foreign teacher will be paid NT$60,000 to NT$90,000 (US$1,800 to US$2,700) a month, which is about double the wage of Taiwan's English teachers.
Fan said a comparatively higher salary will be offered in order to attract competent teachers.
Prior to starting formal teaching in August, qualified teachers will have to undertake two weeks of training after arriving Taiwan to familiarize themselves with Taiwan's culture and educational arena.
"This teaching program holds multiple purposes," said Fan. "Aside from helping to upgrade English teaching quality, materials and curriculums in Taiwanese schools and make up for Taiwan's teacher shortage, these foreign teachers can also help broaden students' global view."
According to Fan, Japan started a similar program in 1978, South Korea in 1995 and Hong Kong in 1997. "Taiwan must do so too in order to catch up with the trend and to remain competitive with our neighboring countries," she said.
Despite the ministry's assurance that the program will not jeopardize the teaching opportunities of Taiwan-born English teachers, the program, however, has not been well-received by some Taiwanese English teachers.
Ho Hsin-yu (
Chang Hsiao-tzu (
"Just because English is their first language, it does not necessarily mean that they know how to teach English," she said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS