The Ministry of Education is seeking to increase the number of foreign students in Taiwan by 30,000 by 2019 under the government’s “new southbound policy,” Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said.
The ministry has allocated NT$1 billion (US$31.77 million) to work toward three “new southbound policy” goals, Pan said at an Education and Culture Committee policy meeting.
The ministry has set aside NT$770 million to further train people who specialize in trade management and have a comprehensive understanding of Southeast Asian and South Asian cultures and languages, he said.
Taipei would also be used to attract students in the region to Taiwan to pursue higher education or professional education, and to learn Mandarin, he said.
The ministry has allotted NT$61 million for bilateral exchanges on culture and sports, he said.
It has allocated NT$160 million for the “Taiwanese link” initiative and to help higher-education institutions enter into an alliance of academic exchanges.
The initiative aims to deepen the nation’s ties with ASEAN member states and India through the help of ASEAN or Indian organizations or residents who graduated from a Taiwanese institution.
The ministry would help local universities identify students’ needs in the target regions, so that they can design curricula aimed at fostering actual talent rather than working just to meet recruitment goals, Pan said.
The ministry aims to boost the number of foreign students from 28,000 to 58,000 in 2019, Pan said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) urged the ministry to devise job placement programs for foreign students, as other nations have done for Taiwanese studying and working overseas.
The ministry must not allow foreign students do the same work as “caretakers” or stay in dormitories, but it should help them gain useful work experience in Taiwan, he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) said that society is not treating “new residents” with due respect, which can be proved by many new residents opting to educate their children in Mandarin and refraining from teaching their children to learn their mother tongue.
Conversely, the children of Japanese or English-speaking parents tend to speak Japanese and English.
This shows that ethnic Taiwanese tacitly discriminate against new residents and highlights a lack of understanding of new residents, she said.
She said that almost all new residents know Mandarin, but very few ethnic Taiwanese know a Southeastern or South Asian language.
She said the ministry has earmarked a large budget to send Taiwanese students abroad to learn Southeast or South Asian languages, but the problem can be effectively ameliorated by helping new residents gain respect and by promoting their cultures, thus increasing people’s willingness to learn their languages.
Overseas Community Affairs Council Deputy Minister Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said the nation has progressed on its efforts to promote Mandarin education in Myanmar.
Burmese authorities were very sensitive about Mandarin teaching materials printed in Taiwan, Tien said.
However, Burmese society has become more liberal and the first batch of Taiwan-made Mandarin textbooks is scheduled to be adopted by the Burmese government next year, she said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS