The Ministry of Education yesterday reiterated that it will ban kindergartens from offering full-time English courses and crack down on institutions registered as cram schools but advertising themselves as bilingual kindergartens.
Since Minister of Education Huang Jong-tsun (黃榮村) announced the new policy on Sunday, more than 2,500 kindergartens and many parents have voiced their opposition, telling the ministry that the policy defied reality.
According to the new policy, kindergartens across the country will be banned from offering full-time English courses to preschoolers and from hiring foreigners to teach English.
The new policy also regulates that only Chinese and other local languages, such as Hakka or Minnan, also known as Hoklo, can be taught in kindergartens.
The ministry also told schools with short-term cram-school licenses that it would no longer tolerate them advertising as bilingual kindergartens.
It said it would give such schools until July to change their signs and names, although it said nothing about stopping institutions with such licenses from operating as kindergartens.
Schools that violate the new policy could be prevented from enrolling new students or have their licenses revoked.
Wu Tsai-shung (
The ministry will still allow kindergartens to teach English in "an integrated course," which means that instructors can use English to teach kids about other countries' festivals by learning English songs, Wu said.
"The ministry aims to ban illegal cram schools and unregistered kindergartens. We don't mean to ban English teaching totally," Wu said.
Wu said preschoolers should learn their mother tongue before a second language, thereby helping them to develop a sound body and mind.
He said the ministry would educate kindergartens and parents about the new policy in the next six months, after which they would take action against institutions continuing to break the law.
Taipei City Government's Bureau of Education began clamping down on illegal kindergartens on Feb. 1 and said it would continue its efforts, which were ordered by Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) last year.
A preschool owner, Shen Ming-hsien (
"If the preschool does not offer English courses, I am afraid that we don't have to wait until the ministry's ban. We will have to close our businesses first," Shen said.
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