For foreign teachers looking for work in Taiwan, things are looking up following Thursday's revisions to the Employment Services Law.
Under the revisions, bilingual departments of experimental high schools and bilingual schools, both public and private, are now allowed to hire foreign teachers.
In addition, private elementary schools and junior high schools are now allowed to hire foreign instructors to teach foreign language classes.
Prior to the revisions, only colleges, schools for expatriates and cram schools were allowed to hire foreign teachers.
KMT legislator Daniel Han (
"Many foreign teachers felt angry and deceived to find out that their employers had become a `cram school,' when they had expected to teach in a high school," Han said.
Han said a private junior high school in central Taiwan was sued by a foreign teacher over such an incident.
"The law was simply outdated," Han said. In addition, he said, the changes were badly needed because bilingual teaching is expected to become a trend across the nation.
The Hsin Sheng Elementary School in Taipei, which is set to start recruiting students this year, has been designated as a bilingual school, becoming the first of its kind in the country.
The revisions have also resolved problems faced by the National Experimental High School at the Science-based Industrial Park in Hsinchu.
The school, set up in 1983, is currently the only experimental school in the country. It has a bilingual department in which all subjects are taught in English with the exception of the subject of Chinese. But the school's needs -- to hire foreign teachers -- were not taken into consideration when the Employment Services Law was adopted in 1992 to control the employment of foreigners nationwide.
The school currently has 18 foreign teachers and around 400 students in its bilingual department.
School principal Tai Li-ming (
"Many of our foreign teachers felt insulted because there wasn't a rule in the law books that was applicable to them," Tai said.
In the process of making the revisions, some lawmakers had originally intended to change the law to allow all schools to hire foreign teachers to improve their foreign language teaching, but the Ministry of Education believed the proposal was inappropriate because of its potential impact on local teachers.
It was finally decided that only private elementary schools and junior high schools should be allowed to hire foreign teachers to teach their foreign language courses.
At present, there are only 22 private elementary schools and nine junior high schools across the country, while there are around 2,250 public elementary schools.
English will become a required subject in elementary schools nationwide starting in 2001, and the ministry is currently training about 3,500 local teachers to meet hiring needs.
Wu Ming-ching (
In principle, Wu said, foreign teachers should have an education background equivalent to local teachers' backgrounds, and the ministry may also require them to have a diploma in Teaching English as a Second Language.
"Foreign teachers that are hired should be able to teach better than local teachers," Wu said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)