Taipei City is studying the possibility of allowing preschools to hire foreign teachers in a bid to make them more competitive with bushibans (
The decision was made yesterday by Kang Tzong-huu (
"Considering the demand for English education and English teachers, we think that it's important to liberalize the recruitment of foreign teachers, especially at kindergartens and nursery schools," Kang said.
"We may also make suggestions to the central government to see whether it's possible to revise existing laws governing the setting up of preschools."
Currently, the city's kindergartens (for children aged four to six) follow the Preschool Education Law (幼稚教育法) while bushibans are meant to abide by the Supplementary Education Law (補習教育法).
Both of them are under the jurisdiction of the education bureau.
The city's nursery schools (for children aged two to six), however, follow the Children's Welfare Law (兒童福利法) and are under the authority of the Bureau of Social Affairs (社會局).
The New Party's Lee yesterday alleged that bushibans are entitled to privileges that neither kindergartens nor nursery schools can enjoy, including the hiring of foreign teachers.
"It's just not fair that the bushibans can recruit English teachers and not abide by the rules set by the education bureau, while kindergartens and nursery schools have to," he said.
Because of the privileges, Lee said, kindergartens and nursery schools lose a large number of potential customers.
Kang, however, denied Lee's accusation.
"The bottom line is that an English bushiban can offer only English courses, regardless of the age of the students. If it offers something other than the business it originally registered as, such as childcare, then it violates the Supplementary Education Law," he said.
According to the law, registered bushibans found running unauthorized preschools have to stop operation within a certain period of time, depending on the seriousness of the situation.
Second offenders have to stop recruiting new students within a certain period of time, again depending on the seriousness of the situation. Third offenders face having their licenses revoked for one year.
Unauthorized bushibans found running preschools face fines of between NT$50,000 and NT$250,000 if they are not officially registered.
Shih Yu-ling (
"We've teamed up with the education bureau to study the possibility, but we may not come to a final conclusion until late next year," she said.
The city currently has about 1,000 nursery schools and 600 kindergartens.
Lu Chao-ping (呂兆萍), president of the Taipei Nursery School Association (台北市托兒協會), said the city should speed up the process of liberalizing the recruitment of English teachers, both Taiwanese and native speakers.
"We'd like to see both native speakers and Taiwanese teachers, who possess English ability but don't have a teacher's certificate, to be able to teach," she said.
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