In a bid to improve Taiwan's chances of assimilating into the international community, Deputy Minister of Education Fan Sun-lu (范巽綠) yesterday said that anyone applying for a job at the government's foreign affairs offices should be able to communicate in English. This echoes a Cabinet order that government workers who can't speak good English six years from now must be punished.
Fan made the remark yesterday in a report to a seminar on the Cabinet's proposed national development plan.
He said that current foreign-affairs office workers must be encouraged to improve their English abilities.
In addition, being proficient in English should be a basic requirement for people who want to work in departments such as Taiwan's diplomatic offices, the Council for Economic Planning and Development and the National Science Council.
"We'll definitely need more staffers who can speak at least two languages in the future because the country is diligently trying to be accepted by the international community," Fan said.
"It is necessary to make it a basic requirement for government jobs, at least. We should start at foreign affairs offices."
Fan also encouraged universities to make English proficiency a graduation requirement.
"If professors speak English in class, it will create an English environment for students and make them feel comfortable to use English more and more," she said.
"The ability to use English well should also be a paramount issue when deciding whether students are qualified to receive their degrees," she added.
The Ministry of Education's (MOE) Public Education Department Second Section Chief Lin Dian-chieh (林殿傑) said on Wednesday that government employees will be administratively punished if they are not able to communicate in English six years from now.
According to Lin, the Cabinet gave a direct order to the MOE to carry out a plan which calls for government staffers who cannot communicate in English within six years to be given an "F" symbol on their annual evaluation forms, which will negatively affect their promotions and salaries.
Minister of Education Huang Jung-tsun (
However, he also said that the plan is not the best way to "encourage" government staffers to improve their English.
"Personally, I thought that we should create an end-goal and encourage everybody to reach that goal instead of forcing people to make it by punishing them," Huang said. "That is not the essence of education."
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS