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MOE in hot water over teacher plan

The Legislative Yuan's Education and Culture Committee was in session yesterday to question Minister of Education Huang Jong-tsun (黃榮村) on the introduction of foreign English teachers into public elementary schools.

The Ministry of Education plans to introduce the first group of 400 foreign English teachers to public elementary schools this August with the Secondary Preparatory Fund (第二預備金) if the Employment Services Act (ESA, 就業服務法) can be amended in time.

Huang said, "The gap between resources available to rural and urban students is huge. We want to introduce foreign English teachers mostly to remote schools, so students in rural areas can have better access to a decent English education and better opportunities to compete with urban students.

"These foreign teachers are going to be a supplementary force in the class. The local teachers are still going to be the main teaching staff, and their foreign counterparts are there to help them with lessons when needed," Huang explained, trying to lessen public fears of foreign workers entering an already bloated job market.

"To become an elementary school English teacher, a foreigner must be a native English speaker under 45 from an English-speaking country, and hold at least a college degree," Huang added.

Meanwhile, the education ministry proposed to sponsor foreign teachers and their families' return plane tickets, give them housing subsidies and pay them more than the local teachers.

Huang expressed his wish for the plan to go ahead in August, if the Legislative Yuan could agree to amend the ESA.

All legislators present at the session were united against backing the plan this summer. They claimed the plan has no legal basis and no budget. They also thought the plan to be untimely, crude and unfair to local teachers.

KMT Legislator Kuo Tien-tsai (郭添財) said, "There are a few major faults with this plan. The time is not right because the unemployment rate is high and there is no law that allows the government to introduce these foreigners into Taiwan."

Kuo further challenged the necessity of rushing this plan through.

"The Secondary Preparatory Fund is meant as a relief means for unexpected emergencies or natural disasters," he said. "This plan should and can wait to be listed on the budget roll for next year. A six-month delay will not cause great damage to our English education."

Kuo also expressed doubts about the foreign teachers' qualifications and their discipline. He said it was not enough that these teachers were native English speakers, but they had to prove their capability in using and teaching the language. Also he called for the education ministry to be responsible for the behavior of the teachers in school.

PFP Legislator Hsu Yuan-kuo (許淵國) pointed out that the ESA only allows private elementary schools to hire foreign teachers and that the ministry cannot start the plan without the ESA being amended.

Hsu also said it was unfair for foreign teachers to be paid more than their local counterparts.

Both DPP Legislator Tsao Chi-hung (曹啟鴻) and TSU Legislator Chen Cheng-lung (程振隆) said that it would be difficult to get foreign teachers willing to teach in remote areas.

Chen added that there is not even enough local teachers in Taiwan, a problem that should be solved before introducing foreign ones into the country.
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