The government has expanded its Foreign English Teacher (FET) recruitment program to include for the first time Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in the Caribbean.
It is first time since the start of the government-sponsored recruitment program in 2005 that it has been opened to another country outside a core group of six — the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Under the Ministry of Education project, certified teachers from those countries are recruited, in collaboration with local governments, to teach English at public schools in rural areas of Taiwan at the elementary and junior-high school level.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, an English-speaking island country in the eastern Caribbean, made a proactive effort to gain participation in the program and has been included this year on a trial basis after a comprehensive review of its teacher training and certification system, the ministry said.
“Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has a rigorous teacher training program,” a ministry official said.
“After a review, it was determined the country’s training system was similar to Taiwan’s,” the official added.
The expansion of the program to a seventh English-speaking country is also in keeping with the ministry’s goal of developing “a more diverse learning environment for Taiwan students,” the official said.
The first recruit from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, La Toya Williams, has already arrived in Taiwan and has completed a one-week orientation program in Taipei for some of the 80-plus teachers that the ministry sponsors each year under the program.
This month, Williams is to begin a one-year contract, which is to include a three-month probationary period, at Dahu Junior High School in Miaoli County.
Williams, 38, has more than 15 years of experience as a teacher and holds a teaching certificate from the Saint Vincent and Grenadines Teachers’ Training College, a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in technology-oriented learning from the University of Guadalajara in Mexico.
“Taiwan was not even on my radar,” she said. “I was informed about the FET program by a close friend who knows my passion for teaching and love for travel. I thought about it for only a few minutes before deciding to go for it.”
Her selection to the program came after much discussion between the two nations, which have had diplomatic relations for 35 years.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines approached my embassy one day with an initiative to send teachers to teach English in Taiwan,” Baushuan Ger (葛葆宣), Taiwan’s ambassador to the island nation, was quoted recently as saying in a report by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines-based iWitness News. “I am very happy that in Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Labor have all given very positive responses to my embassy’s recommendation.”
In its efforts to deepen its relations with Taipei, Kingstown is hoping that Williams’ inclusion in the program is just the start of many such exchanges that could be beneficial to both nations, according to Vincentian Minister of Education, National Reconciliation and Ecclesiastical Affairs St Clair Prince.
“It serves as a token of our attempt to give back to a friend who has given so much to [Saint Vincent and the Grenadines], especially in the area of education,” Prince said in an e-mail interview with Central News Agency.
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