The Ministry of Education should expand its definition for employment purposes of “native English speaker,” currently limited to those educated in several Western countries, plus a couple of others (South Africa, Australia and New Zealand).
The policy is unfair in that it excludes qualified persons from other English-speaking countries, such as the Anglophone Caribbean nations. In such countries, schoolchildren are taught in English and it is the language they learn from their parents — how can these countries not be considered “native English speaking?”
The ministry’s policy is discriminatory, restricted as it is to the mainly white Western nations and excluding largely black populations in the Caribbean, for example. The policy thus contradicts Taiwan’s democratic principles and works against its efforts to win friends in the international community. Finally, it unnecessarily restricts the pool of qualified candidates from which educational institutions may hire teachers.
David Cupples
Tamsui
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