In 2017, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) set a goal to turn Taiwan into a bilingual nation by 2030. The policy has been criticized by teachers’ groups, who called for the policy’s termination, as many students had difficulty understanding the teacher’s explanation in English. Consequently, teachers would first teach in English, then repeat lessons in Chinese, which has doubled their workload.
The National Federation of Teachers’ Unions and other groups have found issues with the policy and appealed to the Ministry of Education (MOE).
However, the MOE refused to directly address the issues brought to their attention in its reply on July 14. The four presidential candidates have also failed to answer whether there would be a continuation or termination of the bilingual program in primary and secondary schools.
People with a fair amount of knowledge of the educational system would understand the impracticalities of English-only instruction at primary and secondary schools. It is hard to fathom why the MOE did not conduct the simple experiment of asking a teacher to explain basic mathematics to classrooms in English before pushing for the policy. After this experiment, officials would have realized how unrealistic it is to provide English-only instruction at primary and secondary schools.
The government needs to be aware that primary and secondary-school students rely heavily on textbooks; listening to teachers and taking notes does not benefit their education. For example, students would not be able to learn fractions properly without doing textbook exercises. The government should provide primary-school students with English editions of textbooks if they wish to implement an English-only learning environment.
However, even if students receive English textbooks, should their education be focused on English or math? While an English textbook containing a lot of vocabulary is to be expected, there is understandable doubt as to whether there are enough officials in the MOE capable of writing a primary-school math textbook in English.
In the 1990s, Taiwan once adopted reform mathematics as a new curriculum. The approach was dropped as results showed huge drops in students’ math performance, and it became one of the most controversial policies in the reform scheme. Educational reform should not turn schools into labs and students into lab rats, as bad policies could harm children’s education, even beyond school years.
The government’s intention to continue promoting bilingual education in primary and secondary schools is baffling. Perhaps it believes this policy can improve the students’ performance in physical education, music, history or Chinese, or boost their English proficiency.
Yet, anybody with some common sense would know that this could not be achieved with the bilingual policy.
Any respectable company launching new technology would not do so without first running tests. The company’s engineers would first do them to ensure that the technology works before publicly releasing it. When the MOE is pushing for an education policy, did it conduct trials like a technology company before launching the program?
MOE officials should take a page from technology companies and analyze how they put new technologies on the market. Any new technology is not introduced on the whims or preference of a high-ranking supervisor without prior experiments or tests.
The government’s bilingual policy is absurd. The government should terminate it immediately so that no more students become lab rats and sacrifice their learning experience to a bad policy.
Lee Chia-tung is an honorary professor at National Tsing Hua University.
Translated by Rita Wang
Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on April 9 said that the first group of Indian workers could arrive as early as this year as part of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India and the India Taipei Association. Signed in February 2024, the MOU stipulates that Taipei would decide the number of migrant workers and which industries would employ them, while New Delhi would manage recruitment and training. Employment would be governed by the laws of both countries. Months after its signing, the two sides agreed that 1,000 migrant workers from India would
In recent weeks, Taiwan has witnessed a surge of public anxiety over the possible introduction of Indian migrant workers. What began as a policy signal from the Ministry of Labor quickly escalated into a broader controversy. Petitions gathered thousands of signatures within days, political figures issued strong warnings, and social media became saturated with concerns about public safety and social stability. At first glance, this appears to be a straightforward policy question: Should Taiwan introduce Indian migrant workers or not? However, this framing is misleading. The current debate is not fundamentally about India. It is about Taiwan’s labor system, its
On March 31, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs released declassified diplomatic records from 1995 that drew wide domestic media attention. One revelation stood out: North Korea had once raised the possibility of diplomatic relations with Taiwan. In a meeting with visiting Chinese officials in May 1995, as then-Chinese president Jiang Zemin (江澤民) prepared for a visit to South Korea, North Korean officials objected to Beijing’s growing ties with Seoul and raised Taiwan directly. According to the newly released records, North Korean officials asked why Pyongyang should refrain from developing relations with Taiwan while China and South Korea were expanding high-level
Japan’s imminent easing of arms export rules has sparked strong interest from Warsaw to Manila, Reuters reporting found, as US President Donald Trump wavers on security commitments to allies, and the wars in Iran and Ukraine strain US weapons supplies. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling party approved the changes this week as she tries to invigorate the pacifist country’s military industrial base. Her government would formally adopt the new rules as soon as this month, three Japanese government officials told Reuters. Despite largely isolating itself from global arms markets since World War II, Japan spends enough on its own
RSS