Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday said the city government would increase the number of English classes at public elementary schools to raise the English ability of the students.
The city government planned to increase the number of English classes to three to five per week.
“Three to five English classes per week are proper for learning a foreign language. We will revise the English curriculum for elementary schools based on this plan,” Hau said yesterday after attending an English interactive teaching demonstration at Taipei Wenhua Elementary School.
Elementary school students nationwide start English classes in the third grade, with two classes per week.
In Taipei City and Hsinchu, students begin the classes as early as first grade.
Hau made the remarks after the Ministry of Education rejected the Taipei County Government’s plan to add three English classes a week for elementary-school students starting in September.
Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi (吳清基) said on Friday that the teaching hours for English in the plan exceeded those stipulated in curriculum guidelines.
The Taipei County Teachers Association also opposed the plan and announced it would take to the streets to protest the proposed curriculum, arguing that the increase of English classes would overburden students and affect their performance in other subjects.
Hau declined to discuss the ministry’s rejection of the county government’s plan, but said the city’s Department of Education allowed Wenhua Elementary School to have five English classes a week as an experiment, and students’ English skills were greatly improved as a result.
The city government will follow the school’s example and increase the number of English classes at other elementary schools in the future, he added.
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