The Ministry of Education is seeking to increase the number of foreign students in Taiwan by 30,000 by 2019 under the government’s “new southbound policy,” Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said.
The ministry has allocated NT$1 billion (US$31.77 million) to work toward three “new southbound policy” goals, Pan said at an Education and Culture Committee policy meeting.
The ministry has set aside NT$770 million to further train people who specialize in trade management and have a comprehensive understanding of Southeast Asian and South Asian cultures and languages, he said.
Taipei would also be used to attract students in the region to Taiwan to pursue higher education or professional education, and to learn Mandarin, he said.
The ministry has allotted NT$61 million for bilateral exchanges on culture and sports, he said.
It has allocated NT$160 million for the “Taiwanese link” initiative and to help higher-education institutions enter into an alliance of academic exchanges.
The initiative aims to deepen the nation’s ties with ASEAN member states and India through the help of ASEAN or Indian organizations or residents who graduated from a Taiwanese institution.
The ministry would help local universities identify students’ needs in the target regions, so that they can design curricula aimed at fostering actual talent rather than working just to meet recruitment goals, Pan said.
The ministry aims to boost the number of foreign students from 28,000 to 58,000 in 2019, Pan said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) urged the ministry to devise job placement programs for foreign students, as other nations have done for Taiwanese studying and working overseas.
The ministry must not allow foreign students do the same work as “caretakers” or stay in dormitories, but it should help them gain useful work experience in Taiwan, he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) said that society is not treating “new residents” with due respect, which can be proved by many new residents opting to educate their children in Mandarin and refraining from teaching their children to learn their mother tongue.
Conversely, the children of Japanese or English-speaking parents tend to speak Japanese and English.
This shows that ethnic Taiwanese tacitly discriminate against new residents and highlights a lack of understanding of new residents, she said.
She said that almost all new residents know Mandarin, but very few ethnic Taiwanese know a Southeastern or South Asian language.
She said the ministry has earmarked a large budget to send Taiwanese students abroad to learn Southeast or South Asian languages, but the problem can be effectively ameliorated by helping new residents gain respect and by promoting their cultures, thus increasing people’s willingness to learn their languages.
Overseas Community Affairs Council Deputy Minister Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said the nation has progressed on its efforts to promote Mandarin education in Myanmar.
Burmese authorities were very sensitive about Mandarin teaching materials printed in Taiwan, Tien said.
However, Burmese society has become more liberal and the first batch of Taiwan-made Mandarin textbooks is scheduled to be adopted by the Burmese government next year, she said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
LUCKY DATE: The man picked the 10th ‘Super Red Envelope’ in a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10 A man who recently broke up with his girlfriend won a NT$1 million (US$32,929) prize in the “NT$20 million Super Red Envelope” lottery after picking a card based on the date of their breakup, Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The man, in his 20s, bought the 10th ticket at a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10, the store owner told the lottery company. The “Super Red Envelope” lottery was a limited offering by the company during the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended yesterday. The cards, which cost NT$2,000 each, came with
TOURISM BOOST: The transportation system could help attract more visitors to the area, as the line is to connect multiple cultural sites, a city councilor said Residents in New Taipei City’s Ankeng District (安坑) said the local light rail system might have a positive influence, but raised questions about its practicality. The Ankeng light rail system, which is to commence operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, would cut travel time for commuters from Ankeng to downtown Taipei or New Taipei City by 15 to 20 minutes, the city government said. According to the initial plan, there would be one train every 15 minutes during peak time and additional interval trains would run between the densely populated Ankang Station (安康) and Shisizhang Station (十 四張). To encourage people to
CHAMPION TREES: The team used light detection and ranging imaging to locate the tree, and found that it measured a height of 84.1m and had a girth of 8.5m A team committed to finding the tallest trees in the nation yesterday said that an 84.1m tall Taiwania cryptomerioides tree had been named the tallest tree in Taiwan and East Asia. The Taiwan Champion Trees, a team consisting of researchers from the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in June last year used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging to find the giant tree, numbered 55214, upstream of the Daan River (大安溪). A 20-member expedition team led by Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, set out to find the
RSS