The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labor have not finalized rules almost a month after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) ratified an amendment to the Supplementary Education Act (補習進修教育法) requiring foreigners seeking work as language teachers to provide criminal record checks issued by their home nations, putting a strain on teaching staff at private institutes, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) said yesterday.
Chen said that while he fully supports the change to the regulations, the education ministry and lawmakers have neglected the fact that foreigners often have to wait for long periods to obtain criminal record checks from their home nations.
The amendment was proposed after the death of author Lin Yi-han (林奕含), who apparently committed suicide in April after allegedly being abused by a Taiwanese cram-school teacher nine years earlier.
The bureaucratic issue has seriously affected students’ right to learn foreign languages, as it is summer vacation, the time of year when the demand for language courses is at its highest, Chen told a news conference in Taipei.
Since the amendment took effect, 74 applications for work visas from prospective teachers have remained in limbo at the labor ministry, he said.
National Association of Continuing Education of Taiwan, ROC director-general Chiu Chang-chi (邱昌其) said the deadlock in the application procedure has prompted some institutes to provide food and accommodation for foreigners they are seeking to hire, but who are affected by the rule change.
“Some parents who have paid tuition are demanding refunds, but a more serious problem is that cram schools’ reputations have been damaged,” Chiu said.
The ministries should relax the rules by allowing foreigners to sign an affidavit guaranteeing that they have no history of criminal activity in their home nations before granting them a grace period to obtain the documents issued by their governments, he said, adding that in the case of US applicants, it can take up to six months for the FBI to issue such documents.
The ministries should swiftly solve the problem by issuing an explanation of the act, as English-learning is the top-grossing category among courses offered by private institutes, Chiu said.
Department of Lifelong Education Deputy Director Yen Pao-yueh (顏寶月) said that the education ministry is working with the labor ministry to finalize an explanation.
However, Ministry of Labor specialist Su Yu-kuo (蘇裕國) said that it is only responsible for reviewing applications and issuing visas.
It is the department’s duty to provide a legal interpretation, Su said.
Chen asked Yen when the interpretation would be issued, to which Yen replied: “Within a month.”
Chen gave the department a week to solve the problem, as the summer vacation is to finish in just over a month.
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