The Ministry of Education has earmarked NT$3.61 billion (US$124 million) for bilingual education in all grades before college nationwide over the next two years, with funding sourced from the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, it said yesterday.
The K-12 Education Administration’s budget for next year and 2022 would take up NT$2.47 billion of the existing budget, the ministry said.
The ministry would push for classes to be taught in English, subsidize select subjects for bilingual instruction, and encourage junior colleges and vocational high schools to offer courses to help students improve their English-language skills, Deputy Minister of Education Tsai Ching-hwa (蔡清華) said.
The program is stepping up support for disadvantaged students in rural areas, while also working to increase teachers’ fluency and grasp of English by allocating funds for short-term study abroad programs, Tsai said.
Experts and education groups agree that an effort to make Taiwan a bilingual nation is the right move, but the ball is in the ministry’s court, and it would decide how to effectively implement the policy, he said.
National Chung Hsing University professor Wuu Dong-sing (武東星) said that gradually increasing the number of classes fully taught in English would help Taiwan attract foreign students, adding that this would address the declining number of students pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees in the nation.
This would also help the government meet its deadline to make Taiwan a bilingual nation by 2030, he added.
If a third of elementary-school classes need to be taught in English, then at least half of universities’ courses would need to switch language tracks so that students could benefit, Chihlee University of Technology professor Chen Chao-ming (陳超明) said.
While some universities say they have already been teaching courses entirely in English, it is not necessarily true, he said
The only way to ensure every university is following the policy is to introduce a third-party certification process, he added.
Should the ministry’s policy go forward, the learning gap between rural and urban areas must be addressed, as this policy threatens to widen that disparity, Principals’ Association president Chang Hsin-wu (張信務) said.
How bilingual teachers are prepared, what materials they use and in what environment they are teaching are all critical to the success of the policy, he said.
The ministry is on the right track in promoting English speaking and comprehension practices, National Federation of Teachers’ Unions president Hou Chun-liang (侯俊良) said.
However, pushing for courses to be taught entirely in English at all levels of education before university could affect a student’s will to learn English or the subject matter it is being taught in, Hou added.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
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