MOE planning to expand recruitment of English teachers

Taipei, July 27 (CNA) The Ministry of Education (MOE) plans to hire more native-speaking English teachers for public high schools across Taiwan as part of government efforts to strengthen the English skills of students and sharpen the country's competitiveness.

In a statement, the MOE said it plans to hire 300 English teachers on a contract basis per year, up from the current 80 per year, under a Foreign English Teacher Recruitment Project that has been in place for six years.

According to the MOE's K-12 Education Administration, a growing number of schools are interested in taking part in the English teacher hiring program because of the positive response it has received.

The MOE has commissioned the National Experimental High School in the Hsinchu Science Park to give guidance to schools interested in recruiting foreign English teachers and meet with their students to gain an understanding of their needs, the administration said.

One school that has already seen positive results from the program, according to the administration, is National Pingtung Senior High School.

Foreign teachers at the school have been successful in boosting students' willingness to learn English by mixing their teaching with personal participation in cultural events, it said.

Students have also reacted positively to the teaching methods of their foreign teachers and said being able to practice English in their everyday lives has emboldened them to speak the language.

Education Minister Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said recently his ministry is poised to do more to turn Taiwan into a bilingual country, and plans to increase its annual budget in the field 10-fold to NT$2 billion in 2021.

The renewed push for bilingual education in Taiwan was outlined in the Blueprint for Developing Taiwan into a Bilingual Nation by 2030, approved by the Executive Yuan in 2018. It calls for improving the English proficiency of Taiwanese to make the country more competitive.