U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative gets off the ground Saturday

Taipei, Jan. 14 (CNA) A United States-Taiwan Education Initiative that was introduced late last year will kick off Jan. 16 with a symposium on Chinese language teaching, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Thursday.

The symposium, co-hosted by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (FSE), will be held at Taipei International Convention Center, Douglas Hsu (徐佑典), head of MOFA's North American Affairs Department, said at a regular press briefing Thursday.

The FSE, also known as Fulbright Taiwan, is one of the 49 bilateral organizations in the world established to manage the U.S.' flagship educational exchange program Fulbright.

Saturday's symposium will be attended by Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), officials from the Ministry of Education and the Overseas Community Affairs Council, and AIT Director Brent Christensen, Hsu said.

The participants are expected to discuss topics such as enhancing bilateral cooperation in education through the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative, Chinese language teaching proficiency certification, and strategies for learning Chinese, Hsu said.

In a press release Thursday, the AIT announced the symposium, saying it is part of the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative, which aims to expand access to Mandarin and English language instruction while safeguarding academic freedom.

"Specifically, the Initiative will highlight and enhance Taiwan's role in providing Mandarin instruction to Americans and to people around the world," the AIT said.

The initiative comes under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on international education cooperation that was signed by the AIT and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the U.S. on Dec. 2, 2020.

On the day of the signing, Taiwan and the U.S. also held a virtual dialogue on education cooperation, with the U.S. represented by Deputy Secretary of Education Mick Zais and Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell, and Taiwan by Deputy Secretary-General of the National Security Council (NSC) Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉).