“No matter how much we spend on cultivating the next generation, it is always worthwhile!” Mayor of Taichung City Lu Shiow-yen who pays great attention to bilingual education has largely increased the budget on bilingual education in primary and secondary schools to hire even more foreign teachers in recent years. Last year (2021), Taichung City’s number of foreign teachers surpassed other regions and became No.1 in the country. This year, this number continues to increase and the city maintains its top position!
The Education Bureau expressed that Taichung City’s bilingual education budget was around NT$29.83 million in 2019. After Mayor Lu took office, she has been dedicated to advancing bilingual education in primary and secondary schools by largely increasing the budget for hiring foreign teachers. In 2020, the City’s bilingual education budget was increased to NT$49.02 million; and, in 2021, the budget was further increased significantly to over 180 million, which was 6 times the 2019 budget. The City’s number of foreign teachers, in the mean while, increased from 25 people in 2019 to 35 people in 2020 and to 102 people in 2021, pushing Taichung City from the last to the first position among six municipalities, and eventually the leader of the country. This year, the City’s number of foreign teachers continues to increase to 126 people, which is five times than the number of 2019, and retains the first in the country.
Director of Education Bureau Yang Chen-sheng pointed out that 213 primary and secondary schools in Taichung City already have foreign teachers; and foreign teachers who have been newly employed this year would start to teach at schools. This will, according to Director Yang, reach the Taichung City’s goals of “having foreign teachers in each of the 29 administrative districts” and “no gap between rural and urban areas”. The teachers with bilingual skills carrying out thematic curriculums (e.g. life curriculum, health and physical education, integrative activities, mathematics, arts and humanities, science and technology, and alternative learning periods) will develop students’ habit and courage of speaking English.
Besides, the Education Bureau also enhanced classroom teachers’ bilingual teaching capabilities by holding the pioneering “Two-Track and Three-Stage Professional Growth Seminar for Teachers”. The seminar, which enables bilingual teachers of primary and secondary schools to further develop their professional capability, is almost always full whenever the registration opens.
Director Yang mentioned that, to create a bilingual environment that enables our children to win at the starting point, the Education Bureau has been promoting “English Around the World Leadership Camp”, “International Life Camp” and other winter and summer holiday camps led by foreign teachers. It also has launched “Taichung English Van” that took foreign teachers to schools in all administrative districts to interact with the children. The third Wednesday of each month has been set as the “Taichung English Day”, and the bilingual education achievement exhibition has been held to showcase the results.