At the Executive Yuan meeting today, the Ministry of Education (MOE) reported on a plan to enhance English-language proficiency among the nation's students. Premier Jiang Yi-huah said improving their English skills is essential to making Taiwan more competitive and internationalized.
The government has already devoted considerable funding and efforts to this area, but Taiwan still has room for improvement as compared with other countries, Premier Jiang said. He asked the ministry to combine the government's limited budget with resources in the private sector to create more opportunities for students to practice their English.
Better teachers are needed in the senior vocational high school system, which appears to be falling behind other school systems, Jiang continued. As a matter of fact, the main goal of the MOE plan is to help students feel more comfortable using English in everyday life rather than prepare them for examinations.
In addition, students in rural and remote areas generally have lower English competency than their urban counterparts, which constitutes an obstacle to promoting balanced regional development and social mobility. Aside from giving more attention to this gap, the MOE should extend successful English programs to more schools so as to enhance the entire nation's language abilities, Jiang added.