US-Taiwan Education Initiative
The new US-Taiwan Education Initiative has been launched to support cooperation and increase access to Mandarin and English language education.
The initiative has been set due to two related reasons, one being the closing of Confucius Institutes that created partnerships between colleges and universities in China and colleges and universities in other countries and the increased commitment to English education in Taiwan.
The reason for universities closing institutes, including many in the US, has been their connection with the censorship and malign involvement interference in campaigns by China. Supporters of CI programs claim that the work of institutes has been misunderstood and instead of seeing the program an exchange of language and culture they are seen as inappropriately political.
The later reason for the initiative is the aim of Taiwanese government to make the country completely bilingual by 2030. It would allow the population to access more options for English language education and gain experience abroad.
The director William Brent Christense of American Institute in Taiwan, said that Taiwan can play an important role in addressing the interest in Mandarin language learning that is still strong despite the CIs closures and at the same time the US is opened to helping to provide English language education.
As the relationship between the US and China has been disrupted, the US tighten its relationship with Taiwan. Recently the countries signed an agreement promoting cooperation in fields such as health, tech and security, while there are still continuous talks about the expansion of a military partnership.
The agreement also promotes Taiwan’s Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language instead of China’s Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi test. 4,305 candidates were taking the former one worldwide in 2017, compared to 6.5 million taking the HSK.
One of the projects of this cooperation will also be pursued Scholarship Programme for US students learning languages offering them funding and stipends for studying Mandarin in Taiwan.
The US further stated that it will examine further opportunities to move more US government-sponsored Chinese language programs to Taiwan.
Except for the US, Taiwan has been securing other educational cooperation, for example with the UK. The Ministry of Education signed a Letter of Intent with the British Office in Taipei with a specific focus on English language teaching, learning, and assessment which also shows Taiwan’s eagerness to get closer to become bilingual.
