Taiwan is expanding its bilingual education program with the aim of having joint programs with 250 schools overseas by 2030. That comes as part of Taiwan’s Bilingual Nation 2030 plan, which aims to boost fluency in English in Taiwan.
The education ministry says right now, Taiwan’s public schools have joint programs with 94 schools in the US, UK, Australia and other countries.
The ministry says that it also wants schools to offer bilingual lessons in civil defense and a range of other subjects. Right now, the ministry funds experimental bilingual programs in 50 public schools and it wants that to increase to 140 by 2030.
The first public high school to offer that kind of program is Zhong Zheng Senior High School. It currently has dual diploma programs with American high schools and International Foundation Year (IFY) programs with UK universities. Five other public high schools in Taipei also offer IFY programs, which give students a path towards further study in the UK.