First Filipino group to travel to Taiwan to teach English

BILINGUAL PLAN:
The 17 educators were recruited as part of a program to empower Taiwanese, the envoy to the Philippines said.

• Writer, with CNA, MANILA

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines held a farewell event on Thursday for the country’s first group of English teachers who were recruited for a program launched by the Ministry of Education to advance education bilingual in Taiwan.

The 14 teachers and three teaching assistants are part of Taiwan’s Foreign English Teacher Program, which aims to help find English teachers for public elementary and secondary schools in Taiwan, the office said.

Seventy-seven teachers and 11 teaching assistants from the Philippines have been hired to teach in Taiwan over the next school year, according to bureau data.

Among the first group is Pilipinas Arroyo, 57, who taught college and high school for 25 years in the Philippines, as well as 11 years at a university in Libya.

Arroyo told the Central News Agency that when the opportunity to teach in Taiwan came up, she applied because she had a good impression of the nation when she visited in 2019.

“It’s a combination of old and new culture, that’s one thing I love about it. Very modern, but you’re still able to preserve the old traditions, the old look of what you have,” Arroyo said.

Another teacher, Rufina Guzman Defeo, said she wants to use her passion for teaching to help Taiwan achieve its goal of becoming a bilingual nation by 2030.

Taiwan’s bilingual policy aims to boost Taiwanese’s English skills, the office said.

Pines Testa – another member of the group who headed to Taiwan – applied not only because of the competitive salary and benefits, but also because the program gives him the opportunity to shape the lives of international students through the teaching, the bureau cited the teacher boasting of seven years of experience as they say.

Representative in the Philippines Michael Hsu (徐佩勇) said in a speech at the event that the program, launched in 2004, aims to employ English-language teachers and teaching assistants to help Taiwanese students learn take an interest in the language and seize the opportunities that will empower them. .