David on Formosa

In July last year I posted about teaching English in Taiwan. There I noted that the Ministry of Education (MoE) program to recruit foreign teachers for Taiwanese schools had fallen drastically short of its recruitment target.

The Taipei Times reports today that the MoE managed to recruit just 40 teachers for the program.

Despite the offer of competitive salaries, housing stipends, medical benefits and free tickets to and from Taiwan, few foreign teachers have leaped at the offer to teach in rural schools on one to three-year contracts. And few of those who have are willing to renew their contracts, while a number of teachers have left Taiwan before completing their period of service.

Although the ministry eventually scaled back the program’s requirements from 1,000 teachers to 400 teachers, it still fell dismally short of its goal.

In the end, a mere 40 teachers were brought to Taiwan as a result of the policy, according to statistics provided by the MOE.

The Taipei Times has also run two stories reporting on the experience of one of the teachers in the MoE program, Kim Whidden. (See Tucheng school unlikely to get teacher soon and Teacher helps students overcome fears.)

Kim Whidden’s experience seems to have been a mixture of good and bad. She noted that there was an increase in student’s confidence speaking English. However, culture shock and communication problems sometimes made the job difficult.

Taiwantroll and Michael Turton also comment on the program. Taiwantroll was a participant in the program. He suggests that having a Chinese speaking co-teacher in the classroom would improve the success of the program. Michael Turton suggests that there is a need for much better orientation and training before teachers are sent into the schools.

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On a more heartwarming note another article in today’s Taipei Times tells the story of American volunteer English teacher Daniel Greenhoe who cycles for six hours to teach English to students in Xinzhu County. He hasn’t missed a class in two years! He must be as keen about teaching English as he is about cycling.