Calls for foreign teachers to enter Taiwan raise questions over tutors' qualifications

While Taiwan's Education Ministry announced that it is hiring more foreign English-language teachers for local public schools, no changes have been made to policies regulating cram schools. ST PHOTO: KATHERINE WEI
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TAIPEI - A group of foreign teachers and some 60 cram schools in Taiwan have signed a petition urging the Minister of Health to open the island's borders to foreign teachers who want to teach English in Taiwan.

Taiwan sealed its borders to foreign nationals in May, after a series of major local Covid-19 transmissions, to keep the virus at bay. According to the online petition, this has caused a staffing shortage in cram schools, which are private tuition centres teaching especially English.

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