I’m heading to Taiwain w/my 2.5 year old (who’ll be closer to 3 by December) on the Hua Yu scholarship for the winter session. I have a good many questions including how one can apply for local public Taiwanese schools. I’m applying for the Gold Card and hopefully can enroll her in a school from late November /December 1 until February 1. Ideally the school will be near MTC at NTNU in Shida. Does anyone have any suggestions on the process etc?
How about in Tainan? (It’s not too late for me to switch schools for Tainan, so if anyone here has experience with both cities and can compare/contrast, please share!)
Public schools are a lottery here, and very hard to get into. If you do get in, I believe they are about $4,500 per month. However, I’m not sure if kids without Taiwan nationality are eligible for the lottery, maybe. Private on the other hand is very easy to get into, your kid probably won’t even need to show any form of ID in many private kindergartens. However, private is expensive, ranging from $15,000 a month for the very local all-Chinese ones to $30,000 a month for the all-English ones with foreign teachers.
EDIT: Just saw you mentioned might be in Tainan. What I wrote was for Taipei/New Taipei. I have no idea the situation in Tainan, but I presume similar, but private kindergartners maybe slightly cheaper.
foreign kids with ARC can get into public preschool, but local kids come first, foreign kids are placed based on availability.
back in the day i knew a graduate student in NCCU that the school helped place their daughter in the university affiliated kindy.
It wont hurt to ask the university if they can help with this, worst case they say “no”.
Hello Meishijia, Izzy and Rooftop, I’m not sure how to “reply to all” on this forum–totally new to Forumosa. Thanks so much for your responses. I had read that it was hard to get into public schools. That’s partly why I’m applying for the gold card.
Yes, my first choice of cities was Tainan, but my partner was concerned about things like transportation. Since he might not come, I’m happy to revisit that. Does anyone here have any experience living/studying/working in Tainan?
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I think outside Taipei/New Taipei that can be a problem everywhere else in Taiwan. However, depending in the school your kid gets in, you may find a school bus for your kid to go and come back from school.
I don’t know much about Tainan specifically, so hopefully someone with more local knowledge can step in and provide some info.
Good luck!
Lastly, if anyone has any suggestions on where one could find an inexpensive 1-bedroom that’s not in the middle of nowhere? Ideally near ChangJung Christian Uni (in Tainan) or MTC (Taipei) other than AirBnb, 591.com or Craigslist, please feel free to share!
Do folks there do apartment swaps?