That really sucks. Like I said before, it’s terrible that the completely ignore the right to consumer choice like that. And they also eliminate what is clearly the best way for children to learn English (if not the only truly successful way).
Brian
Only those that can afford the NT$15,000/mo and up, can recieve this advantage. The rich get richer…I believe that what Taiwan really wants is comprehensive public English education starting in grade 1 but is having trouble deciding on the best policy, pin-yin vs wade-giles vs romanization vs lien-soong vs chen shui bian vs, vs, vs.
Bottom line
Learning English early is the best way to achieve fluency.
I haven’t heard of any crackdown in Kaohsiung yet. If it does indeed happen, and is enforced, then I suspect that it will put more than a few kindys under.
I heard that there was a crackdown on Friday in Taipei and those teachers caught, including those at Hess, are being deported.
Well spank me blue and call me Brian if this happens island wide there will be a huge stink and less foreigners even considering coming here.
I heard, I heard, I heard…Come on, someone with Centrino, sitting in the FAP office please weigh in and tell us what is happening! Someone hurry up and get deported for teaching kindergarten with a legal work permit whose bushiban has a legal contract with thier own kindergarten to source out teachers. I have been here for 6 years and been involved in raids looking for illegal teachers, pictures taken, questionaires filled out regarding our spare time etc, but, never knew anyone to be deported, other than for drugs, STDs or the like. I need to see the face of deportation before I believe that it is happening.
[quote=“impleased”]I believe that what Taiwan really wants is comprehensive public English education starting in grade 1 but is having trouble deciding on the best policy, pin-yin vs wade-giles vs romanization vs lien-soong vs Chen Shuibian vs, vs, vs.
[/quote]
Huh? :?
Come on! Someone must know one of the people that has been busted. Spill!!!
Need to know the details and if there were any that avoided deportation or punishment in any way.
Were part time kindy teachers busted or just those cram schools pretending to be kindergartens?
The choppers are coming… gotta go
From EOD’s link:
[quote]In choosing a kindergarten, many parents in Taiwan look mainly for schools that use English as the language of instruction or, at least, provide several hours of English education. These parents see such schools as giving young children an early competitive edge.
[/quote]
And ultimately, they’re the ones who make the decision, not the MOE. This will blow over pretty soon, I think. Either it will be with a lot of fuss, maybe a resignation or two, or else it will be quietly swept under the carpet as yet another embarrassing failure on the part of the government to gauge public opinion. These pricks really should be held up as poster children for the benefits of pre-emptive abortion.
And ultimately, they’re the ones who make the decision, not the MOE. This will blow over pretty soon, I think. Either it will be with a lot of fuss, maybe a resignation or two, or else it will be quietly swept under the carpet as yet another embarrassing failure on the part of the government to gauge public opinion.[/quote]
Exactly right. Also, don’t forget there’s an election coming. If things go blue instead of green, you can be sure that any decision made by the Minister of Education will be reversed by the new, blue one.
How many have been busted?
How many deported?
The news must have been around the pubs at the weekend, or are all the teachers from forumosa now being deported?
ImaniOU, where are you?
Okami, are you hearing me?
And people wonder why Taiwan’s English levels are not higher…the MOE seems to have a terminal case of cranial rectal inversion.
A follow up article in today’s China Times.
news.chinatimes.com/Chinatimes/n … 39,00.html
The focus is mainly on enforcing the law against Buxibans that teach English to preschoolers. Again, no mention of deporting foreign teachers. There seems to be some uncertainty about whether or how much English legally-registered kindies can teach.
There was one quote that was pretty rich–a Deputy Director justifies the ban on teaching preschoolers by citing the Child Protection Law. According to that law, you can’t do things that would “injure a child mentally or physically.” Buxibans can’t teach preschoolers English full-time because, you guessed it, it would injure them.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing …
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing …[/quote]
The scary thing is that it is probably a matter of face…the MOE guys don’t wanna be shown up by a bunch of 5 year olds 
(just kidding, sheeeedh ).
I should, of course, have written that “A little learning is a dangerous thing”. I don’t know why it came out as it did. 
Perhaps it was caused by a mental injury that I picked up in my preschool days.
Don’t flame me for this, but I for one think it is sensible to ban pre-schoolers from attending full immersion schools, ie schools in which they are taught all day in English.
In Canada we have had bilingual schools (French-English) for decades. Children do not start until kindergarten, which in Canada is the year before grade one. Most chidlren attend half-day programs (around 9-12) though some attend full day (9-3). NONE, are attending ALL DAY programs like in Taiwan, where the child may arrive at school at 8am and not leave until 5-6pm.
In Canada a child will still be exposed to his native language for as many, if not more hours a day than the second langauge. This is not the case in taiwan, where children often go home to non-native speaking maids, or to homes where the parents spend very little time playing, talking or reading to them.
In addition, in Canada, children are not starting programs when they are three years old. Nor are they being cared for, and this is crucial, by people who are not trained in early childhood education. Most of the classroom teachers in immersion schools have backgrounds in English. They are not regular kindergarten teachers. Properly trained kindie teachers do not like to work in immersion schools as their role becomes little more than ass wiper. So yes, the MOE is correct to say that children’s mental and physical health is at risk when 3 year olds are being taught 8 or 9 hours a day by untrained teachers.
Grade one teachers have been complaining for some time about immersion students entering grade one wihtout basic skills in math, reading, bopomofo phonics, and so on. They complain that such students often lack extended vocabularies. Think about it, if the child is learning all his subjects in English, how is he or she to learn the same words in Chinese. Again, most parents aren’t there in the evening reading science and nature books to their children.
The MOE is not out of its mind to be issuing this order. Consumer choice? I knew a mother who sent her grade one child to a home-stay program in Australia for the entire summer. The child even had to fly there alone! This was the mother’s consumer choice but in any civilized country she could be investigated by social welfare.
It should also be stressed that full immersion does not garantee children will become fluent speakers. Again, in Canada, all studies have shown that there is no significant difference (except perhaps in accent) between childen who attend half-day and full-day kindergarten programs (and then continue to study throughout elementary and high school) when tested at the end of grade 12. There is even almost no difference between children who start bilingual programs in kindergarten as opposed to grade 5.
This call was long overdue.
My problem is that the order seems to apply to half day kindergartens also. Based on this, we are right now faced with a dozen angry parents because we’ve decided to scrap our proposed kindergarten (even though it was not an immersion program, we were planning on offering English several times a week). The stupidity of the MOE is banning ANY English in kindergartens. Not a problem, we will expand our standard an chin bans. This is primarily a business, and as such we will stay within guidelines, no matter how ill conceived and moronic they are. If they were REALLY concerned about all day kindergartens as opposed to the English content, the would target those, and target as they are.
As to the usefullness of early childhood education, I have kids who have had good kindergarten English ed, bad kindergarten English ed, and no kindergarted English ed. There is virtually no difference in the language abilities of the last two…however, those who acually had someone who knew what they are doing excel in language…that doesn’t mean that all of the kids from categories 2 and 3 will not, but the ones in category 1 have the edge.
We seem to be getting conflicting reports. Is it immersion programs or any form of English teaching in kindergarten that is being banned? And is it a ban on all teaching of English to kindergarten and pre-school aged children or can cram schools still have programs as long as the children are not there all day?
You can teach English in kindergartens as a subject. You can’t teach all your subjects in English in a kindergarten. Foreigners cannot teach in kindergarten (maybe they can if they have an open work permit). Buxibans cannot loan foreign teachers to kindies. If you run a Buxiban, you cannot claim to be a kindergarten offering immersion courses.
For those of you who own businesses, I would strongly recommend that you talk to a legal professional (I am not one) with experience dealing with administrative agencies before you make business decisions like cancelling classes. They will be able to tell you what the law says and also advise you on what you should do in practice.
Acearle: There are big regulatory changes coming for Anqinbans. I don’t have time to research the details, but the gist is that the industry is going to become much more heavily regulated and all teachers will have to take courses and get licensed.