The Ministry of Education (MOE) of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in December signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on educational cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Education in the United States to strengthen bilateral exchanges. The MOE will select teachers from Taiwan to go to Minnesota to teach the Chinese language and encourage American students to study Chinese in Taiwan.
In order to expand the beneficial results of the "Taiwan-U.S. Education Initiative," the MOE has successively signed several MOUs with the education authorities of various states in the United States. Under the active promotion of the Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago, the signing was completed by Dr. Yan-Yi Lee, director general of the Bureau of International and Cross-Strait Education of the MOE, and Dr. Heather Mueller, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Education.
In the future, the MOE will establish an institutional cooperation platform with the Minnesota Department of Education to expand exchanges in Chinese language education, which includes selecting Chinese language teachers from Taiwan to teach in Minnesota’s primary and secondary schools, encouraging students from Minnesota to study Chinese in Taiwan, organizing short-term exchanges for Minnesota teachers or student groups with Taiwan counterparts, promoting “school-to-school” cooperation on bilingual instruction between the two sides, and other activities.
The Minnesota Department of Education is in charge of public schools at all levels from kindergarten to high school (PK-12) in the state. It manages more than 900,000 students and 136,000 education professionals. Through this MOU, the two sides are well positioned to further strengthen their educational connections and make educational cooperation between Taiwan and the United States even closer.
