COLUMBIA — Taiwanese teachers are coming to South Carolina schools to teach Mandarin Chinese under a new partnership between the S.C. Department of Education and Taiwan’s Ministry of Education.
State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver visited Taipei — Taiwan’s capital, last week to ink the agreement with the ministry’s Department of International and Cross-strait Education.
The earliest the Taiwanese teachers will arrive is the next school year. Other details of the partnership, such as the number of teachers and which schools they’ll work at, are still being developed, according to state Education Department spokesman Jason Raven.
Eligibility for Taiwanese teachers includes possession of a Taiwanese teaching license and education degree, two years of teaching experience and “sufficient proficiency” in English, according to the signed agreement.
Taiwanese teachers in subjects other than Mandarin also can be included and teach in an immersion setting.
The Education Department will sponsor their J-1 visas for at least a year, and the teachers will be considered employees of the local school district in which they teach.
Th arrangement will create sister school relationships between campuses in South Carolina and Taiwan meant to foster cultural and linguistic exchange between students.
Teachers and school administrators will be encouraged to share educational materials with their counterparts in the other country.
“I am excited to build bridges between our classrooms and those in Taiwan,” Weaver said in a statement announcing the partnership. “These connections will spark curiosity, broaden perspectives, and empower our teachers and students with the knowledge and skills they need to build a bright future for our state, our nation, and the world.”
Weaver’s trip to Taiwan was paid for by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, Raven said. That office is the closest thing Taiwan has to an embassy in the United States since the two countries don’t have formal diplomatic relations.