Saint Christopher (Saint Kitts) and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew said Wednesday he is planning to make it a requirement that students from his country who study in Taiwan must contribute time teaching English to Taiwanese for free, in a move to help Taiwan achieve its 2030 bilingual goal.
Speaking to media at the Embassy of Saint Kitts and Nevis in Taipei’s Diplomatic Quarter, Drew said students in his country are native English speakers and the English teaching plan is mutually beneficial as they also receive an education from Taiwan universities.
“We’ll see how we can concretize that, because I will say to the students who are now coming to Taiwan that part of the agreement is you have to contribute a number of hours teaching English to Taiwanese while you are in Taiwan,” Drew said.
The actual structure of how those students might engage in teaching and help Taiwan still needs to be discussed, but the idea will be in the form of a partnership with the Taiwanese government, Drew said.
“We can even have an orientation in Saint Kitts for those students to prepare them to be better facilitators as teachers of English for when they come to Taiwan, so they come prepared not only to receive, but they also come prepared to give, so that’s a mutual benefit,” Drew said.
Taiwan introduced the “Bilingual 2030” policy in 2017 with the goal of making Taiwan a more bilingual English-Mandarin Chinese nation by 2030.
Meanwhile, 57 Saint Kitts and Nevis students are currently in Taiwan and they are also encouraged to contribute a few hours of teaching English to Taiwanese for free, Drew said.
“I’m encouraging our students, really, to give a few hours back, because when you multiply those hours across 57 students that is a significant number of hours that will be contributed to the teaching of English here,” Drew said.
When asked how many hours he expects the students to contribute to teaching English, Drew said he just shared the idea with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and the specifics and logistics of it will be worked out and announced later.
Drew is currently in Taiwan on an official visit after being sworn in on Aug. 6, a day after his St. Kitts and Nevis Labour Party won six of the 11 seats contested in the Aug. 5 general elections.
Meanwhile, Saint Kitts and Nevis’s new Ambassador to Taiwan Donya Francis said his Embassy has already been assisting Taiwan with its bilingual goal with donations of books by writers and authors from Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Furthermore, the embassy is now looking into the possibility of establishing sister schools between the two countries to promote language and cultural exchanges, Francis said.
He is working on linking Taipei Municipal Gezhi Junior High School with one of the top schools in Saint Kitts and Nevis, Basseterre High School, to have online language exchanges for its students, Francis said.
“Next month we are going to Kaohsiung to speak and encourage students to converse with me in English and converse with other Caribbean Ambassadors in English, because we are looking to ensure that we build a path assisting Taiwan with whatever goal they have or whatever plan they have because we want to give back to Taiwan,” Francis said.
Francis earned both his bachelor’s degree in journalism and communication and a master’s degree in global health and development in Taiwan, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Saint Kitts and Nevis established diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan) shortly after gaining independence from Great Britain in 1983.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel