Chang Ming-Wen, Director of the New Taipei City Education Bureau, and Patricia Gartland, Superintendent of Coquitlam School District with the signed MOU

With the assistance of the Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver, the New Taipei City Education Bureau and the Coquitlam School District of British Columbia formed an educational partnership. Chang Ming-Wen, Director of the New Taipei City Education Bureau, and Patricia Gartland, Superintendent of Coquitlam School District signed an MOU in a virtual ceremony on July 5 2021, on promoting and developing educational exchanges and cooperation. Andy Chen, Director General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver, and Mr. Tang Tien-Hua, Senior Assistant Director of the Education Division took part in the virtual signing ceremony.  

Coquitlam School District and New Taipei City Education Bureau are both committed to supporting international education and exploring more learning opportunities for their students, making them ideal partners for educational collaboration. This MOU outlines areas in which they can collaborate and further enhance their solid international programs, benefiting the students and teachers in their respective communities. These include a wide range of exchange activities for teachers and students, and teacher training.

This new partnership will provide excellent opportunities for the students in the Coquitlam School District in Canada and in New Taipei City in Taiwan to learn each other’s languages, learn about each other’s cultures, and broaden their global vision. Taiwan is working to develop a bilingual education system and become a bilingual nation by 2030, and strengthening students’ English proficiency is a major educational focus for the New Taipei City Education Bureau. Collaborative activities under this partnership will help to achieve this goal.