A Newly Signed MOU Begins a New Chapter of Education Collaboration between Taiwan and Utah
Since the signing of the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative in December 2020, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan has signed MOUs and developed official connections with many state level educational authorities in the United States in order to promote and implement bilingual language education policies. An important aspect of this is the enhancement of Taiwan’s overseas Chinese language education.
Taiwan and Utah enjoy a long-term friendship and close relationship. They became sister states more than 40 years ago in July, 1980, a formal declaration of friendship that symbolizes mutual goodwill and encourages bilateral cooperation.
Sophie Chou, director of the Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco visited Utah in March, 2022 to discuss a draft memorandum of understanding for mutual education collaboration between Taiwan with Dr. Sydnee Dickson, Utah State Superintendent of Public Instruction for the Utah State Board of Education. After joint discussion and evaluation, on December 20, 2022, an MOU on educational cooperation was signed by Dr. Dickson and Dr. Yen-Yi Lee, Director General of the Department of International and Cross-strait Education of the Ministry of Education in Taiwan
This newly signed MOU establishes a new official platform to develop further education interaction between Taiwan and Utah, and educational agencies in Taiwan and Utah will work together to implement education exchanges This will include recommending visiting teachers from Taiwan to teach Chinese language in Utah, developing common curriculum activities together, and encouraging Utah students to study in Taiwan. This will definitely help people understand each other’s languages and culture better and at the same time enhance their global visions.