Taiwan’s Ministry of Education and the Connecticut State Department of Education signed a three-year memorandum of understanding on January 28 that will benefit students taking Mandarin and STEM courses in Connecticut. “By signing this MOU, we are creating synergies between K through 12 education in Mandarin language learning, and encouraging educational and academic exchanges in science, technology, engineering and math,” said Tom Lee 李志強, Director General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, speaking at the signing.

“I see this as a great opportunity to make connections between these schools and schools in Taiwan …They can partner and cultivate meaningful and impactful educational exchange opportunities for students” said Charlene M. Russell-Tucker, Commissioner for the Connecticut State Department of Education.

This MOU will facilitate educational exchanges and collaborations between primary and secondary schools in Connecticut and those in Taiwan and assist the schools in Connecticut to recruit Mandarin language teachers and teaching assistants. Lely Evans, president of the board of directors of the New Haven Chinese Cultural Cooperative, commented that learning another language “really helps you develop and understand the world around you”. According to the Connecticut Department of Education, there were approximately 4,000 students enrolled in a Mandarin or a Cantonese course in the 2023–24 school year, but only four schools in the state have “sister-school” programs with schools in Taiwan. One of the goals of signing the MOU is to help increase the number of such sister school programs.

The Ministry of Education has now signed 27 MOUs for education and research related cooperation with education authorities in 24 U.S. states, including Connecticut, since 2005. Taiwan and the U.S. signed an MOU on international education collaboration and launched the U.S.–Taiwan Education Initiative in December, 2020, to further strengthen international education collaboration, particularly in the area of language education. The Ministry is continuing to promote education exchanges and collaborative programs between government departments, local governments, primary and secondary schools, universities, and academic institutions in Taiwan and in the United States.