If you were looking for a good bet to swerve the virus and ensure your children were taught bilingually, with English as one of the languages, you could do worse than look to Taiwan.
Unlike much of the world, the island nation has mostly managed to keep its schools open during the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, its response to the virus has been so robust that, while a country with similar population numbers and urban-based living (we’re looking at you, Britain) saw over 127,000 deaths, Taiwan had only 10.
It’s down to this that a quarter of a million ex-pat Taiwanese moved back to the country during 2020, along with a large number who had fewer ties to the country, but were looking for a safe haven and a good, bilingual education for their children.
Crucially, Taiwanese private schools, such as Lih-jen International Private School, Taipei Youhua and Kang Chiao International School, offer this bilingual curriculum, most usually with half the day taught in Chinese and half in English. This prepares the students for continuing their education at, for instance, a US high school or university, and opens up a wide range of lucrative careers.
“If I wanted to send my kids to a bilingual Chinese-English programme like this in the US, it would be difficult to find and very expensive,” says Laura Peterson Feintech, whose children are enrolled at Lih-jen, where tuition is roughly $11,500 per year.
Kang Chaio’s counselling director puts it simply: “Because we are a bilingual school, the environment is comfortable for ex-pat students and their parents, and the students are able to learn Chinese as a second language.”
