La Toya Williams selected to teach English in Taiwan

A Vincentian has been selected as the first teacher in the region to take part in the Taiwanese Ministry of Education English Teachers’ Programme (FET).

La Toya Williams has been recruited to travel to Taiwan for a year to teach English at the Da Hu Junior High School in the Miaoli County, a region well known for tourism.{{more}}

During brief remarks at the 2016 Taiwan Scholarship presentation ceremony held at the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College (SVGCC) last Tuesday, Williams said she is armed and ready for the course ahead.

“I look forward to providing the best representation of my country, but I realize my task extends into representing the other Caribbean countries with which the Republic of China on Taiwan has diplomatic ties,” she said.

Williams expressed gratitude to the Ministries of Education, Foreign Affairs and Labour in Taiwan, adding that she hopes to be exposed to new and effective teaching practices that she would be able to share with key education stakeholders upon her return to SVG.

In his remarks, Taiwanese Ambassador to St Vincent and the Grenadines Baushuan Ger described the occasion as an historic one.

Ger said, from its inception in the early 1990’s, the FET programme has recruited over 300 certified foreign English teachers every year to teach in Taiwan’s primary and secondary schools, mainly in rural communities.

Over the years, the selected teachers have exclusively been from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

During the past nine months, the Embassy has been in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of St Vincent and the Grenadines to assist qualified teachers to apply for FET.

Ger said he is very happy that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Labour in Taiwan gave positive responses to their recommendation.

“La Toya is surely a pathfinder. I wish her every success in her new stint,” he said. (AS)