Taiwan's Bilingual 2030: From a Mayor's Idea to a National Education Plan

Eleven years after an ambitious experiment in Tainan, Taiwan has announced a new seven-year bilingual education plan. And the mayor who helped launch it? He's now president.

A New Plan for Taiwan

Good news for English education in Taiwan!

On October 2, 2026, Taiwan's Ministry of Education announced a new seven-year bilingual education plan, extending through 2032.

More opportunities for children to use English. More support for teachers. And greater attention to the English skills students will actually need in their future careers.

The plan, approved by the Executive Yuan on August 31, builds on years of classroom experience and an educational ambition dating back to 2015.

And the man behind that early experiment?

William Lai (賴清德), now Taiwan's president.

But first, what's changing?

The New Priorities

The Ministry's new program concentrates on three areas.

Schools: More classroom opportunities for children to speak and understand English, with improved teacher preparation, bilingual activities, and digital learning resources.

Universities: Stronger English proficiency and better support for courses taught through English.

Vocational education: Practical English for the workplace, connecting language instruction with students' future professions.

Rural schools will also receive additional attention, particularly where access to specialist teachers and learning resources is limited.

The idea is to make English useful, not merely another subject students study for examinations.

And getting here has been quite a journey.

The Original Bilingual 2030

On December 6, 2018, Taiwan approved its original Blueprint for Developing Taiwan into a Bilingual Nation by 2030.

The objective was straightforward: improve English proficiency and help Taiwanese people participate more confidently in the international economy.

Taiwan was already a global leader in semiconductors and advanced manufacturing. Its engineers and scientists worked with businesses around the world.

Better English would give those professionals another tool.

The plan included English-language improvements in government services, tourism, business, and education.

Universities received particularly ambitious targets.

By 2024, designated institutions were expected to meet 25-20-20: 25% of second-year undergraduates reaching CEFR B2 proficiency, with 20% of specified students taking more than 20% of their annual credits through English.

By 2030, the target would become 50-50-50.

The ambition was substantial. And the name—Bilingual Nation 2030—caught people's attention.

Many understood it to mean that English would become Taiwan's second official language by 2030.

That possibility had indeed been considered during the policy's early development.

But the government ultimately chose a different route: expanding English proficiency and practical use without changing the language's legal status.

To understand how the idea developed, we need to go back to Tainan.

William Lai: From Medicine to Public Life

William Lai (賴清德) was born in 1959 in Wanli (萬里), now part of New Taipei City (新北市).

His father, a coal miner, died in a mining accident when Lai was young.

Lai went on to study medicine, training in rehabilitation medicine and nephrology—the specialty concerned with kidney diseases.

He subsequently earned a Master of Public Health from Harvard University.

Public health looks beyond individual patients to the institutions and policies that can improve conditions for entire communities.

It's an interesting background for someone who would eventually champion an ambitious national education initiative.

Lai also had international experience, including overseas political exchanges and English-language speeches delivered in Washington.

He entered politics in 1996 as a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), serving four legislative terms before becoming mayor of Tainan (臺南) in 2010.

In 2014, he won reelection with 72.9% of the vote.

That's a remarkable electoral mandate.

And it gave him substantial political support for pursuing new ideas in municipal government.

One of those ideas was English education.

The Tainan Experiment

In March 2015, Lai established Tainan's Office of English as the Second Official Language.

The office coordinated English-language development across schools, local government, and the business community.

Schools experimented with bilingual instruction. Teachers received additional support, while government offices improved English signage and public information.

Businesspeople, medical professionals, and technology representatives joined the effort.

In 2017, eight schools began experimenting with Content and Language Integrated Learning, or CLIL.

Rather than studying English exclusively as a subject, children could also encounter it while learning something else.

Tainan's strong support for Lai helped give the initiative momentum, although his election results cannot tell us how every resident felt about the language policy.

The important development was that Tainan had created an organized model involving schools, teachers, public services, and local businesses.

And Lai would soon have an opportunity to take that model nationwide.

From Tainan to National Policy

In September 2017, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), also of the DPP, selected Lai to be the premier.

As head of the Executive Yuan, he could now coordinate policy across the national government.

His Tainan experience offered a starting point.

The idea also attracted academic interest.

In March 2018, several Academia Sinica academicians encouraged Tsai to consider developing Taiwan into a bilingual society emphasizing Chinese and English.

The Ministry of Education examined the proposal, and the National Development Council (國家發展委員會) coordinated the resulting national blueprint.

By December 2018, Bilingual Nation 2030 had been approved.

What had begun in Tainan was now a nationwide educational ambition.

A Conversation About Bilingual Education

As the program expanded, educators and researchers began contributing observations about what worked and what needed additional attention.

One discussion concerned the meaning of bilingual nation.

Taiwan already has a rich linguistic inheritance: Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, Indigenous languages, and others.

Some scholars wondered whether the title adequately reflected that diversity.

Others focused on classroom practice.

Teaching English and teaching another subject through English can complement one another beautifully, provided students have the language skills and support to follow the lesson.

A science teacher, for example, can collaborate with an English specialist to make scientific concepts accessible while developing useful English vocabulary.

Research increasingly highlighted the value of precisely this kind of collaboration.

Scholars such as Sebastian Hsien-hao Liao (廖咸浩) contributed to wider discussions about educational objectives, while researchers examined differences in school resources, teacher preparation, and students' language abilities.

In 2022, the government simplified the initiative's name.

Bilingual Nation 2030 became Bilingual 2030.

The National Development Council clarified that the objective was improved English proficiency, not making English an official language.

The educational program continued, increasingly informed by the experience of participating schools and universities.

And then came another important development.

William Lai Becomes President

On January 13, 2024, Lai won Taiwan's presidential election.

He took office on May 20.

Nine years after establishing Tainan's English-language office, he was now president of the country pursuing that same ambition.

And by then, the national program had accumulated something particularly useful.

Five years of educational implementation between 2021 and 2025.

Universities had developed English-medium courses. Schools had experimented with bilingual activities. Taiwanese and foreign teachers had gained experience working together.

Researchers also documented promising results from selected programs, including improvements in listening and reading.

There were lessons about the value of teacher collaboration, appropriately designed materials, and making sure students understood the subjects they were studying.

Different learners needed different approaches, too.

An elementary pupil practicing everyday conversation and a university engineering student preparing for international employment would naturally require different kinds of English instruction.

The Ministry of Education described the program's achievements as preliminary, providing a foundation for the next phase.

And now the government had an opportunity to build on those years of experience.

An August Approval

On August 31, 2026, a little over two years into Lai's presidency, the Executive Yuan approved the new bilingual education plan.

The Ministry announced it on October 2.

The new program builds on the 2021–2025 initiative, with particular attention to meaningful communication, professional English, teacher preparation, and digital learning.

Universities will continue developing English-medium instruction. Elementary and secondary schools will expand opportunities for everyday English use. Vocational institutions will concentrate more closely on workplace needs.

Rural schools will receive additional support.

It is a nationwide program, now moving into its next stage with years of teaching experience behind it.

What Does It Mean for Foreign English Teachers?

The new plan creates opportunities, but probably not a dramatic wave of new full-time positions for native-English-speaking teachers. For 2026, the Ministry targeted 980 positions, but the split between part-time, student asistants and full-time positions, if any, was quantified.

Much of the broader initiative also involves supporting Taiwanese teachers and improving existing instruction.

Qualified foreign teachers should certainly watch public-school recruitment, but for most teachers, Taiwan's bushibans, private schools, and private tutoring market will likely remain the more reliable job resource for the time being.

An Idea That Keeps Growing

In 2015, a mayor introduced a bilingual education experiment in Tainan.

In 2018, the idea became national policy.

In 2024, that mayor became president.

And in 2026, Taiwan approved a new seven-year plan, building on years of educational experience.

The original ambition remains practical and focusedl.

Give a child the confidence to speak with someone from another country.

Help a graduate explain a technical idea to an international colleague.

Give Taiwan's next generation another way to participate in the wider world.

That's the promise behind Bilingual 2030.

And eleven years after that first Tainan experiment, the mission to fulfill thoses promises continues.