The Ministry of Education inked a memorandum of understanding with Connecticut and renewed an MOU with Maine in January, underscoring the government’s commitment to the Taiwan-U.S. Education Initiative.

The Ministry of Education renews a pact with Maine and establishes a new agreement with Connecticut involving personnel and information exchanges in STEM and language education. (MOFA)

The Ministry of Education inked a memorandum of understanding with Connecticut and renewed an MOU with Maine in January, underscoring the government’s commitment to the Taiwan-U.S. Education Initiative.

According to the ministry, the Connecticut pact was first signed by Joyce Yu-jiuan Lee, director of the MOE’s Department of International and Cross-strait Education, and was signed Jan. 28 at the Connecticut General Assembly by Charlene M. Russell-Tucker, the state’s education commissioner. Governor Ned Lamont and Representative Tom Chih-chiang Lee of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York witnessed the historic agreement, the MOE’s first with the northeastern state.

The MOE said that planned cooperation ranges from joint research between educators in both countries, exchanges between personnel and institutions, collaboration in the fields of engineering, math, science and technology, and the sharing of Mandarin and English teachers and resources.

The renewal of the arrangement with Maine was signed by MOE’s Lee and Pender Makin, education commissioner for Maine, and finalized Jan. 22. The MOU is intended to deepen mutual understanding of educational systems, provide information on learning Mandarin and promote integrated study of engineering, math and science courses.

The MOE said that this was the fifth time the MOU has been updated, adding that it was the first time that the agreement has been extended for five years instead of three, signifying a strong bilateral commitment to the cooperation.

In total the ministry has signed 28 MOUs with 25 U.S. states. The MOE vowed to continue active promotion of reciprocal exchanges within the framework of the Taiwan-U.S. Education Initiative. (POC-E)