60 61 courses, and in-service training courses for a second specialty. 13 According to the “Blueprint for Developing Taiwan into a Bilingual Nation by 2030” formulated by the Executive Yuan, the “bilingual teacher training project” is organized to train bilingual teachers for elementary and secondary schools. Universities are subsidized to set up bilingual education research centers to conduct preservice teacher training and research on pedagogy and teaching materials for the training of all-English and bilingual teachers for elementary and secondary schools. B Arts Education 1 Arts and Aesthetics Education In order to meet the expectations in faculty cultivation and arts education, the MOE has established the Department of Teacher and Arts Education to be in charge of the planning and promotion of faculty cultivation and arts education affairs. The department will be the window for coordinating and integrating interdepartmental affairs and combining resources vertically and horizontally. Cultivating students who have an “artistic cultivation and aesthetic literacy” is one of the important core elements of 12-year Basic Education and will turn Taiwan into an aesthetically competitive country. From 2014 to 2018, the MOE promoted the “First Phase Fiveyear Plan for Aesthetic Education,” with the three main focuses of “strengthening the aesthetics courses and experiences of the learner,” “creating an aesthetic campus environment,” and “raising the aesthetic capabilities of education workers.” TheMOE also promotes the practice and research of aesthetic education and executes plans to experience the teaching of aesthetics courses in each phase of education as well as the campus aesthetic environment conversion plan. The ministry also establishes a cooperation system between cities, counties, and central government departments, attracting private resources, cooperating between industry, officials and academics, and continuing to deepen and broaden the influence of aesthetics education in an intensive way. The “Second Phase Five-year Plan for Aesthetic Education” from 2019 to 2023 has “Aesthetics is life, take root from childhood, integrate across disciplines, link up internationally” as its focus. It will integrate the establishment of an aesthetics education communication platform and management; strengthen the link between aesthetics courses at the central, local, and school level; expand a support system; raise the aesthetics level of education staff; and reinforce life aesthetics education through the linkage between the campus and the surrounding environment. 2 Arts Competitions and Promotions Seven major arts competitions are held annually, with about 220,000 students participating in 2017 and 2018. These include the National Student Competition of Music, the National Student Competition of Dance, the National Student Art Competition, the National Student Competition of Dramatic Art, the National Competition of Folk Songs for Teachers and Students, the MOE Awards for Creative Writing, and the Nationwide Students’ Picture Book Creation Award. These activities aim to promote arts education, cultivate students’ interest in art and literature, and improve arts education in schools. In addition, the MOE also organizes touring exhibitions and performances to foster artistic culture and display the excellent results of students’ creations. In SY2019 and SY2020, group competitions in the performing arts were suspended due to the pandemic; only individual music and dancing competitions were organized. In order to provide students with a performance venue, a platform called “Easy Show Time X” was created for students ranging from the elementary to senior high school level. Students can use this platform to watch performances of music, dance, creative drama, folk songs and so on. School teams are also encouraged to watch and learn from each other through in-person performances as well as films uploaded to the platform in order to cultivate basic art appreciation and acquire the concept and vision of diversified learning. In addition, the “Implementation Plan for SY2020 National Students’ Performing Arts Competitions” was carried out as a way of providing opportunities for outstanding student teams to give performances and accumulate experiences on stage. The events were organized by counties and cities to bring art performances into the community and increase the public’s access to the arts. Trying to find a balance between pandemic control and students' right to compete, the SY2020 National Students’ Performing Arts Competitions gave priority to inperson competitions. From March to September 2021, public health experts, performing art experts, organizers, representatives of 22 counties and cities, and teachers were invited to form task forces and meet monthly to discuss issues related to competitions that year. Experts were invited to survey the event venues, arrange event affairs, and organize practice sessions for the participating teams in compliance with COVID-19 precautions. In the meantime, contingencymeasures and criteria for suspending all competitions in the four major categories were established according to the CDC’s pandemic control standards and relevant regulations in case of an outbreak. 3 Specialized Arts Education To promote specialized arts education, schools can open specialized art talent classes from the third grade of elementary school to senior high school in accordance with relevant regulations. The purpose of an art talent class is to cultivate students who possess excellent artistic talent with professional art education. They are properly guided to present works in creative ways, and hopefully will contribute to professional arts education in the future. Art talent classes include such subjects as music, fine arts, and dance, among other subjects designated by the MOE. To ensure the 2019 art talent curriculum is properly followed, the MOE has formulated accompanying measures, including training in laws and regulations, planning of teaching materials, course development, counseling groups, enrollment requirements, and individual guidance plans (IGP) for gifted and artistically talented students. These measures are to improve the teaching quality of art talent classes.
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