Taiwanese teacher unions and allied groups issued statements criticising the government's plan to hire more foreign teachers. The policy is part of a push to strengthen English education, but the criticism holds that working conditions for domestic teachers should be addressed first.

The core issue is the gap in terms. Where contract conditions and housing support offered to foreign teachers differ from those of domestic colleagues in the same school, critics say, friction arises between two groups working in the same classrooms.

The second axis is job security. Fixed-term teaching posts account for a substantial share in Taiwan, and with permanent appointments capped, the practice of budgeting separately for foreign hires has drawn repeated objections.

The government's argument rests on the policy goal: expanding an English-speaking environment requires a certain number of native-speaking teachers, and domestic teacher training cannot supply that in the short term. The two positions do not directly contradict one another, but they meet in budget priorities.

The debate touches overseas Chinese schools as well. Schools in Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia have long faced their own difficulties recruiting and retaining teachers, and rely on a structurally similar practice of bringing in outside instructors for language teaching.

The Ministry of Education has not issued a detailed response. The unions are asking that any expansion of hiring come with a published roadmap for improving working conditions.