Taiwan is a multilingual nation in where mainly four groups of languages are used, Mandarin Chinese (called Kuoyu), a form of southern Min (termed Taiwanese) Hakka language, and Austronesian languages. Historically, the people of Taiwan have been forced to use Japanese during the period of Japanese rule (1895-1945), and after WWII people were forced to use Mandarin Chinese. Therefore, it was of great significance that the native languages' (Taiwanese, Hakka language and Austronesian languages) education policy started from in 2001, in which the native language educational program became part of the regular curriculum for elementary and junior high schools.

In this paper, I discuss the contents of the curriculum and several issues concerning the implementation of this policy. It could be argued that the biggest problem is the absence of standardization in phonogram and writing systems in native languages. The second issue I identify is that all native languages are treated in the same curriculum, despite situations being different for Taiwanese, the majority language, Hakka language, Austronesian language, and the minority language. With the minority language speaking population steadily decreasing, it is best to use implement different curricula specifically formed to meet the individual needs of these minority language speaking groups.

In my opinion, the fundamental issue that lies beneath these problems is the ambiguity in the current legal status of the native languages. This paper suggests that resolving the legal ambiguity is a crucial step for the achievement of maximum results with this native language educational policy.