Taiwan and Germany sign Joint Declaration of Intent on Intensifying Future Education Cooperation

September 1 saw the occasion of an important milestone for cooperation between Taiwan and Germany in the field of education: the signing of an agreement in Berlin between the Ministry of Education of Taiwan and the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (usually abbreviated to “KMK”) to intensify such cooperation.
The signatories for each of the partner countries were: Ms. Heidi Weidenbach-Mattar, Deputy Secretary-General of KMK, and Dr. Se-Hwa Wu, the Minister of Education in Taiwan respectively.
Among the principal bilateral educational activities that this Joint Declaration is designed to foster and encourage are:
•boosting exchanges and expanding partnerships between elementary and secondary schools in Taiwan and those in Germany;
•increasing the number of teacher exchanges;
•increasing cooperation for teacher training; promoting learning of each other’s native language – for example by providing support for the German Language Certificate program (German DSD) in Taiwan, and by sending trainers, teaching assistants, and learning materials to Germany to help people there learn Mandarin Chinese; and
•cooperation in the vital area of vocational education and training.