Yi-Shan, Wei has studied ballet and modern dance since childhood. She has never found a solid reason of why she loves dancing so much until her ninth grade in Hai Siann Waldorf Education. She watched a documentary – The Walkers presented by Legend Lin Dance Theatre; in that film, Ms. Li-Zhen, Lin indicated,” In theatre career, we need not only technique to perform, to compose, and to dance but having some inner senses; we have to understand the world.” Ms. Lin’s words has woken Wei up and taught her that it takes efforts and comprehension skills to master everything. Moreover, it has changed her thoughts on dance and theatre industry, gave her a purpose to participate in "Youth Experience Learning Program", and paved her way to conduct experiential learning and gradually implement her ideas.

"Culture" is a gift that Yi-Shan, Wei hopes to give back to the motherland. She likes to climb mountains, loves nature, learns from the world; she likes to dance, has a passion for theatre. She enjoys the sweat and tears throughout the process, and she transforms the soreness of the body into the power of advancement. She loves to travel and learn different cultures form different places. Therefore, Yi-Shan, Wei made good use of dancing as the foundation, joined Legend Lin Dance Theatre, strengthened physical training, studied art administration and other theater experiences, and extended the discussion of the relationship between beings and nature, ancient cultural knowledge and practice. In addition to participating in the theatre, Wei also live in nature and experience how the ancient people live peacefully with nature without sacrificing it, and put Mother Earth Tracker Studio’s method into practice to improve life without harms.

In the summer of 2018, Yi-Shan, Wei went to Panganan Island in the Olang Islands of the Philippines to learn the ancient wisdom with her partner from the Mother Earth Tracker Studio. For her, it wasn’t about how to learn to "live in the wild," but how to "live with nature" and to experience the beauty of nature. They see the sky as the roof and the ground as their bed, returning to a very primitive, natural and simple state in life. Over the past few weeks, Yi-Shan, Wei learned from local people to observe the tides, the sun, the moon and the stars, using the stems and leaves of coconut trees and the outermost layer of coconut shell to weave and twist threads. "The only method to truly learn and understand is to experience it in person on your own." The people we shared the land with together also whole-heartedly share their experiences with Wei.

 Legend Lin Dance Theatre’s feature aesthetic movements are mainly "slow". During slow movements, all the details will be enlarged, and the depth of each muscle throughout the movements is very particular. Yi-Shan, Wei said: "Legend Lin Dance Theatre is different from the general dance studio, it has no mirrors. Because there is no mirror, I can't see if my movements are correct, it requires more of my own physical awareness and introspection." This completely broke her previous understanding of physics. She used to only think about doing the movements well, but using the wrong muscles. The teacher always said, "The abdominal core muscles should be used first," or "the pelvis must go first, then the body." Wei always felt her body observation was not subtle when she first started training at the beginning, but the teacher encouraged her, “It is fine to be imperfect, but you must do your best!" This is not only educational for her on body training, but also a life lesson for her.

 In June of this year, Yi-Shan, Wei followed the dance troupe to Russia to attend the Chekhov International Theatre Festival in Moscow and Yekaterinburg. During this trip, she was responsible for the work at the prop division, from the preparation before departure to the behind scenes abroad. The preparation needed to be done very carefully and delicately, so that the props can be perfectly presented on stage. During the performance, she also carefully observed the entire process of a dance troupe and learned the knowledge and culture of many other dance troupes. When she heard that the dancers needed help, Wei also volunteered to help. During this over-10-day performance tour, Wei encountered many unexpected situations, but under the discussion and coordination with other teammates, Wei learned the importance of teamwork and partnership. “It is a profession that requires a lot of people to work together." Wei said.

Yu-Shan, Wei has a deeper understanding and reflection on self-worth through "Youth Experience Learning Program." Looking back at the most basic physical training in the theatre to official performance rehearsal, Wei experienced setbacks in the middle; however, her optimism, the care, guidance, and encouragement from the teammates and teachers had quickly revived and regained her passion, perseverance , and will. One step at a time, weaving all the tears, sweat, soreness, and exhaustion together; it was tough, yet she is fascinated by such a process.

"Youth Experience Learning Program" helps the youth broaden their horizons and explore themselves to develop their future career aspirations and gives young people who have dreams a chance to get out of their comfort zones. After reading Wei's story, if you have goals; let’s be brave and believe in yourself. Yes, you can do it!! Do you look forward to knowing more about the stories of the youth involved in the project? Youth Development Administration produces “I am fabulous” theme video. Visit us at Youth Development Administration website (https://reurl.cc/zo7Nk) or Grand Tour Experience Learning Website (https://youthtravel.tw/video.php).

The outstanding students from Indonesia took part in the selection held by schools in the ROC (Taiwan), and collaborated with Indonesia to cultivate talents. The total study period is two-and-a-half to three years. According to the course plans, after students have studied professional knowledge for one and half years, then one to one-and-a-half years off-campus internship courses in institutions in the same professional field would be arranged, and students would obtain a bachelor's degree upon graduation. During the study period, schools in the ROC (Taiwan) will provide a scholarship equivalent of free tuition and miscellaneous fees for the first year. The Indonesian government will provide students with flight tickets to the ROC (Taiwan) and living expenses of 10 million Indonesian rupiahs (about NT$ 24,000) to encourage students to study in the ROC (Taiwan).

The 2+i Program has established professional courses that are based on the needs of the industrial fields of the Indonesian government. Mr. Chou, a student at Cheng Shiu University indicates that the most distinctive features of the 2+i Program are that the courses include off-campus internships, and the on-campus courses integrate the needs of the industry. After learning professional knowledge, from the second semester of the second year, students will cooperate with off-campus internship courses in the same industrial field, where students can actually apply what they have learned to acquire practical vocational skills that are connected with this industry. Ms.Chao, an Indonesian student, who studies Hospitality Management in Hsing Wu University indicates that in her previous study she had never had professional skill courses, such as food and beverage preparation and fruit carving, which she learned in the ROC (Taiwan).

To ensure students learn more about the ROC (Taiwan), all the schools offer Chinese language courses. Moreover, for the next group of students which enrolled in October 2019, the schools will further arrange Chinese language courses of 5 credits and 10 hours per week in the first semester of the first year, and a 5-hour tutoring course per week. After learning Chinese for one year, most of the first group of students can take notes in Chinese during the classes, and one of the students, Mr. Lee, expressed that he realized every Chinese word has its own meaning and story.

Indonesia's official representatives came to the ROC (Taiwan) to visit the students of the 2+i Program, schools and off-campus internship factories in July and December 2019. They were deeply impressed by the teaching equipment, teachers, course plans and meticulous care for the students of the 2+i Program set up in the ROC (Taiwan). The students of the 2+i Program were very appreciative of the governments of the ROC (Taiwan) and Indonesia for arranging such a good learning opportunity. The ROC (Taiwan) and Indonesia collaborate jointly to promote the 2+i Program; enhancing students’ practical skills and reaching the needs of both sides in industrial development talent cultivation and technical training through a customized training plan with a certain percentage of practical courses (including off-campus internships). In the future, the MOE will continue to strengthen research and cooperation in professional fields to create mutually beneficial and advantageous collaboration in talent cultivation, so as to create new win-win situations for industries, schools and students.

 Universities are expected to fulfill the responsibilities of sustainable development and proactive solutions to societal and environmental challenges by promoting course innovation and institutional transformation. In 2018, the MOE launched a two-year USR Program. Promoting local engagement and human resources development were the two major goals of this program. Local engagement emphasized collaborative partnership building between campuses and communities. Faculties and students were organized into think tanks to study local issues from multi-disciplinary aspects and to facilitate social innovation in local industries and community culture. Human resources development focused on course innovation and institutional transformation. Students, no longer trained in the classroom, were expected to practice their learned knowledge in local communities or through international exchange. Course design, no longer fixed or durable, was expected to be innovative and flexible to respond to local needs and international challenges to expand students’ capacity building in facing future challenges.

The MOE launched the Phase I USR Program across 114 universities in Taiwan and funded 220 projects. Overall, these 220 projects covered 239 townships in Taiwan. Based on the productive experiences of Phase I, the MOE has launched another phase of the USR Program starting from 2020. In addition to local engagement, the Phase II program expects participating universities to carry out institutional transformation to school governance and targets to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations. Also, some selected universities are encouraged to actively affiliate with regional schools and develop international exchange platforms to expand their impact on higher education transformation locally as well as internationally. To encourage universities to carry out transformation to school governance and administration arrangements, Type A, a start-up stage program of the Phase I USR Program, has been merged into the Higher Education Sprout Project to establish the USR HUB.

In the Phase II USR Program, 97 universities have been funded by the MOE to carry out 217 projects over three years (2020-2022). According to the funding scales, only two types of program are included. Most projects are included in the University Feature Type, with 181 start-up stage projects and 20 expansion stage projects. In the International Networking Type, there are only 12 projects funded for start-up stage projects and 4 for international platform development projects. In terms of issues, 74 projects will focus on local development issues, and 52 projects will help with local industrial transformation and economic sustainability. Thirty-five projects will focus on health promotion and food safety, 24 projects on environmental sustainability, 20 projects on cultural sustainability and 12 projects will focus on other social practices.

The Phase II USR program expects participating universities to carry out institutional transformation to school governance. Universities are encouraged to actively affiliate with regional schools and develop international exchange platforms to expand their impact on higher education transformation locally as well as internationally. Higher education institutions worldwide have begun to embrace a new paradigm of engaging campuses and communities to facilitate so-called university social responsibility. Through international platform building, these universities are encouraged to build cooperative and collaborative relationships with these institutions or organizations through joint course development, project exchange, and faculty/student visits, enhancing higher education quality and students’ ability to work internationally. At the institutional level, some selected universities are urged to start organizing USR academic-professional alliances so that they can take the initiative in networking with international USR organizations and sharing Taiwan USR experiences. Ultimately, universities in Taiwan could be part of international communities making contributions to the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.

Universities in Taiwan are undergoing a social revolution of the higher education paradigm by instilling the dynamics of university social responsibility. Some universities have gained visible achievements in social innovation and institutional transformation on campus over the past two years. In the future, building on the experience of local engagement, universities are encouraged to aim globally by networking with international academic institutions and USR organizations. Hopefully the new generation of students in Taiwan will have visionary ideas and social innovation skills by starting their careers in local communities as well as international societies. And higher education institutions in Taiwan can become think tanks for local solutions as well as international development goals.

Announcement of Results of the Phase II USR Program：Center for University Social Responsility / Ministry of Education

The College Entrance Exam for Physically and Mentally Disabled students takes place from 20^th to 23^th March at Tamkang University, National Taiwan Normal University, Chihlee University of Technology, National Taipei University of Education, National Changhua University of Education, National Kaohsiung Normal University and National Dong Hwa University. This year, the total number of students enrolled in the exam is 3,170, an increase of 28 people in comparison to last year. Of these enrollments, the first, second, third, and fourth examination districts of northern Taiwan have 706, 558, 323 and 239 students respectively; in the middle, southern and eastern districts, there are 651, 656 and 37 students respectively attending the exam. In addition, there are 157 students enrolled in the "Art" skill test, including 99 in the northern examination district, 20 in the middle examination district, 36 in the southern examination district, and 2 in the eastern examination district. Lastly there are 12 students enrolled in the "Music" skill test.

In order to make students feel at ease during examinations and to satisfy additional needs, specific assistive devices and services have been added to every examination room in addition to the original regulated services. In response to the "COVID-19" epidemic, the Physically and Mentally Disabled Screening Committee is requested to follow the "Reference Principles for Guidance on Epidemic Prevention Measures for University Admissions Examination" , "COVID-19 Response Guidelines: Public Meeting" and other related matters. These include protective measures such as ventilation and disinfection of the test environment, examinee proactive notification of travel history, and body temperature measurement to ensure that examinees can take the test in a safe environment; a separate test room is also provided for any special needs on the test day.

The exam transcript will be sent on 20^th April. The examinee can fill out the application form online from 30^th April to 6^th May. The results will be announced on 14^th May. For further important information about the exam, please refer to the website of the "109 Academic Year Admissions for Students of Physical and Mental Disorders". (http://enable.ncu.edu.tw.)

12 undergraduate students and 11 postgraduate students from 15 departments of four universities and colleges were selected to go to the following five schools to study and undertake research or exchanges: Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Management Center Innsbruck, the University of Applied Sciences – Fachhochschule Kufstein FH Tirol, the University of Applied Science (UAS) Technikum Wien International, and the University of Applied Science Upper Austria. The distinctive academic fields of these five schools include Design and Product Management, Innovation Management of Tourism, International Business Research, Technology Management, Mechanical Engineering, Natural Science, and Global Sales and Marketing Research which were in line with the professional backgrounds of our students.

Students learned and communicated with local students and international students from all over the world through class and extracurricular activities, experienced different teaching models and also culture shock. Mr. Liao, a student from the mechanical engineering department of National Taiwan University of Science and Technology shared his one-semester Austrian exchange experience, indicating that in the very beginning he was not used to the Austrian teaching models that were different from Taiwan. These models he experienced were in the laboratory courses and how teachers led students to think and solve problems in a guided way. After several discussions, he realized that learning was his own responsibility, and he should take the initiative to ask or figure out the solutions to any questions. Moreover, he could even complete a project under the instruction of teachers, finding his ability to collect information and report it within the learning process had made great progress.

Students learned to solve problems, take the initiative to learn, internalize and introspect about setbacks occurring during the period of study, research or exchange in Austria. After stepping out of their comfort zones, this exploration enabled students to experience and adapt to different teaching models and cultivate a more expansive vision. The MOE will keep enhancing the foundation of the promotional interchange network between Taiwan and Austria, so as to enrich the international exchange experience of outstanding students in Taiwan.

The public’s enthusiasm for going to libraries continued unabated through 2019 and they responded very favorably to library services, with each reading engagement metric seeing a considerable increase. The number of visits to public libraries throughout Taiwan surpassed 100 million for the first time, the number of patrons borrowing books increased to 22.95 million, and a total of 81.3 million volumes were borrowed during the year. All of these numbers were higher than the number for 2018 (people visiting libraries increased by 22.83 million, a 24.82% increase; people borrowing books increased by 1.28 million, a 5.9% increase; number of books borrowed increased by 3.39 million volumes, a 4.35% increase). This survey also highlighted the reading engagement in the digital era in terms of e-reading; e-books borrowed increased by 810,000 volumes, a 46.55% increase; this was the highest increase of any metric. These figures demonstrate that the MOE and public libraries have made great efforts to promote the reading atmosphere of the whole population and to cultivate the fundamental reading habits among the public.

In looking at overall reading interests in 2019, language and literature works continue to be loved by the public. It can be seen from the book borrowing list that readers' favorite books of the year are no longer limited to martial arts novels; various other themes such as spiritual growth and history books are also popular among the public, this diversification in reading topics is a welcome development.

In terms of reading engagement, “Cities with Outstanding Overall Reading Engagement” saw Taipei City, Miaoli County, and Taitung County topping their respective categories; “Cities with Greatest Improvement in Reading Engagement” included Taoyuan City, Yunlin County, and Kinmen County in their respective categories; among these, Kinmen County saw the greatest percentage of growth and was crowned 1^st place in all of Taiwan. In addition,“Cities with Outstanding Reading Engagement in Each Category” showed that the people in Sanwan Township, Miaoli County were the most active borrowers of library books, with each person borrowing on average 17.64 volumes. Sanwan has held this honor for the last 6 consecutive years. The people of Kaohsiung City go to libraries the most, with each citizen visiting an average of 9.76 times. Nearly 80% of people in Taipei have library cards, which is the highest percentage in Taiwan. Finally, the people of Juguang Township in Lienchiang County own the most books; the average is 21.96 volumes per person which is the highest in Taiwan.

The MOE announced the information on public reading engagement and reading interest in Taiwan for 2019, as well as the most borrowed books in public libraries nationally. The report also analyzed the public’s reading engagement and commended the top performing and the top improving cities based on multiple indicators, thereby helping to highlight the government’s long-term efforts and achievements in reading promotion. In order to continuously cultivate and foster an atmosphere of “loving to read” for the public, the government will continue to invite city and county libraries to recommend people who actively participate in library reading events and who are passionate about reading. The purpose of this is to enable those people to share the good books they have read before and to express happiness and warm feelings of reading that can act as a benchmark for encouraging the public to learn more and build a society of active readers. In the future, the MOE will continue to: support all kinds of resources needed for innovative library services and sustainable development, strengthen libraries to improve the quality and energy of library services, continue to cooperate hand-in-hand with city and county libraries to promote the development of public libraries in Taiwan, and move forward together with the goal of enhancing the reading literacy of the public, thus building a life-long learning society and strengthening the country's soft power.

Taiwan, Mongolia, Singapore, and Thailand have been invited to send students to participate in this year's Sakura program, from June 7 to June 13, and JST will cover the participants' airfare, accommodation, food, local transportation, and travel insurance expenses. During the one-week program, students will visit leading universities and research institutions, attend lectures on advanced science and technology, and have hands-on experience with cutting-edge science and technology. They will also have many opportunities to interact with the students from other countries and Japanese students, and to enjoy Japan's culture.

The Ministry of Education has commissioned National Taiwan Normal University to select thirty senior high school students and five teachers to accompany them to represent Taiwan in this year's Sakura program. The K-12 Education Administration encourages students and teachers who are interested in participating to apply online at the websites below. Students must be at least 15 years old and have a strong ability to communicate in English. Students who have participated in an Olympiad, or a national Olympiad selection camp, or have received one of the first three awards in the Senior Secondary Division of the National Primary and High School Science Fair, or the Taiwan International Science Fair are eligible to apply.

The participating teachers must be 40 or younger and must also have an excellent ability to communicate in English. Teachers who can also communicate in Japanese and who have experience supervising students taking part in science Olympiads, exhibitions, and similar activities are encouraged to apply.

The Ministry of Education K-12 Education Administration encourages eligible students and teachers to apply online at the websites below. Applications close February 15, 2020.

Students apply here: https://forms.gle/2GeYbr9RNaTbn7Ec7

Teachers apply here: https://forms.gle/MW7MCGin3PopUC2D6

In order to foster the atmosphere of character and/or moral education in schools, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced the Guidelines for Facilitating Character and/or Moral Education Programs in 2004. To correspond with social development and in combination with the meaning of the Curriculum Guidelines of 12-Year Basic Education and the needs of the teaching environment, the MOE announced a revised program on June 12, 2019: primary, junior, and senior high schools were to be guided in utilizing the methods of coherence, integration and topic incorporation to complete the instructional design and implement this in various fields/subject courses; colleges and universities were encouraged to utilize the methods of cross-educational levels cooperation, to work together with communities, private organizations and the schools’ local counties and local cities to fulfill university social responsibilities and implement the concepts of taking the initiative, engaging in interaction, and seeking the common good.

Meanwhile, the MOE has encouraged schools at all levels to integrate core values of morality in accordance with the concepts of this project, including: Respect for Life, Filial Piety, Fraternal Duty, Benevolence and Love, Honesty and Credibility, Self- discipline and Responsibility, Humility and Tolerance, Appreciation and Gratitude, Caring and Beneficence, Fairness and Justice, and Uprightness and Self-restraint. Through the integration of resources, the depth and breadth of the implementation of character and/or moral education will be enhanced and will cultivate students with humanistic literacy, professional skills, the ability to make a living and diverse soft power. Nurturing citizens with literacies of modern citizenship including character and/or morality, civil literacy, knowing gratitude, knowledge of the rule of law, uprightness, and respect for human rights thus intensely cultivates character and/or moral culture in the Republic of China (Taiwan).

In 2019, a total of 72 teachers and students of Taiwan participated in the above activities, including 41 students going to Germany as exchange students for one semester, 15 students participated in summer school, and 16 teachers and students went to Germany for short-term research and study in the autumn. In addition, 12 students of Germany also came to Taiwan for a semester student exchange in the field of engineering and management. Mr. Zhong, a student who went to Germany for training, indicated that the features of German education could be experienced through the assistance of the TAItech- HAWtech Alliance. These features included having student-centered learning in the classroom, they were encouraged to think and solve problems while emphasizing practicality and operation, and they implemented knowledge into daily life, which all correspond to the Problem-Based Learning approach that our nation is promoting.

Wen-Yuan Chen, the chairman of TAItech Alliance and the president of National Chin-Yi University of Technology, indicated that the alliance universities and colleges in our nation will focus on discussing the exchange and the cooperation with Germany in March, 2020 and they will all participate in the second HAWtech-TAItech Roundtable Agenda organized by Germany in June, 2020. In addition to deepening and refining the cooperation content of the original agreement, it is expected that there will be more cooperation and development in technological and vocational education between our nation and Germany.

Through the TAItech-HAWtech Alliance, teachers and students go to Germany for short-term exchange and communication and to experience German-style teaching in person. Guided by edification and collaborative participation, this different teaching style trains students’ thoughts and helps them to express their own opinion fearlessly. At the same time, this different teaching style emphasizes exploration and mastery of knowledge and skills in practical courses, and through benign interactive discussions, students will not only enhance their critical thinking, but also have the opportunity to develop themselves through their own learning process, thus increasing their own learning initiatives, setting their own learning goals and directions, and making greater achievements in their own future careers.

The International Day of Education originated from the 44th plenary meeting of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly 73rd session in December 2018, which designated January 24 each year as 'International Day of Education'. The theme set by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) of 2019 is to emphasize the different functions and comprehensiveness of 'Education' in the four major directions of People, Planet, Prosperity and Peace. Starting from 'People', education will help all people develop their talents fully and realize their potential, including responsibility for their own lives and the capacity to contribute to society. Especially in the face of climate and environmental changes, we need to reshape a sustainable development thinking and model for the ‘Planet’ that allows humans to live in greater harmony with the natural world.

Meanwhile, UNESCO indicates that education also includes vocational skills development. In the long term, promoting education can effectively improve the world's poverty problem and bring 'Prosperity'. In addition, education is a condition for political participation and democracy, and when access to it is truly equitable, education will assist in building a society of 'Peace'.

The UN announced 17 goals of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on December 25, 2015. The fourth goal is 'Quality Education' and its aim is to ensure: 1. In teaching, there should be no distinction of class. 2. Quality education needs to be inclusive and equitable. 3. Lifelong learning for all. The MOE indicates that how to promote 'Quality Education' has always been the focus of the MOE, in order to provide inclusive, equitable, and high-quality education, and develop Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Article 4 of the ROC's (Taiwan's) Educational Fundamental Act officially proclaims: 'All people, regardless of their sexes, ages, abilities, geographic locality, ethnic groups, religious beliefs or political ideas, social or economic standings or other conditions, have equal opportunity for receiving education. Special protection on the education for indigenous peoples, the physically or mentally challenged or other disadvantaged groups shall be provided with considerations of their autonomy and special characteristics in accordance with relevant laws and regulations to support their development'. This fully demonstrates the persistence of fairness and justice in educational opportunities, and the promotion of the Curriculum Guidelines of 12-Year Basic Education is designed to nurture students by their nature so that they may achieve their goals under the concepts of taking initiative, engaging in interaction, and seeking the common good.

Since 2006, 15-year-old students in the ROC (Taiwan) have participated in the international evaluation results of the 'Programme for International Student Assessment'(PISA), conducting an international assessment study on Mathematics, Science and Reading Literacy to examine students' ability to apply the acquired knowledge to life and solve genuine problems. According to the survey of 'Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development' (OECD), the overall achievements of ROC (Taiwan) over the years are more outstanding than 70 other countries, and the global rankings for Mathematics and Science have been among the best. This demonstrates that the achievements of the ROC's (Taiwan's) quality education have a certain foundation.

After the Executive Yuan approved and announced the Sustainable Development Goals of Taiwan, the MOE dedicated itself to providing inclusive and equitable quality education and developing ESD. Thus, first, the MOE attaches great importance to: the implementation of quality of childcare and basic education in primary and junior high schools, ensuring students gain basic competence, helping adaptive development of junior high school students, providing affordable high-quality education opportunities for higher education, enhancing youth employment development and lifelong learning capabilities, strengthening information communication skills, and ensuring that persons with disabilities, disadvantaged children and indigenous people receive education at all stages. This is the educational function corresponding to the 'People' and 'Prosperity' of the International Day of Education.

Secondly, the implementation of University Social Responsibility Plan, Middle-term Plan for Human Rights and Civic Education, requires the incorporation of civic education, gender equality education and environmental education into various courses, and continuously unblocking channels of students and public affairs that enact the meaning of ESD, in order to reshape sustainable development thinking and a model for the 'Planet' that allows humans to live in greater harmony with the natural world, which will also be conducive to building a 'Peaceful' society as well.

Facing the international call that climate change has been upgraded to a climate emergency in recent years, sustainable development will focus attention on the three aspects of promoting society, environment and economy. It is also the most appropriate solution to the impact of extreme weather events. Since Taiwan is located in a region with high climate risks, the MOE will strengthen the main concepts of education on the 17 SDGs and integrate them into teaching activities in various fields by promoting the Curriculum Guidelines of 12-Year Basic Education. Thus, by taking Quality Education as the core and effectively linking closely related respective goals it can fully care for the issues of 'People', 'Planet', 'Prosperity' and 'Peace' and implement ESD.

With the purpose of highlighting the theme of the International Day of Education this year and the importance that is attached to SDGs, the MOE indicated in particular that education is the most important foundation for the maintenance and development of society. In order to provide inclusive, equitable, and high-quality education opportunities and promote ESD, the ROC (Taiwan) has established a good foundation in terms of law and policy implementation and has produced outstanding achievements. Facing the impact of the current climate emergency, developed countries around the world have expeditiously launched carbon trade, corporate social responsibility and other political and economic systems to correspond to low-carbon and sustainable environmental protection actions with economic and social forces: climate action is in full swing! The ROC (Taiwan) is dedicated to promoting SDGs and education is the first priority.

The MOE encourages schools at all levels to connect campus hardware, software and courses to the SDGs to deepen the link between the ROC (Taiwan) and international development trends, and expects that all county and city government education departments will actively promote SDGs in the future, so that the ROC's (Taiwan's) SDGs can be implemented due to the quality education in schools.

The trial operation period of PLR is from January 1^st, 2020 to December 31, 2022, which is jointly conducted and planned by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education, with the mission of our government carrying out the core value of public libraries and encouraging cultural creation. While establishing public libraries to provide the public services of lending books, our government also undertakes the joint operational measures for promoting knowledge and rewarding creators. The aforementioned measures are expected to guarantee compensation for creators’ rights under our comprehensive cultural policies. It is hoped that through the implementation of PLR, our nation’s support to cultural creators is fully declared, so as to promote reading, and as well as to facilitate the development of publishing.

Every human being below the age of eighteen years is classified as a "child" and guaranteed by the CRC, which emphasizes special protection and care offered to juveniles. The CRC has 54 articles in total, regulating the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the child. The content of the CRC has clarified that the child is the subject of the rights with the following four major principles to guarantee the rights to the child:

(i) Non-discrimination (IAW CRC art. 2): This principle guarantees the full range of rights listed in the CRC in completeness, with a dominant status, and emphasizes equal opportunity, and the children's right of non-discrimination, namely, any child shall not suffer any tangible or intangible discriminations or punishments.

(ii) Best interests of the child (IAW CRC art. 3): This principle is regarded as the foundation of CRC.  In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be the primary consideration.

(iii) The right to life, survival and development (IAW CRC art. 6): The right to development does not only refer to physical health, but also includes developments of mental, emotional, cognitive, social, and cultural aspects. States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life. States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child.

(iv) Respect for the views of the child (IAW CRC art. 12): This principle aims at assuring the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.

The implementation of the fourth principle can enhance children's judgements regarding their own relevant affairs, enabling the child to be fully prepared to live an individual life in society.

The CRC reflects and emphasizes new concepts on ways of treating children, and that children are not only independent subjects, but they are also able to autonomously strive for their rights. The purpose of the CRC aims at emphasizing that families, nations and the international world should all be devoting themselves to building a friendly living environment for achieving the goal of children's best interests and greatest welfare. In addition to the subjectivity of children and juveniles, the rights of the child also include families and their surroundings, giving up children for adoption, adoption, foster care, the judicial system for juveniles, economic exploitation, substance abuse, human trafficking, and the policy system in central and local governments. Before promoting the CRC, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan) has made great efforts in safeguarding children's and juveniles' rights, in hoping to assist each child to understand the rights of the child. After passing the Implementation Act of the Convention on the Rights of the Child until today, the Ministry of Education has continuously and comprehensively reviewed relevant judicial regulations and policies to confirm whether they fulfill both the spirit of the CRC as well as its four fundamental principles. In order to safeguard the rights of the child, managements and revisions have been carried out with time spans divisions of short, middle, and long terms. After proposing our national report, the Ministry of Education has continuously guaranteed equal rights to education, and the compulsory education for students from ages of 6 to 15, which is free from entrance examinations, tuition fees, and compulsory school entrance, and has promoted the downward extension of basic education. With the following three major strategies, "expanding public educare services", "establishing the quasi-public educare system", and "expanding the provision of childcare subsidies", children are safeguarded to obtain respect and care. According to the conclusive comments in the ROC's Initial Report, the Ministry of Education has implemented, managed, and evaluated operational procedures and follow-up supervisions, in order to fulfill specific CRC measures.

"A Child's Business is Everyone's Business" is the fundamental spirit of the CRC, where all policies take children's best interests as a priori consideration. In the future, the Ministry of Education will unceasingly safeguard juveniles' rights to healthy growth and development through efforts of educational conveyance, guidance and adjustments in order to enhance children's and juveniles' equal treatment in education, communities, and welfare administration, which respects juveniles' subjectivity and their fundamental rights in legislative, judicial and administrative procedures, enabling juveniles to have appropriate care and protection, so as to have opportunities to fulfil themselves, and prepare for their future.

    The theme of this year’s competition was Empathy, in response to the increasing importance of people being in harmony with each other and the environment, especially as we face a rapidly changing world, with an increasing focus on holistic development. Young designers are encouraged to call on their hearts and empathy, as they interpret the relationships between people, and between people and the environment, which have become among a most critical issue in recent years. Many of this year's winners have clearly conveyed related messages, demonstrating their understanding of and reflections on empathy as well as and the social responsibilities that being a professional designer entails.

    The award ceremony for the 2019 Taiwan International Student Design Competition, together with an exhibition of the winning works, will be held on December 6 in the Eslite Performance Hall at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei City. The public is warmly invited to attend.

Seventy-four (74) winning pieces have been chosen to receive one of the following awards: • the Grand Prix, sponsored by the Ministry of Education; the International Design Association special prizes; • gold, silver, and three bronze prizes in each of the categories Product Design, Visual Design, and Digital Animation; • 25 honorable mentions, and 22 international design association special prizes, distributed to entries in these three categories. There were also • a gold, a silver, three bronzes, and six honorable mentions for the ITRI Technique Innovation Award.

    The 2019 Grand Prix went to The Dyslexperience, by Zi Fong Yong and Ng Ai Ling from National University of Singapore. Their winning entry sheds light on the general indifference of the public towards the daily challenges faced by people who have dyslexia. They projected enhanced images onto real books to convey and make viewers realize the kind of sensory experiences dyslexics face, and thereby empathize with them. Their entry fully expresses empathy. It received acclaim from the judges and won its creators the grand prix prize of NTD$ 400,000.

    The Gold Prize winners in the four categories are from Singapore, Japan, and Taiwan.The Gold Prize winner in the Product Design category is Winny Widodo from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore. Her work, NODE Furniture Series, is a furniture—inspired by children’s love of rocking horses and elderly people’s love of rocking chairs—is designed for different generations to enjoy using. Winny has created outstanding, space-saving furniture that is quite different from conventional designs.

    The Gold Prize winner in the Visual Design category is Fumio Kajitani from Tokyo University of the Arts, for the entry titled Forms of Love. This expresses the concept that different people each have their own different experiences and interpretations of love. More than 200 people participated in the creating of this experiential work, and both its creative concept and the techniques used drew praise from the judges.

    The Gold Prize in the Digital Animation category went to The Sea Within The Room, a work by Ho Yun-Zhen, Liu Ya-Ching, and Hsueh Fang-Yi from National Taiwan University of Arts. Their work depicts the story of a sexual assault victim's "freeze responses". The victim of an assault was so scared that she went blank and could not react or fight back. The calm, highly restrained, and unexaggerated storytelling style and techniques impressed the judges.

The Gold Prize in the Brand Specified category is shared by Chen Zhi-Fan from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, and Hu Hui-Ping and Chang Wei-Chun from Ming Chi University of Technology. Their entry, AI Oculur, is a form of firefighting equipment that integrates sensors into firefighters’ masks and fire hose nozzles. It enhances firefighting efficiency and at the same time reduces the risks that firefighters face at work. These highly practical features won the designers the gold prize in the ITRI Technique Innovation Award.

The list of all the award winners has been released and it can be viewed on the MOE website (https://depart.moe.edu.tw/ed2200/) and the TISDC (www.tisdc.org) website. The general public is welcome to attend the award ceremony on December 6, and there will also be a further opportunity to enjoy some of the work of these international student designers, at an exhibition of their excellent designs pieces which will be held in the National Library of Public Information in Taichung, from December 3 to December 15.

    The preliminary selections were held in Singapore and in Taiwan, and 612 entries were shortlisted for the final round. A jury panel with members from 20 countries or regions then selected the 74 award-winning entries, among which 32 are entries by Taiwanese students.

    The awards comprise: • the grand prix, sponsored by the Ministry of Education; the international design association special prizes; • the gold, silver, and three bronze prizes in each of the categories Product Design, Visual Design, and Digital Animation; • 25 honorable mentions, and 22 international design association special prizes, distributed to entries in these three categories. There were also • a gold, a silver, three bronzes, and six honorable mentions for the newly established ITRI Innovation Award (Brand Specified), set up by the Industrial Technology Research Institute.

    This year's grand prix winners are Zi Fong Yong and Ng Ai Ling from National University of Singapore. Their winning entry, The Dyslexperience, is a book design that fully embodies a spirit of empathy and sheds light on the general indifference of the public towards people who have dyslexia. Enhanced images were projected onto a physical book to give readers an experience that makes them realize the daily challenges that dyslexics face, and thereby empathize with people who have this disorder. This entry received acclaim from the majority of the jurors and won its creators the grand prix prize of NTD$ 400,000.

The major prize winning entries are all mature and fascinating works that stood out among the enormous number submitted. Two of the four gold-prize winning entries were designed and created by students from Singapore and Japan respectively, and the other two gold-prize winning entries were designed and created by students from Taiwan.

The gold-prize winner in the Product Design category is Winny Widodo from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, for her work titled NODE Furniture Series. This series of furniture pieces—inspired by children's rocking horses and the elderly people's rocking chairs—crosses generations, allowing children and the elderly to use it together. Winny has created fine, space-saving furniture that is different from conventional designs.

    The gold-prize winner in the Visual Design category is Fumio Kajitani from Tokyo University of the Arts, for the entry titled Forms of Love. Its concept is that everyone has their own experience and interpretation of love. The designer invited more than 200 people to participate in the creating of this piece by reflecting on themselves and their feelings about love, and different profiles and portraits of love are integrated into the design.

    The gold prize in the Digital Animation category is shared by Ho Yun-Zhen, Liu Ya-Ching, and Hsueh Fang-Yi from National Taiwan University of Arts. Their work, The Sea Within The Room, addresses the issue of sexual assault and depicts the "freezing behavior" of victims during such incidents. In the animated story, the protagonist witnesses as the assault on her is occurring yet, out of fear, she cannot control her body and resist. The highly restrained method and style of the storytelling won acclaim from the jurors.

    The gold prize in the Brand Specified category is shared by Chen Zhi-Fan from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology and Hu Hui-Ping and Chang Wei-Chun from Ming Chi University of Technology. Their entry, AI Oculur, is a form of firefighting equipment that integrates sensors into masks and water-jet nozzles. It provides firefighters with an efficient way of firefighting and can largely reduce the risks that firefighters face at work. This highly practical entry won the gold prize in the ITRI Innovation Award (Brand Specified).

    A list of all the winners can be found on the website of the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education (https://depart.moe.edu.tw/ed2200/) and on the website of the Taiwan International Student Design Competition (www.tisdc.org). The award ceremony and an exhibition of the winning works will take place on December 6, in the Eslite Performance Hall at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (88 Yanchang Road, Xinyi District, Taipei City). The public is warmly invited to attend.

The intensive language program, was designed by and held at the Chinese Language Center at Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages. It included culture and education exchanges, to learn about the multifaceted Chinese language education that Taiwan offers. As well as learning some Chinese—listening, speaking, reading, and writing—and visiting cultural sites, in response to a request from participants, visits were also arranged to local government and vocational schools.

An opening ceremony was held at the university on October 19. Director-General Siti Aminah Binti Ibrahim from Kedah State Education Department (Academic Affairs), Margaret Mei-Hua Chen, the president of Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages, and Deputy Education Counselor Wei-Yu Huang from the Ministry of Education’s Department of International and Cross-strait Education, were among the dignitaries taking part.  

During her opening remarks, Huang Wei-Yu explained that Taiwan provides excellent Chinese teachers and high-quality teaching materials as part of its promotion of Chinese language education. Taiwan continues to use traditional Chinese characters and students who come to Taiwan to learn Chinese can get a taste of traditional Chinese culture, in combination with modern life under a democratic government. They can also get to meet some of Taiwan’s friendly and passionate people. These are all commonly mentioned features of learning Chinese in Taiwan.

Taiwan currently has 62 Chinese language centers that accept overseas students, and 18 universities with departments dedicated to training professional Chinese language teachers. Taiwan can certainly help to satisfy Malaysian’s demand for opportunities to learn Chinese by offering comprehensive and professional Chinese teaching products and services, such as language programs, Chinese teachers, language proficiency certification, and teaching materials.

This international conference is based on the main concept of "Designing the Narrative for 100 Years", to discuss the idea that when people grow older, it's not about being pessimistic, but having hope in mind. The sharing of practical promotional planning in their own countries by foreign scholars offers related authorities in our nation references for further planning. In 2026, Taiwan will become a super-aged society. As we encounter more and more aged elders, long-term care is not the only phenomenon which we face; we also need to encourage elders to have learning motivation, for both altering negative stereotypes of elders to the public, and enabling our society to witness that the whole active aging generation lives with their own positive values of life's meaning.

Another is to boost ongoing related communications and exchanges, as a result of conference attendees sharing their experiences of participating in and promoting the development of principals’ and teachers’ professional learning communities. We look forward to developing best-practice models for principals’ curriculum leadership and for professional learning communities.  

The Ministry of Education invited five eminent scholars and principals from Sweden, Finland, and Singapore—all with expertise in the theories and practice of principal leadership—to speak at the conference. This will give local principals an opportunity to learn more about and draw on how principal leadership has developed in Sweden, Finland, and Singapore, as they refine their part in the future direction of curriculum leadership in Taiwan.

The conference has three main components, outlined below.

1. Two keynote speakers will address the conference about the principal leadership related development trends in their own countries. In the morning, Dr. Marjo Kyllönen, Head of the Development Service Unit in Finland, will speak on Sustainable Leadership in a Changing World—How to Lead in a Successful Way the Transformation of Education, and in the afternoon, Dr. Niclas Rönnström, a professor at Stockholm University, will speak on The Growing Institutionalization of Instructional Leadership: Merits, Discontents and Alternatives.

2. Observation Reports by the other overseas experts: two school principals—Dr. Agneta Torsell from Finland, and Dr. Henrik Ljungqvist from Sweden—and Dr. Zoe Boon, from the National Institute of Education at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

In the three days immediately before the conference, they conducted real-time observations of the operations of teachers’ professional learning community (PLC) workshops, and the conversations of the participating teachers, at elementary, and junior, and senior high school level schools in three different parts of Taiwan: 1. in northern Taiwan - Xinzhuang Elementary School, Hongdao Junior High School, and the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University, on October 28, 2. in southern Taiwan -  Kaohsiung Oil Refinery Elementary School, Minghua Junior High School, and Rueisiang High School, and 3. in central Taiwan - Ta Keng Elementary School, Shiang Shang Junior High School, and Hui-Wen High School, on October 28, 29, and 30, respectively.

They will give the conference reports on their observations of the workshops and give their appraisals of how PLCs can work in elementary, and junior and senior high schools, and two different PLC formats: single school or cross-school.

3. Experiences of professional learning communities in Taiwan

Twenty-six principals of schools that participate in cross-school PLCs will then share their schools’ experiences of principals’ PLCs and teachers’ PLCs, and of promoting their development (9 giving oral presentations, 17 in poster format). Their focus will be on how their PLCs work and some of the discussions the PLCs have led to and facilitated, particularly on themes related to Taiwan’s 12-Year Basic Education.

The Ministry of Education encourages all elementary and secondary principals to engage in professional development to consolidate their understanding and appreciation of curriculum leadership and enhance their effective school leadership. During the conference certificates will be issued to 89 principals, eligible to receive beginner level Principal Curriculum Leadership Certification, and to another 87 principals, who have each completed all the A+ Navigators Seminars on Principal Instructional Leadership.  The sharing of experiences, conversations, reflections, and learning activities at this conference, and afterwards, will no doubt facilitate this.

International Conference on Curriculum Leadership for Principals Agenda

Date: November 1, 2019

Venue: Conference Room 201, NTUH International Convention Center

“We are glad and proud of the students, who show their enthusiasm in research and share in confidence their experiences in institutes and internship companies,” Minister Pan said in the media interview. He pointed out that Taiwan was ranked the 4^th place as Super Innovators in the latest Global Competitiveness Report published by Geneva-based World Economic Forum. The government should especially give credits to those talents in arts and design. SPOSAD is one of MOE’s important projects to nurture more innovation talents. It has been carried out for over 10 years and there are now 284 students returning from abroad. The project is now inclusive of 5 groups, including Digital Media, Visual Communication Design, Product Design, Architecture and Landscape Design, and the newly established Fashion Design. MOE takes it as a great responsibility to invest and nurture Taiwan talents, hoping that the students could use their abilities in arts and design to reverse Taiwan and the world and further turn a new leaf for the development on this land.

Digital Media

An Intern at Illumination Mac Guff

Jo-Ying Lee, a student of National Taiwan University of Arts, receives the SPODAD scholarship and attends Gobelins, L'école de L'image, which is ranked No.1 among European Animation Schools. In her time abroad, with her impressive portfolio, she applied and successfully earned an internship at Illumination Mac Guff. Illumination Mac Guff is an animation company based in Paris France. The company produces famous animation movies like the series of Despicable Me and Millions. By joining the pipeline of animation movies, Lee improved her own animation by exchange opinions among animators. She found in France, there is no hierarchy among senior and junior animators. Everyone could be one’s teacher and the vision of a work is actually broadened by interpersonal relations. Now she is in the team producing Millions 2. By learning skills and attitude at the same time, she is on her way to become an animator in France.

Visual Communication Design

Design x Medical Treatment to Make a Better World

Swinburne University is one of the most famous design schools in Australia. When in school, Chiao-Yu Chang not only skilled in graphic design but also joined Design Bureau, a course based on industry-academy cooperation. By engaging herself in a real-life situation, she talked with the clients in person and proposed design solutions. In one case, she found the inconvenience of the handicapped in life and strived to make a wheel chair designed on paper into a real product. The project impressed her client and also earned herself an 8-month internship in Cabrini, a company in Australia. She was assigned to a team developing the 2^nd generation of a health-care app interface for pregnant women. Chang was just the example of design by Projects. She upgraded herself from a graphic designer to a project leader, coordinating with engineers in materials, mechanics and program. In the past year, she expanded her field into the medical area. What once had frustrated her became the sources moving her forward. The employer was impressed with her excellence and even wrote a recommendation letter for her. Now returning to Taiwan, Chang is already recruited into an American advertisement company.

Product Design

The Journey on Realizing the Design Dream

Tsai-Chen Ho, a cheerful girl wrote down the goal to become a product designer in her high school homework at Age 13. Her family doesn’t understand her but Ho shows her outstanding design capacity and wins the SPOSAD scholarship to study at the Delft University of Technology (TUD), Netherland for one year. Almost each international student, including Ho, has to experience the feeling of homesick. Ho especially misses her 90-year-old grandpa. This kind of emotion drives her to create ”Hello Hello”, a device that is friendly to the elder users and the environment. She utilizes an old smartphone to connect a cardboard-made device with physical buttons that provides a user-friendly and familiar tool for the elders to communicate with others. In addition, the device brings a new product life to the unwanted smartphones. After this year's study in Netherland, Ho decides to continue her professional development and complete her Master's degree at TUD. Now her design dream in childhood is coming true.

For more information about Scholarship Program for Overseas Study in Arts and Design, please go on the website (https://www.media.yuntech.edu.tw/) or its fan’s page on Facebook.

On January 28, 2019, both parties signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Higher Education between the Ministry of Education (MOE) - Taipei and the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF)-Vienna in two nations. Under the cooperation framework of this MoU, each government of the two nations offers EUR 300,000 to establish scholarships for students to have studies, research, and exchanges. Our government provides students with costs of stay, NTD 35,000 per month, maximum for four months and travel costs maximum for NTD 52,500.

After receiving study permission from cooperative schools in Austria, selected students can therefore apply for this scholarship. The Ministry of Education invites experts and scholars to undertake the review works in accordance with the fields for which students apply. The review contents include the importance of the applied fields, study and research plans, students’ academic performance, students’ outstanding records, and other related documents. 23 students in total will respectively go to the following five schools to study, and undertake research or exchanges: Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, MCI Management Center Innsbruck, University of Applied Sciences – Fachhochschule Kufstein FH Tirol, University of Applied Science (UAS) Technikum Wien International, and University of Applied Science Upper Austria.

The Ministry of Education hopes to encourage outstanding students to go to Austria to study and have research or exchanges, through the “Taiwan and Austria Higher Education Science and Research Seed Funding” Scholarship. The Taiwan and Austria academic cooperation and the foundation of promotional interchange network are also expected to be jointly enhanced and strengthened, so as to enrich international exchange experiences of excellent students in our nation.