Foreign students would be allowed to take Taiwan’s teacher certification exam for the first time next year, with all applicants now required to pass the exam before taking part in an internship, the Ministry of Education said yesterday.
The ministry released information on next year’s certification exams for teachers at kindergartens, as well as elementary, junior and senior-high schools.
It included the announcement that for the first time, foreign Chinese-language students would be allowed to sit the exam if they first pass a pre-service teacher education program.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
Applicants would also have to pass the exam before starting a teaching internship, a rule introduced in August to boost the exam pass rate, Department of Teacher Training and Art Education Director-General Cheng Yuan-chuan (鄭淵全) said.
The old rule required applicants to finish the internship first, but many found teaching uninteresting and did not take the certification exam, resulting in a pass rate of about 60 percent, Cheng said.
For the two exams next year, scheduled for March 9 and June 1, candidates falling under the old and new rules would be accepted, the ministry said.
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