Tainan City is advancing international education with the signing of a joint dual-degree program MOU between Tainan Municipal Shalun International High School - Taiwan’s first K-12 public school - and Canada’s Outstanding International Academy (OIA) on April 15. Starting from the 2025 school year, Shalun International High’s students will have the opportunity to also earn an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) when they graduate. This initiative strengthens the global competitiveness of local students.
The signing of this MOU marks an important milestone in the city’s promotion of international education, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che remarked. Through this program, local students can earn globally recognized academic qualifications while completing their studies in Taiwan, providing them with greater options for future studies and personal growth. The city government continues to implement bilingual and international education initiatives, aiming to cultivate a new generation of globally competitive talent. By pooling resources from the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City and the Southern Taiwan semiconductor cluster, Tainan is strengthening connections between academia and industry to support local innovation and economic development.
Tainan City Bureau of Education Director-General Cheng Hsin-hui explained that the OSSD joint dual-degree program gives local students access to both domestic and Canadian courses. The flexible curricula and credit transfer mechanisms enable students to broaden their learning horizons and expand their academic choices. The customized curricula, which include online and language training courses, are mainly literacy-oriented and emphasize self-directed learning. This program is supported by the Bureau of Education and is expected to be expanded to additional schools interested in developing international courses as more experience is accumulated. The goal is to establish an international education curriculum model with distinctive Tainan characteristics.
According to Huang Ci-Huang, Director of the Tainan Municipal Shalun International High School Preparatory Office, the highly flexible joint dual-degree curriculum allows students to transfer up to 24 OSSD credits, enabling them to obtain a Canadian high school diploma simply by taking 6-7 additional core courses. The curriculum is designed to help 10th-grade students transition smoothly into the program, with courses beginning in 11th grade. Online learning options provide students with flexible scheduling to meet mandatory course and OSSD requirements. Furthermore, Shalun International High School plans to introduce all-English lecture courses for business management students to simultaneously enhance both language proficiency and subject expertise. This approach aims to give students a competitive edge, whether they choose to pursue further studies in Taiwan or abroad.