A memorandum of agreement (MoA) was signed between New Zealand Government-to-Government (G2G) Know-How and the National Foreign Languages Project under the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) at the 2019 New Zealand Education Fair in Hanoi last weekend. The ceremony was attended by the Ambassador of New Zealand in Vietnam H.E Wendy Matthews as well as students and parents.

The MoA proposes bringing New Zealand’s universities, government agencies, and research institutes to work together with the National Foreign Languages Project, providing expertise building, teacher training courses, and joint research programs to develop English-language teaching and learning capabilities for Vietnam’s national education system.

The cooperation aims to support Vietnam in reaching its goal of thoroughly renovating the quality of teaching and learning foreign languages at every school level and for every training degree, and integrating foreign languages into other subjects, creating a foundation for the universalization of foreign languages in general education by 2025.

“This MoA is another important milestone in New Zealand and Vietnam’s flourishing education cooperation relationship,” Ambassador Matthews said at the signing. “We already have a strong education relationship based on decades of working together, but have great ambition to achieve more. This can be seen in the New Zealand - Vietnam Strategic Engagement Plan on Education 2018-2020, which sets out targets for student exchanges, sharing experience on curriculum development, and institution-to-institution joint programs, and the goal of increasing the number of Vietnamese students in New Zealand by 30 per cent by 2020.”

The MoA reaffirms New Zealand’s commitment to widening the opportunities for New Zealand-Vietnam cooperation in education excellence. In addition to New Zealand’s scholarships for post-graduate students, Ambassador Matthews also updated those in attendance on the new New Zealand Schools Scholarships (NZSS), offered exclusively to Vietnamese students.

NZSS provides support for talented Vietnamese high school students (Grade 8, 9 and 10) with scholarships covering 100 per cent, 50 per cent, and 30 per cent of tuition fees for the first year of study. The scholarship is the first of its kind, aiming to further strengthen the education links between the two countries.

The New Zealand Government-to-Government (G2G) Partnerships Office provides a means for overseas governments to access proven New Zealand know-how on a commercial basis as they go about growing their own capabilities. The G2G team connects Vietnam with key government agencies, as well as science, research and education institutes, and private sector participants. They can also access the best expertise - both public and private.

VN Econmic Times