Twenty years of South Australian Certificate of Education International being taught in China celebrated in 2024
Celebrating 20 years of the South Australian Certificate of Education International being taught at Qianhuang Senior Middle School in Changzhou district was a highlight of the visit to China by the programme's South Australian team in 2024. Inset: The launch of the South Australian Matriculation (SAM) programme in Jiangsu Province Qianhuang Senior Middle School, China.
Images courtesy South Australian Certificate of Education International
The SACE (South Australian Certificate of Education) International team visit to China in 2024 included celebrating the 20 years' partnership with Qian Huang Senior Middle School in Changzhou district. During that time, more than 1,600 graduates from Qian Huang Senior Middle School with South Australian Certificate of Education qualifications had accessed entry to top universities across the world
SACE International was successfully taught in the Asia Pacific region from 1982, with more than 40,000 students completing their South Australian Certificate of Education course. The programme started in Malaysia and spread to schools in China (2005), Vietnam (2017) and Vanuatu (2018). Students were awarded the South Australian Certificate of Education by the SACE Board of South Australia.
In 2019, another seven schools in Asia – four in China, two in Vietnam and one in Malaysia – started offering South Australia’s flagship certificate course to 200 students. The new schools were – China: Shenzhen Nanshan School, Chongqing Weiming School, Wuhan Weiming School, and Qingdao Weiming School; Vietnam: Hanoi Adelaide School and Saigon Practice High School; Malaysia: ICAN College.
Known as SACE International in countries outside Australia, the pre-university program at that stage was being taught in 21 schools in four countries. SACE voard of South Australia chief cxecutive, professor Martin Westwell, said the new schools’ decision “to offer the South Australian Certificate of Education ahead of other international high school qualifications is real recognition of the quality of the SACE.” As with the SACE studied in South Australia, the SACE International promoted both academic excellence and developing capabilities needed for them to be successful university students, enterprising workers, and global citizens. “We focus on developing students to be better learners, independent thinkers, and creative problem solvers, so they will be successful in their further education, and in life.”
Abdelhamid Cherragui, director of academics of the Australian programme at the Weiming Education Group in China, said the SACE’s strengths was its diversity and flexibility: “The variety of subjects, and the programmess within each subject makes the SACE easily applicable in the contemporary Chinese context. The same diversity and flexibility of the SACE program provides us with the necessary educational tools to develop a future-proof curriculum and prepare our students to be productive members of society.”
