In early 2008, the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched the initiative "Schools: Partners for the Future". in January, the then Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived in Vietnam. Here he signed an agreement on cooperation in education and the implementation of the PASCH initiative in Vietnam. And in March 2008 the Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung visited, the Federal Republic. These state visits gave powerful momentum to the cooperation between the two countries in education. Several schools in Vietnam are already involved in the PASCH initiative: German was introduced in five schools in Hanoi and in two schools in Ho Chi Minh City.
As an important partner of the PASCH initiative, the Goethe-Institut contribution includes providing teachers, equipping schools with PASCH teaching and learning materials, advising schools on the selection of textbooks and providing scholarships for students. The modern textbook packages that are used in the classroom include multimedia materials such as CDs and DVDs as well as educational posters and maps. They are supplemented with materials and visual aids for regional studies.
In order to optimize the implementation of the PASCH initiative in Vietnam, the German partners invited multipliers from Vietnam on an educational trip to Germany in the spring of 2009. Representatives from the Ministry of Education and other authorities and head teachers in some of the partner schools participated. The Vietnamese delegation met in Germany with representatives of the Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut, the Pedagogical Exchange Service (PAD), the DAAD, the Minister of Culture Conference and the Center for National Schools Abroad (ZfA).
The PASCH initiative has several objectives: German as a foreign language should be promoted in Vietnamese schools. The knowledge of students about the Federal Republic should be developed and their awareness of Germany as a place to study should be increased. At the same time we need to make a contribution to the further development of the good relations between Vietnam and Germany.
The cooperation between Vietnam and Germany in the field of education has a long tradition. In 1955 - i.e. over 50 years ago - more than 300 Vietnamese students traveled to Germany. They went to school in Moritzburg, a small town near Dresden in Saxony, completed high school and university in East Germany and almost all held high positions in the administration in Vietnam. Since then, thousands of Vietnamese have studied in Germany and almost 100,000 Vietnamese currently live in Germany.
