In order to attract outstanding young people with enthusiasm for education to give full play to their talents in the teaching scene, the Center for Teacher Education of National Chung Cheng University (CCU) has been running the teacher education program to cultivate regular pre-service teachers and state financed student teachers for many years, and gained many excellent results. Especially in recent years, not only did all new graduates from the program of CCU Center for Teacher Education pass the certification and become qualified teachers last year, but also did this year’s graduates come up with great performance in certification with the passing rate of 90% which was announced by Ministry of Education (MOE) recently. The outstanding achievement has allowed CCU to stand out of the 43 universities with similar teacher education program to be one of the only 6 institutions winning the award of 2023 Priority Funding University in Teacher Education for State Financed Student Teachers. CCU Center for Teacher Education stated that the award will enable CCU to deepen the connection with county and city governments and secondary schools of the country, as well as having MOE, the county and the city governments given priority to support CCU teacher education program with better funding and bigger admission quota of state financed students being allocated to the university.

Since 2017, the CCU Center for Teacher Education has been well following the MOE policy and working closely with the CCU departments that provide courses to state financed student teachers in Teacher Education Program. Dr. Chi-Shun Lien, Director of CCU Center for Teacher Education and Associate Professor of CCU College of Education, said that in addition to planning education courses based on different subjects, the Center also makes arrangements for the state financed student teachers to go to their soon–to-be-placed schools for class observation, trial teaching and voluntary services, so that these student teachers can have a chance to familiarize themselves with the future teaching environment and preform a good relationship with school teachers and students before officially starting their teaching career.

To give full support to state financed student teachers, every semester, CCU Center for Teacher Education invites local county and city governments and the representatives from the soon-to-be-placed schools of these state financed student teachers, to jointly hold a counseling meeting specifically designed for CCU state financed student teachers. The purposes of the meeting are to facilitate these student teachers to successfully complete their studies and learn how to exert their strengths in the schools where they are employed, to benefit their own students in rural areas when the student teachers have gone on their duties. In the past few years, CCU Center for Teacher Education has cultivated many state financed student teachers for rural schools with the shortage of qualified teachers in Yunlin, Chiayi, and Taitung areas. These state financed student teachers are the significantly important source of qualified teachers to support the rural education system and improve the learning-teaching quality in the remote areas.

Dr. Lien mentioned that this time, CCU was recognized by MOE with the award of 2023 Priority Funding University in Teacher Education for State Financed Student Teachers due to last year’s 100% passing rate as all new graduates (student teachers in-general) from CCU Center for Teacher Education passed the teacher certification, and this year's great results in teacher certification having graduates (student teachers in-general) in 9 out of 10 categories passed with 100% rate in the teacher certification. Dr. Lien further pointed out that the outstanding performance in teacher certification is the basis for MOE to decide how many state financed student teachers to be allocated to the universities, and the benchmark for how many places of scholarships will be distributed to the universities with Teacher Education Program for their student teachers in-general. In the past, only one to four student teachers in-general were eligible to receive scholarship. This year, the number has been increased, a total of five CCU student teachers in-general shall be benefited. Each student teachers in-general who are eligible for scholarships can receive a monthly reward of NT$8,000 throughout their studies.

CCU Center for Teacher Education stated that, unlike other student teachers or pre-service teachers in-general, state financed student teachers are subsidized by the Ministry of Education for their tuition, miscellaneous fees and the accommodation costs during their studies in the university. These state financed student teachers become qualified once they have graduated from the teacher education program. As for becoming the student teachers in-general in the program, at present, the 17 subjects open to students to enroll in the teacher education program covering the academic fields across humanity, sciences, engineering, law, business, management, and social sciences. And nearly 90% of the undergraduate and graduate students in CCU are eligible for training. The interested students are asked to apply for the training place in the teacher education program to match with their professional academic training of particular fields in different departments of the university. Any CCU students with enthusiasm in giving full play to their talents in the teaching scene are welcome to apply for the teacher education program, being admitted as a student teacher in-general and together, to contribute to Taiwan's education.