“Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Deutschen Sprachdiplom!” - On June 6, the grade 12 German language students of Strathcona High School in Edmonton celebrated not only the peak of their career in Edmonton’s K-12 German Bilingual Program, but also their outstanding achievements at this year’s Deutsches Sprachdiplom (DSD) II exams.

German teacher Sherwin Kwong had every reason to be proud of his students who clearly demonstrated a high level of German language proficiency (B2 or C1 of the CEFR -Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) when they took the oral and written parts of the difficult exam last November and December. Many of the successful students began learning German in one of Edmonton Public’s three elementary schools which offer a German bilingual program, and then continued at Allendale Junior High School before they finished the program at Strathcona High School.

Andreas Meckes, who presented this year’s DSD diplomas on behalf of the Central Agency for Schools Abroad (ZfA, Germany), congratulated the successful students and wholeheartedly expressed his gratitude for the work and commitment of all the German teachers in the program.

The Deutsches Sprachdiplom der Kultusministerkonferenz is administered by the Central Agency for Schools Abroad (Zentralstelle für das Auslandsschulwesen, Germany) and can be taken at accredited DSD schools in more than 65 countries. The DSD II diploma provides proof of German language proficiency required for university access in Germany and other German-speaking countries.

Find out more about the Sprachdiplom language proficiency exams.