Taipei, June 23 (CNA) Taipei Municipal Xisong High School on Wednesday opened registration for an International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP), becoming the first public high school in Taiwan to offer the program, which provides a qualification for entry into many universities worldwide.

Entry to the three-year educational program, aimed at 16- to 19-year-olds, will require an exam in the school on June 27, and the results will be announced on July 13, the Taipei education department said.

Junior high school students can register online June 23-24, once they have earned the required grades in English and Mathematics in the recent Comprehensive Assessment Program (CAP), the department said.

When the new school year starts in September, Xisong High School will open its IBDP with 25 students, according to the department.

In February, Xisong High School was designated an IB World School, becoming the first public high school in Taiwan to gain authorization to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.

The program provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry into many universities around the world. It was developed in the 1960s in Switzerland by a group of international educators and is now taught in more than 140 countries, in English, Spanish or French.

The other eight schools in Taiwan that offer the IBDP are all private institutions, including the international Taipei European School and Kaohsiung American School.

Xisong is one of the public high schools in a pilot project launched by the Taipei City government to expand opportunities for high school students to obtain a qualification that would fast-track them to overseas university study.