Mandarin teaching to benefit from UK-China partnership

UK – Last week, the UK’s Education Secretary, Michael Gove, announced a pioneering new partnership with China to train 1000 more Mandarin teachers for secondary schools in England.

During a visit to China, which intended to build stronger educational partnerships with the country, Mr Gove launched the joint programme between the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust and Hanban (the Confucius Institute Headquarters).

The programme is aimed at dealing with the immediate shortage of Mandarin teachers and enabling schools to meet the rapidly rising demand for Mandarin teaching.

Mandarin is an increasingly popular subject choice for students working on their General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). England, however, has currently only around 100 qualified Mandarin teachers, and only 16 per cent of secondary schools offered Chinese language teaching in 2009.

The UK-China partnership will increase the quality and quantity of Mandarin teaching in schools and allow more young people than ever before the chance to study this important language. By increasing the number of Mandarin speakers, Britain will help equip its future workforce with the skills needed to compete in a globalised economy.

Michael Gove said, “I am delighted to be building a stronger education partnership with the Chinese. There is a lot our countries can learn from each other and we want to work together to deliver world-class standards in schools through the greater sharing of knowledge and experience.”

Elizabeth Reid, Chief Executive at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, said, “China is at the centre of the global economy and the next generation will need to understand its culture and be able to work in its language.”

This five-year programme will be co-financed by the two organisations and will begin in July 2011.