Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) – Tanzania’s Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training has introduced a Chinese language teaching programme saying the move is aimed at meeting local market demands for innovation in science and technology.
The programme kicked-off in January this year at six pilot secondary schools and 12 Chinese language teachers recruited from China have just completed a teaching methodology course in Tanzania.
“It is through mastering of Chinese language that our young boys and girls will be able to acquire knowledge and skills through utilization of the scholarship opportunities offered by the Chinese government annually,” the ministry’s Deputy Permanent Secretary, Dr. Leonard Akwilapo, said at the official launch of the programme.
“We want to have a good number of teachers who will take over after the volunteers leave the country,” he said, noting that the Confucius Institute of China was already conducting training programmes for Tanzanian language teachers at three universities in Dar es Salaam, Morogoro and Dodoma.
A Cultural Counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Mr Gao Wei, gave the assurance of a sustainable programme for training local teachers of the language.
Other foreign languages taught in Tanzanian secondary schools and institutions of higher learning are English, French and German.
