(November 26/2018) The Minister of Education, Professor Berhanu Nega, received and spoke with the members of the delegation from China at his office. At the same time, the Director General of the China Language Education and Cooperation Center, Yu Yunfeng, who led the delegation, noted that China is a country with long-standing friendship with Ethiopia.
In particular, the Director General, who said that Ethiopia is a strategic partner of China, mentioned that in addition to its cooperation in investment, Chinese language education is being provided at certain universities and expressed their desire to expand this to other educational institutions and teach Chinese.
He said that this will not only enable citizens to learn multiple languages, but will also contribute to further strengthening people-to-people cooperation. Minister of Education Professor Berhanu Nega, for his part, noted that Ethiopia and China have long-standing strong diplomatic relations and are BRICS member countries, and noted that in the current Ethiopian-Chinese relationship, it would be beneficial for citizens if Chinese language is taught in Ethiopian educational institutions.
The Honorable Minister, who explained to the delegation the issues clearly stated in the Ethiopian education system regarding language education, said that there is a need to expand Chinese language education, which has been started in certain universities, to other educational institutions and that there is a need to discuss its implementation. He also noted that there is a need for the Ministry of Education to teach Chinese language in five federal special boarding secondary schools where teaching and learning will begin this year, and asked the delegation to assign Chinese language teachers.
The two parties also discussed the need to prepare a curriculum framework for Chinese language education offered in federal special boarding secondary schools and to discuss in advance the provision of curriculum, books and teachers so that it can be implemented in other educational institutions. Finally, it was agreed that a detailed agreement document to implement the issues agreed upon at the conceptual level would be prepared by a committee formed by the two parties.
