Summary Report Speech at Plenary Session of  2017 Joint Conference of Confucius Institute in Africa by Prof. Hu on behalf of Panel 3 delegates

Summary Report Speech at Plenary Session of  2017 Joint Conference of Confucius Institute in Africa by Prof. Hu on behalf of Panel 3 delegates

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

         I am highly honored to have this opportunity to give you the summary report of  Panel 3 on the plenary session of 2017 Joint Conference of Confucius Institutes in Africa.  

 

         First of all, on behalf of all the delegates of Panel 3, I would like to extend my heart-felt thanks to all of the people who have fully supported our successful panel discussion. Totally, there are 59 panel members in our group from 19 countries (including China); 36 of them are the Chinese and African VC, Deputy VC or Directors of the Confucius Institutes of 18 countries, 19 delegates including Vice Presidents or Directors from Chinese-Partner universities, 4 delegates from 3 Chinese -funded companies,  Deputy director, Division of Asian and African Confucius Institutes, Mrs. Li Hongyu, also attended our Panel discussion.

I would like to give my great appreciation to Mr. Xia Jianhui, the deputy director general of Hanban who gave us instructions on the Breakfast meeting of yesterday.

Our Panel discussion was chaired by Dr. Kamau Wango, the director of the Confucius Institute at Kenyatta University and Pro. Hu Liangcai, the director of the the Confucius Institute  at University of Cape Coast.  Dr. Kamau Wango , as the chairman of our Panel, successfully guided the whole discussion on the three topics: Local teacher Training, Vocational and Technical Training, Cooperation between Confucius Institutes and Chinese-Funded Agencies.

 

         All of the delegates of our Panel are active and positive in their speech. Some of them even spoke four to five times.  without any reservation, they  let other people share their experience.

         For each of the topics, the Chairman guided the questions like: why do?, what should we do?, what are the models we should choose?, what are the challenges and problems we have met and would likely meet in the future?, and, what are the solutions to all these problems?

 

         Because of the time limit, I cannot give you the reports on the details of our discussion, but I can summarize a small part as follows; the report of the Panels would be submitted to Hanban in a few days.

 

Suggestions:

 

        Local teachers training is a complicated system; we are always encountering problems and challenges like how to sign a legal and reasonable agreement with them, short of training materials, short of sustainable training system and short of training funds.

 

        We think we should encourage the potential qualified local Chinese teachers from the Host University for further study in China to make up for the shortage of Chinese teachers at CIS.

 

        Confucius Institute local teachers who are only employed and salary-paid by Hanban should be included in the Staff System of the Host university, which need our further efforts to discuss with university authority for final acceptance of the long-term Chinese teaching in the university. We are looking forward a reasonable and harmonious relationship among the Host university, Confucius Institute and the local teachers themselves so as to guarantee the local teachers allowances and  salary timely paid .

 

      Setting up the Bachelor and Master Degree of  Chinese language at the Host University is one of the best way to reserve local Chinese teachers. We should encourage and organize the promising local students to study in China for BA or Master degree in Chinese. The Confucius Institute can make good use of the local resources to develop Chinese teaching and cultural activity to train the local teachers with a perfect development plan. We are thinking of how to increase the local teachers numbers, solving their inconveniencies on transportation, accommodation and daily life.

 

        Confucius Institute is a bridge between the enterprises and C.I students,  and that is why we are advocating the cooperation between C.I and Chinese-fund enterprises. CIs and enterprises can be mutually beneficial from their cooperation.

 

        Building the excellent CI-itself brand can create more opportunities to cooperate with enterprises. We can develop a series of activities for the cooperation with enterprises for financial and technical support from enterprises like helping to organize “Graduate Recruitment for Enterprises”, recommending the excellent students to sign employment agreement with enterprises, setting up CI students internship base in enterprises, introducing students a part-time job, inviting enterprises to jointly organize  Chinese Bridge competitions, large-scale cultural activities and performances.

 

       We advocate that CI cooperation should be with not only Chinese funded agencies but also with local enterprises, local government departments and academic institutions in order to set up multiple platforms. This kind of cooperation is also a good way to disseminate Chinese culture.  Mutual Support shall be  mutually beneficial . Confucius Institute can also help local foreign companies to set up cooperation with Chinese enterprises inside China,  to promote cooperation between foreign and Chinese educational institutions,  which can be an aid of “The Belt and Road”

 

         To implement vocational and technical training for our CI students, we also need cooperation with Chinese-funded enterprises. More exchange between CI students and enterprise personnel can increase their communication ability, increase their understanding about Chinese culture and also help them develop technical skills.

 

        We realized that we should be helpful and push for Chinese language course  being formally included into national education system of the country in which our Confucius institute lies .

 

We proposed that the workshop of several Confucius institutes at the neighboring countries should visit each other to share the excellent experience and we hope that we can get support from Hanban.

 

We also proposed to set up Eastern African Agriculture Alliance (League) initiated by Nanjing Agriculture University.

 

        CI should start vocational and technical training on the basis of students’ job employment direction  after graduation. The teachers in CI to teach Vocational and Technical course can be mainly from Chinese-funded enterprises.  

 

 

2017 CI Joint Conference in Africa

Panel 3 Discussion Summary about Challenges and Solutions in Three Topics of CI Development

 

 

  1. Local teacher training challenges.

Challenges

  1.  Lack of professionally trained teacher from china (they know their language but lack training to teach-pedagogy)
  2. Lack of harmonization between the Chinese system and the local system in train of academic status, grading, salary, cost shaking, insurance and upward mobility.
  3. Inadequate competency in English that prevent teaching efficiency of the Chinese language.
  4. Lack of adequate competent local teachers and also lack of proper incentives.
  5. Lack of material/tools/equipment to support teacher training.
  6. Chinese language is not necessary taught in the primary/secondary curriculum  leading to lack of foundational language training.

Solutions

  1. Need for teachers who are better grounded in pedagogy.
  2. Enhanced harmonization at both academic and administration level to foster and clearer understanding by both parent universities to their responsibilities.
  3. Adequate command and competency in the language of instruction in the local university.
  4. Local teachers of Chinese language must be accorded adequate incentives that match pay scale in other disciplines of the university.
  5. CI’s should generate detailed budgets to meet their teachers training needs in term of books/material/tools/equipment  and source of founding from HANBAN.
  6. To universalize the teaching of Chinese language culture from the primary to university level.

 

  1. Vocational technical training challenges.

Challenges

 

  1. Language or skills.

There is no clear integration between language acquisition and skills.

  1. Limited number of technical teachers/instructors.
  2. Lack of long term systematic training plan/strategies.
  3. Lack of training resources including material and founding.
  4. Lack of technical institutes where the language of instruction is Chinese (or technical departments and lack of proper collaboration with universities that have technical expertise.)

 

 

 

Solutions

  1. Ensuring that there is clear integration between language acquisition and technical skills
  2. Increase training of technical teachers/instructors (from partner universities with more sponsorship from HANBAN).
  3. Formulation of long term training plans/strategies.
  4. Availability of additional training resources such as material and founding from
  • CI headquarters (HANBAN)
  • Chinese founded companies
  • China partner universities
  1. Added or enhanced collaboration with Chinese partner universities (particularly those that offer technical disciplines).

 

3. Cooperation between Confucius institutes and Chinese founded agencies.

Challenges

  1. Lack of a data base of talent and skills which companies can access.
  2. Absence of knowledge or information about the needs of the companies (where CI’s can help).
  3. Lack of visibility of the CI’s in dealing with local Chinese and lack of adequate branding.
  4. Lack of proper model for working with Chinese companies.
  5. Lack of adequate engagement with local Chinese Embassies as a platform for teaching Chinese enterprise.

 

Solutions

 

  1. Creation of a data base (by the CI’s) of talent and skills that can be accessed by Chinese companies for their man power needs (recruitment).
  2. More consultation with companies on their needs through regular workshops and recruitment exhibitions.
  3. The CI’s should engage companies and help to brand them.
  4. Development of a sustainable working model with Chinese founded agencies/companies.
  5. More engagement with Chinese embassies as a strategy to reach out to the great network of Chinese enterprises.
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