The China Director of CIUCC, Professor Hu Liangcai, on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 made a courtesy call on the Central Regional Director of Education, Mrs. Jane Sabina Obeng at her office to officially congratulate her on her new appointment and advance the discussion on education-related matters in the region.

The professor was accompanied by two CIUCC staff members (Mr. Huang Qinhai & Mr. Iddriss Musah Iddriss) and Mrs. Paulina Nyankah, the headmistress of University Practice Senior High School [UPSHS], a host institution of the first CIUCC Chinese Language training center in the Central Region.

Mrs. Paulina Nyankah made a formal introduction of the China Director and CIUCC to the newly appointed Regional Director of Education, who, in turn welcomed and thanked the Director for his efforts at establishing a good relationship between the regional education directorate and CIUCC during the time of her predecessor.

The China Director reiterated CIUCC’s commitment to partner the Regional Education Directorate to teach Chinese language and culture to students in the region through its various language centers and outreach programmes.

As a way of enhancing the teaching of Chinese in the region, CIUCC is working to roll out an HSK short course programme to train selected teachers to become teachers of Chinese language to speakers of other languages.

In Prof. Hu’s words, “A Teacher Training Center will soon be opened on University of Cape Coast campus to train teachers in the Central Region as a preparatory programme for them to further study Chinese language in China and return as local teachers of Chinese in Ghana. If the teachers can satisfy requirements like HSK of Hanban, they can get full scholarship to study in China for Master of Teaching Chinese to the Speakers of Other Languages (TCSOL)”

Prof. Hu requested the regional director to assist in selecting teachers from twenty basic and senior high schools to be featured in a pilot programme. He also opined that the pilot schools should be selected from within the Cape Coast metropolis to avoid transportation challenges.

The director also made a warm appeal to the Education director to assist to incorporate the study of Chinese language into the school curricula of UPSHS and other basic schools where Chinese Language Centers are operating.

Mrs. Obeng, in turn, assured Prof. Hu that though the process involved in adopting the Chinese Language into the curriculum may be bureaucratic, she will do her best to assist in any way possible as soon as the necessary proposals arrives at her desk. She also tasked Mrs. Nyankah, the UPSHS Headmistress to assist CIUCC to draft a proposal to that effect to be submitted to the metro director of education to activate the process. She assured that once the proposal is drafted, she would provide the needed advice and support untill it gets to the highest decision-making body of Ghana Education service.

Prof. Hu also ceased the opportunity and invited the new director to take part in this year’s educational delegation to China.