UDSM and Chinese university to exchange teaching programmes

As part of the agreement, the University of Dar es Salaam yesterday received 24 students from Zhejiang Normal University who are expected to help in teaching Chinese language in various schools countrywide. The students will also learn Kiswahili.

UDSM Vice Chancellor (Academic), Prof Florens Luoga revealed this in Dar es Salaam yesterday during a ceremony to welcome the Chinese students held at the university compass.

“We have been collaborating with the Chinese universities for a long period. We have Chinese teachers learning Kiswahili here, but they are also conducting Chinese language classes to our teachers”, he said noting the university is set to start offering Chinese language degree courses next year.

Prof Luoga said the number of teachers learning Chinese language is increasing, whereas in next few years Tanzania will have a good number of Chinese language instructors.

For his part, Prof Zhang Xiozhen, Director of the Confucius Institute (CI) at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) said that some of the students will stay in the country for two years while a few will stay for a year.

He said the teachers will be attached to the following schools, Baobao secondary school, St Mathew secondary, Mlimani primary school, UDSM’s Chang’ombe teaching college, St Christina Tanga and Mkwawa teachers college.

The Confucius Institute is a non-profit public educational organisation affiliated with the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China whose aim is to promote Chinese language and culture, support local Chinese teaching internationally and facilitate cultural exchanges.

The institutes operate in co-operation with local affiliate colleges and universities around the world, and financing is shared between Hanban and the host institutions. The related Confucius classroom programme partners with local secondary schools to provide teachers and instructional materials.

Apart from UDSM other higher learning institutions which offer Chinese language course are University of Dodoma, Muslim University of Morogoro (MUM) and Moshi Cooperative University.

Secondary schools which teach Chinese subject are Mbezi Beach, Benjamin Mkapa, Chang’ombe (Dar es Salaam), Msalato and Dodoma (Dodoma), Morogoro and Kilakala (Morogoro).