Confucius schools eye local tutors
Print Edition
CONFUCIUS Institutes around the world will recruit and train more foreign teachers over the next five years, delegates said yesterday at the opening of the 10th annual conference of the nonprofit organization.
More than 2,300 officials, educators and representatives of partner companies are taking part in the two-day event in Shanghai to discuss plans for the development of the institutes, which are affiliated to the Ministry of Education of China and promote Chinese language and culture, and facilitate exchanges.
There are currently 500 institutes and 1,000 classrooms in operation in 134 countries and regions around the world. They have about 1.9 million registered learners, and more than 44,000 full- and part-time teachers.
Jin Zhenwu, director of the Rainbow Confucius Classroom in South Korea, said that only 10 percent of its 1,450 teachers are locals, but that the organization is working with universities to recruit more.
“Though their Chinese-language skills and knowledge of Chinese culture are poorer than native Chinese teachers, local tutors know more about the students’ interests, studying habits and psychology,” he said.
“With the proper training, they can complement the work of the Chinese teachers in improving the overall teaching quality.”
Liu Yandong, China’s vice premier and chair of the Council of the Confucius Institute Headquarters, said that a five-year plan is being drawn up for the development of the organization around the world.
“Localization and quality improvement” will be the two main tasks of all Confucius Institutes and classrooms, including “cultivating foreign teachers and bilingual sinologists,” she said.
“Confucius Institutes provide an important platform for the world to gain a better knowledge of China ... (but) the institutes must take the initiative to meet the diversifying and differentiating needs of non-native Chinese learners,” she said.
“With an eye on increasing local teacher resources, we also intend to enlarge the enrolment scale of the Confucius Institute fellowship scheme and help host universities to start their own Chinese-language majors,” she said.
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