8000 Students register to learn Chinese at Confucius Institute of UCC
A total of 8000 students have registered to learn the Chinese language, arts and culture at the Confucius Institute of the University of Cape Coast (UCC).
The Ghanaian Director of the institute, Prof. Ishmael Mensah, who made this known, said the institute had 13 training centres across the country to make the study of the subject accessible to all.
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He said the institute had made serious strides and managed to bring the language to the UCC community and other institutions, including the Police and Immigration services.
“We have been able to establish 13 training centres. The number of people who have shown interest in learning the Chinese language keeps increasing and I am hopeful that we will meet the demand”, he added.
Prof. Mensah was speaking at the second anniversary of the Confucius Institute at UCC and the 2018 Global Confucius Institute Day celebration.
The celebration, which was organised by the Confucius Institute at UCC with support from the Confucius Institute Headquarters had Chinese martial art, Chinese dance and Ghanaian cultural dance presentations.
Bachelor degree
The university will in 2019 mount a degree course in Chinese language and culture to train more people.
“In addition, we are in the process of starting a Bachelor degree in Chinese Language and Culture . We believe that these will help us build local capacity to train people in the Chinese language”, he added.
Ghana-China Relations
Prof. Mensah said recent developments pointed to the fact that Ghana and China relations had matured with increasing development support, saying he was optimistic the relationship would be further strengthened.
He said with the growing influence of China globally, and in Africa, and particularly considering that China is Ghana’s largest trading partner, the learning of the Chinese language was relevant.
“It is therefore not surprising that there is a growing demand for the Chinese education and we at the Confucius Institute of UCC want to be abreast with this growing need”, he said.
Local teacher training programme
He said in order to keep pace with the growing demand for the Chinese language, the institute had commenced a local teacher training programme which is a trainer of trainers programme to build the capacity of Ghanaian teachers to teach Chinese language.
Prof Mensah stated that the mutually beneficial relationship between Ghana and China must be consciously nurtured, adding that language provided a fertile medium for engagement between the people of the two countries.
He paid tribute to the tremendous contributions of facilitators of the institute.
Reading a congratulatory message on behalf of the Chinese Ambassador, the Chinese Director of the Confucius Institute, Prof. Hu Liangcai, said he was proud of the achievements of the institute and was looking forward to further relations between the two countries.
“Twenty students have received scholarships to pursue various degrees in various fields in Chinese universities and the institute is committed to working with more Ghanaians”, he said.
The Central Regional Minister, Mr Kwamena Duncan said there was the need for the youth to emulate the example of China by remaining committed to their goals.