The University of Nairobi, China’s Tianjin Normal University, and the Centre for Language Education and Cooperation have entered into a tripartite agreement on the joint undergraduate programme in Chinese International Education.
According to a report published by the UoN website, the agreement will see students studying the Chinese language at the Faculty of Education proceed to China during their third and fourth years of study.
The deal was signed by UoN Vice Chancellor Prof Stephen Kiama during the World Chinese Language Conference at the China National Convention Center, Beijing, in December last year .
The conference was held under the theme “Chinese for the World, Openness into the Future,” bringing together prominent academics, Chinese language experts, government officials, and educators from across the globe to discuss the role of the Chinese language.
About 2,000 Chinese and foreign delegates, high-level government officials, representatives from international organizations, and heads of language and cultural institutions attended the conference. The conference also served as a platform for building partnerships between UoN and other institutions.
It was sponsored by China’s Ministry of Education and organized by Center for Language Education and Cooperation, Chinese International Education Foundation and International Society for Chinese Language Teaching.
Other agreements with CLEC included Baku State University, Azerbaijan, with Anhui University; Minsk State Linguistic University, Belarus, with Jilin University of Foreign Languages; King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia, with Minzu University and Indonesian Trilingual School Association with Tianjin University
“The joint programme will facilitate the sharing of teaching resources and complementary strengths in faculty and other areas,” CLEC said.
The deal is another milestone in the promotion of Chinese language learning in Kenya, adding to previous collaborations between universities in Kenya and China through the Confucius Institute, as well as construction of Luban workshops and laboratories for research.
Other than the UoN and Tianjin collaboration, there is also the partnership between Taita Taveta University and Dongping Vocational Institute of China; Egerton University and Nanjing Agricultural University; Machakos University and Tianjin City Vocational College; JKUAT and China Academy of Sciences and Kenyatta University and Shandong Normal University.
UoN said Prof. Kiama’s involvement in the conference showcased its dedication to staying at the forefront of Chinese educational advancements and embracing opportunities for collaboration with institutions worldwide.
“He participated in various plenary forums, and shared how the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi had spearheaded the development of a teacher training programme under the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,” it added.
The don also moderated a discussion entitled : The Future Development of Confucius Institutes: Enhancing Characteristic Development to Increase Influence of the Confucius Institute Brand, emphasizing that localization is a key factor in the development of Confucius Institutes.
CIUON has excelled in teaching the Chinese language since its inception on 19th December 2005.
During the conference, it was awarded the 2023 Outstanding HSK Test Center for being one of the best examination centers (HSK, HSKK, YCT) for the year 2023. This year, CIUON started offering the International Chinese Language Teachers’ Certificate Examination.
With the new Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) that introduced the Chinese language from Grade 4 in 2019, Prof. Kiama emphasized the need to train local teachers to research and develop localized teaching materials to fully actualize Chinese language teaching
