KARACHI: Forty Pakistani teachers have left for Beijing to participate in the 2017 International Chinese Language Teachers Training Programme. Their see-off ceremony was held here on Sunday.
China’s charge d’affaires Zhao Lijian was present at the ceremony to see off the Pakistani participants of the Teachers Training Programme.
He said that the 15-day programme is sponsored by Beijing Municipal Commission of Education (BMCE).
Zhao Lijian said the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan is sponsoring the Pakistani participants, in collaboration with BMCE and Beijing International Education Exchange Center.
He said that Chinese is the official language of China and one of the six official languages in the United Nations. There are nearly 1.5 billion people in the world who speak Chinese as their mother tongue.
More and more people around the world are learning Chinese with personal interests and for better job opportunities, he said. “By the end of 2016, 511 Confucius Institutes have been established in 140 countries. Nearly 70 countries have included Chinese in their national education systems”.
This is the third year Chinese embassy sent Pakistani teachers to Beijing. In the past 3 years, 160 teachers joined similar programs. pic.twitter.com/TpLd1F6tEL
— Lijian Zhao (@zlj517) July 23, 2017
The charge d’affaires said that the Chinese government is working all out to promote the teaching of Chinese language and Chinese culture in Pakistan. Now, there are 4 Confucius Institutes and 1 Chinese Culture Center in Pakistan.
“In addition, we are encouraging more Pakistani students to study in China. Last year, there were 18,000 Pakistani students in China, among them 5,081 students are studying with Chinese government scholarships”, he said.
Pakistan is the leading country in number of students with Chinese government sponsored scholarships, he added.
He also said: “we are encouraging the teaching of Urdu language in China because we believe it is far better to have communication in a mutual way. Now there are seven universities in China that teach Urdu.
During the past three years, the Chinese Embassy has sent 160 Pakistani teachers to China under this programme. They were invited from all over the country.
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