Cape Verde to Promote Chinese Curriculum

On the afternoon of May 9^th (local time), the Confucius Institute at the University of Cape Verde and the Ministry of Education of Cape Verde signed a cooperative agreement on promoting a Chinese curriculum in Cape Verde. Some schools in Cape Verde will soon implement the plan to offer Chinese and a Chinese cultural curriculum for grade 9 to 12 students.

The representatives from both sides signed the cooperative agreement

The agreement marks the deeper educational cooperation between China and Cape Verde on the basis of past achievements. In the future, more and more young adults in Cape Verde will come to China for further study, and this will promote bilateral cultural communication and friendship. In addition, both sides will have a deeper understanding of each other.

Under the agreement, some schools in Cape Verde will implement the plan at the beginning of the new academic year (2017-2018). During the first five years, over 20 schools in Praia and Catarina of Santiago as well as Mindelo of St. Vincent (in Cape Verde) will first carry out the plan. Gradually, it is to be extended to other island cities in Cape Verde and finally be conducted comprehensively across the whole country. The new move on language education is based on Cape Verde’s global vision and framework for the cultivation of talents, which embodies Cape Verde’s government and the Ministry of Education’s foresight. In addition, launched in 2015, the Confucius Institute at the University of Cape Verde also develops quickly and has achieved gratifying results in terms of school scale, curriculum, cultural activities, and the establishment of the test center for HSK (the Chinese Proficiency Test). All these achievements firmly back up the new move.

The representatives took a group photo after the meeting

It is reported that it has been seven months since the first discussion on the agreement between both sides. To discuss the mutual rights and obligations involved in the agreement, the Confucius Institute at the University of Cape Verde and the Ministry of Education of Cape Verde have amended the items seven times and held face-to-face meetings six times.The National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language(NOCFL) and the Chinese Embassy in Cape Verde also help support the agreement.