NAIROBI, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- A send-off ceremony for Kenyan students preparing to pursue further studies in China was held Wednesday at the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi, bringing together government officials, teachers, students, and parents.
A total of 23 students have completed two years of study at the University of Nairobi under a 2+2 joint program for international Chinese language education and will travel to Tianjin Normal University to continue their studies.
Graduates are expected to teach Chinese at secondary schools across Kenya in the future, contributing to the development of Chinese language education in the country.
Zhang Zhizhong, charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, said the program is far more than a language-training initiative.
"Its birth and continued success reflect a much larger story," Zhang said, adding that it was born out of growing enthusiasm among Kenyan students for learning Chinese, made possible by the integration of Chinese into Kenya's national education system, and sustained by rising demand for Chinese-speaking talent as more Chinese enterprises invest and operate in Kenya.
Wahome Rureri, deputy director in Kenya's State Department of Higher Education and Research within the Ministry of Education, said the University of Nairobi and its Confucius Institute are playing a vital role in teacher training, and the 2+2 program has been a successful collaboration between China and Kenya.
With Chinese-language education in Kenya continuing to grow, Kenya plans to launch pilot schools and further improve both the number and quality of locally trained Chinese language teachers, Rureri said.
Ayub Gitau, vice chancellor of the University of Nairobi, said scholarship programs and cooperation with local partners have created valuable opportunities for young Kenyans to learn Chinese and contributed to the development of Chinese language education in the country.
He said the program is well-designed to train Chinese language teachers within the broader context of competency-based education in Kenya and has been designed to respond to educational needs and teacher-certification requirements.
In December 2023, the University of Nairobi, the Center for Language Education and Cooperation under China's Ministry of Education, and Tianjin Normal University signed a tripartite agreement on the joint training of students majoring in international Chinese language education, officially establishing the 2+2 dual-degree scholarship program. ■