Xinhua.net reported in London On 12th, September, the Education Section of Chinese Embassy in Britain hosted a reception on 12th for teachers who will participate in this year's "Chinese Assistant Project". These teachers will go to primary and secondary schools of Britain in the coming year to promote Chinese teaching.
It is introduced that "Chinese Assistant Project" is jointly set up through the cooperation of the China National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOCFL), the headquarter of the Confucius Institute, and the British Ministry of Education, the British Council, which has recruited a total of 56 Chinese language teaching assistants from Beijing, Guangdong and other places to teach in Britain. Next year these teachers will work on the Chinese teaching and the promotion of Chinese culture in the primary and secondary schools in England, Scotland and Wales respectively.
The envoy of Chinese Embassy in Britain, the Counselor of Education Shen Yang said at the reception, "Chinese Assistant Project" is a key project in the promotion of Chinese language. Starting from September of next year, the primary schools in England will select one from the five foreign language as a compulsory course in which Chinese is the only one Asian language among the alternate language. Shen Yang hopes that the Chinese teachers who will go in for this project can try their best to make more schools choose Chinese course, and hope that they will be the folk envoy of Sino-England exchanges, so that more British know Chinese history and culture.
The principal of the educational training of the British Council, Simon Graham said that the British government has attached great importance to foreign language teaching in recent years, made efforts to equip students with global vision and thought. With the continuous development of China's economy and the deepening Sino-British exchanges, the practical significance of Chinese teaching improves continuously.