Hanban Signs MOU with CBSE of India

August 24, Xinhuanet.com by Wang Qian – On August 24, Hanban of China signed MOU with Central Committee of Secondary Education (CBSE) of India in Beijing.

Hanban Director-General Xu Lin said MOU further clarified the cooperation areas and mechanism between the two parties and that it was of importance and far-reaching significance for the development of the Indian and Chinese economies, enhancing educational and cultural exchanges and bettering the friendly relations between the two nations.

As we have been seeing more exchanges between India and China in politics, economy, culture and education, etc., the Indian people are showing more interest and needs to learn Chinese. To meet the needs of Indian youngsters for learning Chinese, CBSE of India has decided to list Chinese in their curriculum of foreign languages since April 2012. Initially, 500 Indian secondary schools are to offer Chinese courses and the rest of all its 11,500 secondary schools will offer Chinese courses in a gradual manner.

In October 2011, Indian education delegation visited Hanban and discussed about teacher cultivation, teacher training and teaching materials, and signed the minutes of the meeting. Hanban will help India train 300 Chinese language teachers and provide scholarships for 100 Chinese language teachers to train in China on an annual basis. In addition, Hanban will also help India establish a team of Chinese language trainers, develop teaching syllabus and assessment criteria, provide Chinese textbooks and establish inter-school collaboration and exchange mechanism between India and China.

The MOU specified the cooperation areas of Chinese language teaching, including exchanges of specialists, teachers and students; information exchange of Chinese language teaching system and application of new teaching technologies; collaboration to develop Chinese language courses and training materials; training programs in education management and for researchers and teachers; organizing exhibitions, seminars and workshops. For the sake of sound cooperation, both parties agree to establish a joint taskforce composed of both Indian and Chinese members, which will inspect how the MOU is executed and coordinate what is specified in the MOU.

By Wang Qian