By Spy Uganda
Uganda is finalizing the approval of a Chinese language teaching syllabus that will see students at the upper secondary school level learn the language, a government official said Friday. Henry Adramunguni, a specialist in foreign language curriculum at the state-run National Curriculum Development Center (NCDC) said the syllabus is awaiting final approval by the NCDC Governing Council. The Academic Steering Board already approved the syllabus, he said.
Adramunguni was speaking at the opening of a two-day capacity-building workshop of local Chinese language teachers held at the Confucius Classroom at Luyanzi Institute of Technology here in the central Ugandan district of Wakiso. The seminar and competition were organized by the Confucius Institute at Makerere University.
He said with the help of China, 500 local language teachers are going to be trained in teaching the Chinese language. He said some of the teachers will upgrade to teach upper secondary school.
The specialist said China, through the Confucius Institute at Makerere University, is willing to support the writing of textbooks for implementing the Chinese language syllabus for upper secondary.
Uganda is already teaching the Chinese language at the lower secondary school level after batches of local language teachers were trained. According to NCDC, students who take on Chinese language learning at the upper secondary school level, stand to be admitted to several training institutions, where they can advance their studies.
Gilbert Gumoshabe, the Ugandan director of the Confucius Institute at Makerere University said at the end of the two-day training and competition, the best teachers will be rewarded.
The competition helps teachers to measure and gauge their competence in Chinese language teaching, Gumoshabe said. “It is more of a refresher course for these teachers. We can gauge their competence in teaching the Chinese language. Through speaking it or using it as a medium of communication, it enriches your vocabulary,” the director said.
