Cairo: Saudi Arabia has unveiled a plan for schoolteachers to study the Chinese language in China, a key trade partner to the kingdom.
The Saudi Ministry of Education has announced receiving applications from teachers nationwide to go on scholarships to study the Chinese language and help teach it in the homeland.
A successful applicant to the scholarship should be 40 years old at most, and the performance evaluation in the last two years of the job should not be less than the excellent grade and has not been subjected to a disciplinary penalty in the two years prior to candidacy for the scholarship.
Moreover, the candidate should pledge to teach the Chinese language in different education stages and to work in the ministry’s schools for a period equivalent to that of the scholarship.
Applicants, moreover, should pass a Chinese course in Saudi Arabia and a culture harmony evaluation.
The ministry noted that the programme aims to enable the scholar to gain writing and speaking skills of teaching the Chinese language in the kingdom’s schools.
Starting from the current academic year in Saudi Arabia, the second-grade students in public and private secondary schools were introduced to the Chinese language under an enriching linguistic programme.
The programme features educational shows and interactive lessons aimed to enhance the students’ ability to learn the Chinese language with the engagement of facilitators encouraging group thinking and self-learning.
In August, Saudi education authorities unveiled a package of incentives for students who will distinguish themselves in learning the Chinese language.
As part of these incentives, students’ attendance of the Chinese language classes is considered a sort of engagement in voluntary works.
The student, who successfully completes the course, will get a 10-hour voluntary work added up to his/her cooperative education.
Saudi Arabia said it plans to expand teaching the Chinese language after President Xi Jinping of China made an official visit last December to the kingdom where he met King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed.
Xi said in Riyadh that his country would offer thousands of opportunities to teach the Chinese language in the Gulf countries.
In 2020, Saudi education authorities began teaching the Chinese language in eight high schools as part of efforts to boost links between the two countries.
Earlier that year, the Saudi Crown Prince visited China where it was agreed to work out a plan for introducing the Chinese language into curricula of schools and universities in the kingdom.
