Politics
South Africa Welcomes Chinese Language and Influence in Schools
Principal Lisette Noonan heads the Pretoria Chinese School, a kindergarten-to-grade-12 private school of about 500 students in the capital, Pretoria. Every student there studies Mandarin. Noonan said the school, which has been around for 80 years, welcomes the new collaboration between the two nations. ”We were quite excited by the announcement. We do believe that it is in the best interests of children to know Mandarin, especially with China becoming such a huge economic power in the world,” she said.
South African schools suffer from the legacy of apartheid, which just two decades ago intentionally gave inferior education to the majority of the population. China has in that time drastically expanded its education system, and last year the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ranked students in Shanghai as the world’s top scorers in reading, science and mathematics. South Africa hopes the alliance will not only better South African students, but also bring them some of China’s success.
Copyright Voice of America 2014
