In an attempt to improve job competitiveness and strengthen trade relations with China, primary schools in Kenya will start teaching Mandarin in 2020. The Chinese language is set to be taught alongside other foreign languages, such as French and Arabic.
Could Mandarin help create a generation of employable graduates?
On Monday, January 7, it was announced that Kenyan primary schools will start teaching Mandarin to fourth-grade pupils and onwards. According to Julius Jwan, head of the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), the Mandarin syllabus has already been compiled and will be introduced starting 2020.
Jwan further explained that the decision was made given Mandarin’s global rise, but also in order to deepen the political and economic connections between Kenya and China.
“The place of China in the world economy has also grown to be so strong that Kenya stands to benefit if its citizens can understand Mandarin,” he declared.
Kenya isn’t actually the African country to introduce the Chinese language in its schools. In 2014, South African public schools started offering Mandarin as an optional language. A decision described as “the worst form of imperialism” by the country’s largest teachers union.
Integrating Mandarin in schools represents one of the many educational reforms Kenya is trying to improve. The East African country is indeed in the midst of developing a new educational system focusing on different skills. The objective is to have more employable graduates in the labor market.
When language meets political investment
In 2018, it was announced that Kenya’s public debt surpassed $50 billion, raising questions about the government’s transparency.
Much of the lending has indeed come from China, with recent data showing that Kenya’s obligations to Beijing are way deeper than many Kenyans realize. According to the country’s local Business Daily newspaper, China is currently Kenya’s largest lender, accounting for 72% of bilateral debt by the end of March.
China has also invested in a number of massive projects in Kenya, including a railway between Nairobi and Mombasa, the Nairobi International Cultural Festival, as well as other construction projects. This goes to show that introducing Mandarin in schools could only be beneficial for China.