Lagos to teach Chinese in public schools

As China grows its economic influence around the world, Lagos students will begin to learn Chinese.

The Lagos State Government has announced plans to teach Chinese language in public schools starting next session.

The state’s education commissioner, Olayinka Oladunjoye, disclosed this on Monday in Lagos. The commissioner said this after meeting delegates from the Chinese Confucius Institute of the University of Lagos.

Director of the Confucius institute, Caleb Orimoogunje, said the institution would assist the state with necessary logistics to make the teaching and learning of the language easier. He said a co-director of the institute, Lirong Jiang, would help in the take-off of the programme.

China, the world’s second largest economy, recently began an aggressive economic invasion of Africa, offering to build most of the continent’s infrastructure backed by loans.

Mrs. Oladunjoye admitted that learning Chinese language in Lagos schools has become necessary because China has become the new destination for economic growth and technological development.

“The knowledge of Chinese language will help students further their studies in China and carry out research in various fields of human endeavour as China has become a success story in the world economy,” she said.

Lagos is the first Nigerian state to adopt the Chinese language as a curriculum in public schools.