123 Tanzanian students, teachers win Chinese Ambassador Award

20Dec 2021
By Guardian Reporter
Dar es Salaam
News
The Guardian
123 Tanzanian students, teachers win Chinese Ambassador Award

​​​​​​​A TOTAL of 123 Tanzanian students and teachers from various schools and colleges have been awarded for their outstanding performance in Chinese language.

Chinese ambassador to Tanzania, Chen Mingjian, on Friday presented a certificate and prize-money of ‘Chinese ambassador Award 2021’ to Daud Samwel Masanilo, a Chinese-language teacher at the Confucius Institute, University of Dar es Salaam. Looking on is Education, Science and, Technology minister Prof. Joyce Ndalichako. Photo: Courtesy Chinese embassy

The Tanzanians were awarded during the “2021 Chinese Ambassador Award” event held in Dar es Salaam during the weekend.

Speaking during the event, Chinese ambassador Chen Mingjian said: “I hope the awards will encourage as many students as possible to learn Chinese language and obtain scholarships given by the Chinese government to study in China.”

She said the students and teachers were awarded for their excellence in speaking the language as well as performing well in the subject.

The Chinese Ambassador Award was established by the Chinese embassy in Tanzania in 2018, which aims to encourage and reward those Tanzanian students who study the Chinese language hard and perform well in examinations. Since last year, the beneficiaries of the award have expanded to cover native Chinese-language teachers in Tanzania.

“Among the 123 winners of this year’s award, 8 are native Chinese-language teachers, and the rest are the students from universities and schools,” she said.

Ambassador Mingjian said that recent years have witnessed an increasing number of Tanzanian students who learn Chinese language, and the number of the schools which offer Chinese language courses.

“The Tanzanian government has announced the introduction of five new subject combinations for students who are set to join Form Five in 2021; they are KFC (Kiswahili, French and Chinese) and KEC (Kiswahili, English and Chinese). This means that the Chinese language course has been included in Tanzania’s secondary education system. This shows the support of the Tanzania government to promoting Chinese language learning in Tanzania, and will have great significance for deepening the understanding between our peoples,” she asserted.

Minister for Education, Science and Technology Prof Joyce Ndalichako, extended her gratitude to the Chinese Embassy for continuously promoting educational cooperation between the two countries.

She acknowledged that the number of Tanzanian students who h are granted the Chinese government scholarships was increasing year by year.