On September 8 local time, the signing ceremony for the joint establishment of the Chinese language teaching site between the Confucius Institute (CI) at Congolese Diplomatic Academy (CDA) and National Institute of the Arts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (CNIA) was held in Kinshasa. MWENDANGA MUSENGO DESIRE-SALOMON, General Director of CNIA, FUNDI TANGANIKA ELOI, Congolese Director of CI, and Ma Xinqiang, Chinese Director of CI, attended the signing ceremony.

From left to right: FUNDI TANGANIKA ELOI, Ma Xinqiang and MWENDANGA MUSENGO DESIRE-SALOMON

According to the agreement, CNIA will make Chinese language a compulsory course for doctoral students, and will extend to master’s students in the near future. This agreement has laid a good foundation for gradually integrating Chinese language education into the national education system of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).

MWENDANGA MUSENGO DESIRE-SALOMON said that CI has achieved remarkable results in Chinese language education globally, and under the efforts of the Chinese International Education Foundation, CI has become a world-renowned educational brand and the preferred partner of educational institutions in various countries and regions. He expressed his hope that the introduction of Chinese language education at CNIA will be followed by further introduction of high quality educational resources from CSU and China's higher education system, so that the quality of humanities and arts education in DR Congo can further step up.

Ma Xinqiang said that this cooperation is based on rigorous argumentation and discussion between the two sides. CI will carefully prepare and strive to build a localized international Chinese language education curriculum adaptable to DR Congo’s higher education system, promote win-win cooperation and build a model of educational cooperation and cultural exchange between China and DR Congo.

The signing of the cooperation agreement signifies that CNIA has officially become the fifth Chinese language teaching site of CI, and it is also the first public university partner of CI to carry out formal academic education in DR Congo. This cooperation will open up new ideas for the development of international Chinese language education at the CI at CDA, and promote CI to create a dual-path development model of “Chinese language + skills” and “Chinese language + humanities and arts”.

(First Reviewer: Zhang Xu, Second Reviewer: Deng Haodi, Third Reviewer: Li Yin)

Source: Confucius Institute at Congolese Diplomatic Academy

Original article link: https://news.csu.edu.cn/info/1006/156846.htm