Education Exchange Building Bridges

　　Education is the backbone of a country’sdevelopment and described by Nelson Mandelaas the most powerful weapon you can use tochange the world. It was therefore no surprisethat after Chinese President Xi Jinping visitedSouth Africa in early 2013， the two developingcountries issued a joint communique confirmingthey would continue to expand cooperation inbasic and tertiary education.

　　In light of this expanded bilateral cooperationin the education field， Angie Motshekga，Minister of Basic Education of South Africa， visitedChina in late February. During her visit， she satdown with ChinAfrica reporter Ni Yanshuoto share her views on educational cooperationbetween the two countries.

　　ChinAfrica： After the establishment ofthe Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in2000， educational cooperation betweenChina and African countries has witnessedrapid growth， especially in recent years.

　　How do you see educational cooperationbetween China and South Africa growingover the last few years？

　　Angie Motshekga： I think the educationalcooperation between our two countries is growingcomparatively. For instance， there are alreadysix Confucius Institutes [and Confucius Classrooms]in South Africa， which proves there’s lotof interest in South Africa to learn the Chineselanguage and culture. This is mainly because ofthe friendship that has developed between ourtwo countries， as well as in terms of agreementsthat we signed.

　　There’s lot of interest， not just onthe language and cultural part， but[lots of African countries] are alsolooking at how we can improve ourcapabilities in terms of both educationaloutcomes and skills. Furthermore，there’s lot of interest in workingwith China on educational exchangeprograms， exchange of skills and expertise，both at high academic levelsand even at the school level.

　　In March 2013， China’s Ministry of Educationand South Africa’s Department ofBasic Education signed a cooperationagreement on basic education. Why areeducation cooperation and exchange soimportant at this time and how can thisimprove people’s understanding of eachother？

　　Educational cooperation between our two countriesis really important. Last year， we signed acooperation agreement on basic education. Butwe have not activated the agreement in terms ofhaving specific projects to implement the plan.Today， the idea was to expand our working relationshipswith organizations like the ConfuciousInstitutes， making sure they expand in SouthAfrica， or expand the teaching of Chinese inSouth African schools， therefore making Chineseone of the languages learned， so that childrencan learn Chinese as a course. They can studyChinese like other languages such as French，German and Portuguese. We can make surethat Chinese is learned by young people in ourschools. The whole idea was to come [to China]and do the implementation of the plan that we’dagreed on， in relation to the exchange of teachersand academics. It is very fortunate for us as SouthAfrica， and China also， to show that we can nowbegin to have concrete projects that myself andthe [education] minister of China can completeand make sure that they are realized.

　　Are there many South Africanuniversities that teach Chinese？

　　Currently there are only six centers thatteach Chinese， whereas the idea is tomake the Chinese language accessiblein South Africa for anyone whowants to learn it， through formal andinformal institutions and schools； butthere must also be agencies outsidethe Confucius Institutes.

　　Do you think the educational exchangebetween China and SouthAfrica can improve people-to-people contactor people’sunderstandingof each other？

　　Undoubtedly it can.I mean， I’m appreciatingthat SouthAfricans can speakyour language.Because of thegrowth of the Chinesepopulation inSouth Africa， somestay there whilesome are on business.We still hopethat there will be alot of investmentfrom Chinese peoplein South Africaand vice versa.So it’s reallyimportant that weunderstand eachother’s languageand each other’svalue system， sothat we can reallyrespect each other.

　　What are thefeatures of theSouth African education system that attractsChinese students？

　　Our educational system is uneven， with elementsof our system being extremely advanced.

　　Our Western medical studies， engineering， andtertiary education are very advanced， and wecompete with other countries internationally [inthese fields]. So there’s lot of Western academicprograms that you [China] can benefit from.

　　Our language institutions have an advancedsystem should Chinese children want to go andstudy English. Our schooling system is not asadvanced as China’s and China has a better systemat the schooling level. That is where， as a country，we think that we can gain a lot in terms of China’sbasic schooling system.

　　China excels in international tests on mathand science， so we really can learn a lot in SouthAfrica. China runs a very big system， and I thinkChina is running it well. The curriculum in China isalso good for us as a developing country. In SouthAfrica， our schools are 80 percent normal schoolsand 20 percent technical schools， whereas here，in China， it’s 50/50. Consequently， there’s lot thatwe can share at a schooling level， as well as at atertiary level.

　　According to the agreements made byChinese President Xi Jinping and SouthAfrican President Jacob Zuma in 2013， thisyear is the Year of South Africa in China andnext year will be the Year of China in SouthAfrica. Are there going to be any educationbasedactivities taking place during theseyears？

　　I think that’s one of the reasons why I’m here， tomake sure that there are specific projects that wehave as part of the plan. There are some projectswhich the officials in our embassy will have tofinalize. There will be study visits where we senddelegations to come and study the educationsystem， and vice versa. Those are some of theconcrete things we’ve agreed on as part of theeducation implementation of the plan.

　　As you have said before， there are sixConfucius Institutes and Confucius Classroomsin South Africa. How do you see theirroles in promoting education exchangesbetween our two countries？

　　Yes， those institutes help us as an anchor [providinga starting point]. There’s some interest thatthey [Confucius Institutes and Classrooms] are inthe country [South Africa]， and we can say they’reseeds. For me， they’re very important institutionswhere we can anchor the implementation ofsome of the plans [we have， to develop educationexchange]. [So] We have Chinese people whoare already in South Africa， who understand thecountry’s systems.

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