MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) has partnered with the Confucius Institute to train 300 Filipino teachers on teaching Mandarin.
The DepEd said a memorandum of agreement was signed for the joint training of public school teachers for Master of Arts in Education, Major in Chinese Language Teaching (MAEd CLT).
The program aims to support the sustainable development of the Special Program in Foreign Language (SPFL)-Chinese Mandarin in public secondary schools.
The program, which targets to upskill 300 teachers in the next five years, will be implemented by the Angeles University Foundation of the Philippines and Fujian Normal University of China.
The MAEd CLT scholarship is designed for SPFL Mandarin teachers to enhance their language proficiency and their pedagogical skills in teaching Chinese Mandarin as a foreign language, according to the DepEd.
The two-year master’s degree program will include studying in China for six months.
During the signing of the agreement earlier this month, Education Secretary Leonor Briones stressed that proficiency in language is an indicator of quality education.
“This program is also in support of the efforts of the department in uplifting the quality of education in the Philippines,” Briones said.
Chinese embassy cultural counselor Tian Shanting lauded the DepEd for including Chinese Mandarin in the SPFL, noting that the agency is one of the key contributors in the promotion of friendly relations between the peoples of the Philippines and China.
In 2011, Chinese Mandarin was included in the SPFL of the DepEd through the partnership between the Confucius Institute and the Angeles University Foundation in Pampanga.
Some 310 Filipino teachers have been trained to teach Chinese Mandarin, according to the DepEd.
About 11,000 students from 93 public high schools have already studied Chinese Mandarin through the special program, it added.
Other languages being taught in select public schools through the SPFL include German, Spanish, French, Korean and Nihongo.