25 Feb 2019

Kidz Academy International School in Kanye has decided to introduce Chinese language to the curriculum as a way of connecting to the global village.

Speaking in an interview, the school’s senior teacher Mr Eliphas Moyo, said as a country with one of the world’s highest populations and a hub of economic activity, China was an influencer hence the need to connect with it.

“We therefore decided that the best way to have a connection with such an important country was through language because communication is a crucial aspect of understanding each other,” he said.

He said the school was in the process of sensitising staff and pupils to create a foundation while at the same time looking for a Chinese teacher to have the language as a fully-fledged subject.

The school, he said, was in consultation with the University of Botswana to help in identifying a qualified Chinese language teacher.

Mr Moyo acknowledged that learning the language would not be easy since it was characterised by strange and intimidating symbols, hence the need to lay a foundation of understanding within the school community.

“We are cultivating a foundation of understanding for them to understand the basics, after which we can move to the second stage of taking it to the classroom,” he said.

Mr Moyo said school authorities were working with volunteers to help them understand the language s.

For her part, Kidz Academy director, Ms Zubeida Hansa said introducing Chinese in the school was a way of showing that globalisation did not isolate.

“As an institution that aspires to turn into an educational hub we want to strive for variety hence we decided to pioneer Chinese in the southern region to position ourselves and Kanye for globalisation,” she said.

She was optimistic that they would have made progress by the year 2020. Ends