A 10-ten-member high-powered government delegation led by
Professor Kwesi Yankah, Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, is
in the People’s Republic of China to discuss issues on development and quality
education.
The delegation, made up of representatives of
educational and stakeholder institutions in Ghana are currently holding
official meetings with the leadership of the Confucius Institute of China.
They also visited the headquarters of the
Confucius Institute in Beijing, where they had a meeting with the Deputy Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) of the Institute, Mr Yu Yunfeng.
Mr Robert Abeiku Ansah, special aide to
Prof Kwesi Yankah told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) through a telephone
interview that, the visit was to offer both parties an opportunity to renew
their commitments towards existing agreements and also explore possible avenues
for academic partnership, future collaborations and scholarly exchanges.
The Confucius Institute promotes and
teaches Chinese culture and language around the world, and also helps to
develop Chinese language courses, train teachers, host cultural and artistic
presentations and provide information about modern day China’s development.
It has a branch at the University of Cape Coast
(UCC), through a partnership arrangement between the Hunan City University and
UCC, which had trained as many as 40 Ghanaian students in Chinese culture and
language, and are currently teaching the language across Ghana.
The institute currently has a student population of nearly 10,000 in local curricula structures across Ghana, with the establishment of an independent library and language laboratory.
It is in line with this that the two universities
are sharing resources to open up educational opportunities in China for
Ghanaian students who may want to study in China or pursue business ventures in
the Asian state.
The special aide said the delegation would also engage government officials and university authorities in China on major issues of great importance, including capacity building exchange, signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and others to strengthen diplomatic ties.
He said Mr Yu Yunfeng expressed his
appreciation to the Government of Ghana for the support given to the Confucius
Institute to establish learning centres at the UCC, University of Ghana and
other learning centres across senior high schools in Ghana.
He said the establishment of the Confucius Institute forms
part of efforts to deepen the diplomatic relationship between Ghana and China,
and was optimistic that it will serve as a link to bridge the language gap
between the two countries to promote trade, technology transfer, and cultural
exchanges among others.
“In Ghana, University Practice Senior High School (SHS)
and Mfantsipim School are few of the schools that have Confucius classrooms,” Mr
Yu Yunfeng said, adding that, they served as additional material for teachers.
Mr Ansah said Professor Kwesi Yankah extended the
appreciation of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to China for the
collaboration between the two countries, and enormous support received in
Ghana’s industrialisation agenda from China.
“It is getting clearer and clearer that as the volume
of trade between Ghana and China increases from year to year, the need arises
for us to expand further our immersion in each other’s language and culture,” Prof
Yankah said.
He stated that this would be meaningful for strengthening
equity in the exchanges, if Ghanaian universities, language centres and
institutes had similar schemes to teach Ghanaian languages and promote culture
and business in Ghana.
Prof Yankah noted that even though Chinese sounds like
a difficult language to Africans, linguistics were convinced that proficiency
in the language subsequently became easier with time, and that Chinese grammar
and syntax were no more difficult to learn.
The Ghanaian delegation to China include the Executive Secretary of the National Accreditation Board, Dr Kingsley Nyarko, Prof. Frank John Eshun, Vice Chancellor of Takoradi Technical University and the Director of Confucius Institute, UCC, Prof Hu Liangcai.