Friday, July 29, 2022

The Chinese Proficiency Language offered by the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi (CIUON) continues to attract more talented and excellent students. More than 500 students are enrolled in different proficiency level Chinese classes. The interest for Chinese Language is due to increased job opportunities available to Kenyan Youth locally and abroad.

The CIUON has also been conducting online and offline training courses for UoN staff, officers from the Directorate of Immigration services, and improvement course for outstanding students from CIUON, the State House Girls High School Confucius Classroom and Maryhill Girls' High School during the Universities recess period.

The CIUON which was established on December 19th 2005 as the first Confucius institute in Africa has been awarded the title of "Confucius Institute of the Year" seven times. In 2014, CIUON won the award of "Pioneer Confucius Institute", and in 2020, it was awarded the title of "Global Model Confucius Institute". Since its establishment, CIUON has enrolled 19,488 students.  Speaking during the “Ask Ambassador” session organized by the CIUON on July 29th 2022, Prof. Stephen Kiama lauded the beneficial and mutual relations that the university has enjoyed with the Chinese Government.

“Our cooperation with the Embassy is extremely vibrant. We have consistently benefited from the annual Ambassador Scholarships that are awarded to needy but brilliant students at our University. We thank you very much for this generosity” said Prof. Kiama.

Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Zhou Pingjian said his government had noted an increased interest in the Chinese language by local students and citizens at large. He said the Chinese government will continue to support learning of Chinese language and research activities in local universities.

 “The students are the future connection between Kenya and China I am so impressed by the University if Nairobi you deserve it,” said Dr Zhou. He further added that his government is keen on strengthening co-operation in Scientific Research.

Beginning 2020, Kenya added Mandarin as one of the foreign languages to be taught at primary and secondary schools under CBC curriculum.

Those interested in studying any of the Chinese language proficiency certification courses offered by CIUON can enroll through https://confucius.uonbi.ac.ke/ “We have programmes for both UoN students and the public. Anyone interested can just login to the university’s and join our classes,” said the institute’s Director, Prof Wang Shangxue