PTDF to partner ABU on Chinese language

The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) will look into the possibility of partnering with Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria on the study of Chinese language which the university started as a course, PTDF Executive Secretary Dr Bello Aliyu said in Zaria yesterday.

The executive secretary, who was taken round a Chinese class in session, a language laboratory and a Chinese garden all on the Samaru Campus of the university by the Vice-Chancellor Professor Ibrahim Garba, said the partnership became necessary given the growing number of Nigerian students being sponsored by the Fund to go to China for postgraduate studies in different fields.

A statement by Director, Public Affairs Directorate, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Dr Ismaila Shehu, said a total of 63 Nigerian students completed the postgraduate studies in six different Chinese universities last month on PTDF scholarships.

Dr Bello Aliyu also said the Fund would soon send another set of Nigerians comprising 35 MSc and 16 PhD students to China and that such students needed at least a passable knowledge of Chinese language before the start of the programme in no distant future.

He said the study of the Chinese language in ABU by students before the start of their postgraduate programmes in China on engineering PTDF scholarships would save cost, saying he was elated to see a Chinese language class in session in ABU and a Chinese language laboratory which would greatly help in the study of the Chinese language and culture.

Earlier in his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ibrahim Garba, thanked the Fund for its interest to partner the university in the study of the Chinese language for its China-bound sponsored students to get the basics of Chinese language.

Professor Garba, who said the programme which started in the university recently, also said students take the course as an elective, hoping that with time it would be well accepted all over the country.