Choosing Mandarin
Senegal’s public and private schools keep up with demand for study of the Chinese language
In Dakar, Happy Kids Kindergarten has set itself an ambitious challenge: to teach Senegalese toddlers to speak Chinese. This kindergarten, located in Ngor District, boasts of being the first trilingual school in Senegal. In addition to French (the country’s official language) and English, the school also teaches Mandarin. With China being the world’s most populous country and second largest economy, there is much to benefit from it this decision.
One can say many Senegalese parents have sized up what is at stake today. Like Happy Kids Kindergarten, more and more schools are including Mandarin into their curriculum. This is the case of Ndiar Middle School, about 50 km north of Dakar. Built through a Chinese cooperation project, the school has made Mandarin a regular subject for all its students.
According to Sun Zhen, Educational Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), Chinese-language teachers are becoming more and more involved in a number of kindergartens, schools and private higher education institutions throughout the capital. Gaston Berger University of Saint Louis, the second largest university in Senegal, now has a Confucius Classroom. Another one will soon open at Assane Seck University in Ziguinchor, in the south of the country.
At UCAD in Dakar, the Center for Information Science and Technology Studies and the Institute of Applied Foreign Languages, which train technicians and managers for the hospitality industry, both send their students to attend classes at the Confucius Institute.
Sinology department
Created in 2013 to promote Chinese