‘Memorandum of friendship’ to establish ‘sister schools’ in Kuching, Chongzhou Municipality
KUCHING: Two Chinese schools here and two in Chongzhou Municipality in Chengdu City, China will forge closer relationships with one another via a ‘memorandum of friendship’.
The signing ceremony is part of the programme line-up set in connection with the three- day visit here by a delegation from Chongzhou Municipal People’s Government, led by its Foreign Chinese Affairs General Office director Qin Jian.
SJKC Chung Hua No 3 (Kuching) will forge an ‘ agreement of friendship’ with Chongzhou Zhi Tong Zhen Primary School today (Oct 31), while Chung Hua Middle School No 3 and Sichuan Chongzhou Shu Cheng Middle School will ink theirs tomorrow ( Nov 1).
Qin disclosed this during a courtesy call on Kuching South Mayor Dato James Chan at his office in Kuching South City Council ( MBKS) yesterday.
According to her, Chongzhou and Kuching had established their friendship ties in 2014 and in this regard, she expressed her hope that this cooperation could be extended to the education.
“With the signing of the ‘ friendship school memorandum’, I hope that schools from both countries could carry out programmes, such as the studentteacher exchanges, to expose students and teachers to new cultural experiences.
“Educational research and developments ( R& Ds) could also be conducted – provided that the current collaborations between the schools from both countries achieve positive impact,” she said.
According to Qin, Chengdu City has a population of over 10 million – Chongzhou, which is one of its counties, houses a population of about 700,000.
Its economy is primarily fuelled by the tourism sector. Educationwise, it has 57 schools, 4,480 teachers and 50,390 students.
It is learnt that the Chongzhou Municipality had entered into similar bilateral collaborations with two schools in Kuala Lumpur.
Meanwhile in his remarks, Chan said he was happy and proud that two Chinese schools in Kuching had been selected for the ‘agreement of friendship’ with Chongzhou Municipality.
“I hope that both sides would achieve breakthroughs in the education field and also for more future collaborations to be established in other fields ,” he said.