Mandarin education in Uganda makes progress

When schools open for a new term, the 33 teachers will teach Chinese in their designated schools. This will also start Chinese learning as the sixth language in the country's secondary-school curricula.

Grace Baguma, director of Uganda's National Curriculum Development Center, says another group of 40 language teachers from 40 different schools will be trained for nine months.

"We have the syllabus ready. Instruction materials are ready, and now the teachers have been trained," says Baguma, adding that by the end of the next four years, more than 60,000 students will have learned how to speak Mandarin.

Oswald Ndoleriire, Ugandan director of the Confucius Institute at Makerere University, says the university will roll out a bachelor's degree program on Chinese and Asian studies starting in 2019, a move aimed at encouraging the study of Chinese and Asian cultures.

He adds that a master's program in Chinese and Asian studies as well as one in Chinese-language teaching will be unveiled soon.

"We all know the great strides that the Asian continent has made and how much we can learn," Ndoleriire says.