Egypt to start teaching Chinese in middle schools  

Egypt has launched a pilot programme to teach the Chinese language at 12 public middle schools across three governorates in the upcoming 2022/2023 academic year, the Deputy Minister of Education and Technical Education Mohamed Megahed said.

Megahed made the announcement yesterday during a launch ceremony at the Confucius Institute of Cairo University.

Zhang Tao, charge d’affaires of the Chinese embassy in Egypt, said the initiative will mark a new starting point for Chinese language training in Egyptian middle schools.

Egypt launched a pilot program to teach Chinese in middle schools. 12 public middle schools would be included in the program.

In September 2020, China & Egypt signed a MOU to teach Chinese as an optional second foreign language in Egyptian primary & secondary schools. pic.twitter.com/Cz2JDhu5aZ

— Liu Yongfeng (@liupheonix) September 26, 2022

The programme was initially scheduled to start in the 2023/204 academic year, but in a statement following the ceremony, Megahed said that both sides were keen to launch one year early.

A ten-day teacher training programme will also be held at the institute, located in Cairo University, after which the teachers will begin teaching the Chinese language in the 12 selected schools, located in the Cairo, Giza and Menoufiya governorates, the statement added.

The introduction of Chinese as a second option foreign language in Egyptian schools comes after a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between both countries in September 2020.

At the time Xinhua reported that as part of the MoU, China would support Egypt’s education sector in several areas including establishing solar power plants in schools, workshops for technical education and updating educational technology in secondary schools across the country.

OPINION: The Egyptian economy is a time bomb waiting to explode