The Government backs Institute of Education initiative to expand Mandarin teaching

05 June 2014

With increasing importance being placed on the teaching of Mandarin, the Confucius Institute at the Institute of Education (IOE) is leading the way in expanding teaching of the subject to more schools in England.

Following the Prime Minister, David Cameron’s ambition to double the number of Chinese learners in the UK, the IOE’s aim is to train enough teachers of Mandarin Chinese, so that there is one teacher for every three secondary schools.

Katharine Caruthers, head of the IOE’s Confucius Institute said:

“One of the key challenges of changing practice and attitudes to Mandarin teaching in schools is how to develop a solid infrastructure for teaching the subject. Our vision is simple: to double the numbers, ultimately aiming for one teacher in every three secondary schools so that every child can be given the opportunity to learn Mandarin should they wish to.”

Education Minister, Elizabeth Truss, who has been supporting the work of the Confucius Institute and will today open this year’s Annual Chinese Conference for schools at the IOE said:

“China’s growing economy brings huge business opportunities for Britain and it is vital that more of our young people can speak Mandarin to be able to trade and develop successful companies. That is why the Prime Minister has announced our intention to double the number of Mandarin learners by 2020.

“The IOE Confucius Institute in Bloomsbury and the nationwide network of Confucius Classrooms will be a world leading centre of Mandarin teaching outside China. It will see a dramatic increase in the number of Mandarin teachers being trained.

“From this September children will be taught languages from age 7 under the new National Curriculum, which can include Mandarin and a rigorous GCSE is under development.”

Earlier this year Elizabeth Truss and the IOE went to China where they visited Hanban (the Chinese National Office for the Teaching of Chinese as a Foreign Language) to look at ways of boosting the teaching of Mandarin in England.
From September 2014 this Government is making it compulsory for children in maintained schools from age seven to 11 to learn a language.

Between 2012 and 2013, the number of entries to Chinese GCSE increased by 20 per cent (UK wide), with 930 secondary schools offering it at GCSE level.

In a CBI survey in 2010, UK employers mentioned Mandarin as second only to French as a language skill they would be looking for in future employees.
The IOE’s Annual Chinese Conference starts today and runs until 7 June and is the largest professional development event of its kind in the UK, specifically for those involved in and interested in teaching Mandarin.

Notes to editors
For more information contact the IOE press office: Rowan Walker 0207 911 5423/ r.walker@ioe.ac.uk

The Institute of Education is a world-leading university specialising in education and the social sciences. Founded in 1902, the Institute currently has more than 7,000 students and 800 staff. In January 2014, the Institute was recognised by Ofsted for its ‘Outstanding’ initial teacher training across primary, secondary and further education.  In the 2014 QS World University Rankings, the Institute was ranked number one for education worldwide.  In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise two-thirds of the publications that the IOE submitted were judged to be internationally significant and over a third were judged to be “world leading”.  The Institute is part of the University of London. www.ioe.ac.uk


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