Mandarin

Oral Answers to Questions — Education – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 11 December 2017.

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Photo of Will Quince Will Quince Conservative, Colchester 12:00, 11 December 2017

What steps her Department is taking to increase the number of pupils studying Mandarin.

Photo of Nick Gibb Nick Gibb Minister of State (Education)

The aim of our Mandarin Excellence programme, which was established in 2014, was to have 5,000 pupils fluent in Mandarin by 2020, and it is on track to achieve that. I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend Sir Oliver Letwin, who originally proposed this idea to me. The programme is now in 37 schools, with more than 1,400 pupils participating, all of whom are committed to eight hours of study—four hours in class and four hours of homework—each week. The intention is that by the time these pupils are in year 13, they will be fluent in Mandarin, reaching the international standard HSK (Level V).

Photo of Will Quince Will Quince Conservative, Colchester

Last week, the British Government hosted the UK young leaders’ roundtable and the people-to-people dialogue between the UK and China. Having recently visited China myself and seen the great opportunity that exists, does the Minister agree that having more schools offering Chinese or Mandarin as an option would help to strengthen the global strategic partnership between our two countries?

Photo of Nick Gibb Nick Gibb Minister of State (Education)

Yes, my hon. Friend is right. Last week we invited Minister Chen from China and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to meet 140 pupils who were participating in the Mandarin Excellence project. Minister Chen was impressed, as we all were, by the standard of the Mandarin being spoken by year 8 pupils who had been studying on the programme for just one year.