Hundreds of Chinese college graduates attended interviews yesterday to be amongst the thousands of volunteer Chinese language teachers being sent overseas.
Recruiters at the Minzu University of China interviewed as many as 380 people over the weekend as part of a recruitment drive organised by the Beijing Center of the Promotion of Chinese Overseas. The scheme aims to pick up 300 people from Bejing alone and between 1,000 and 1,500 across China to be dispatched to Thailaind, The Phillipines and other Asian countries to teach Chinese in schools.
An official of the volunteer center of the Office of the Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), told METRO that Chinese teachers are in great demand because learning Chinese is now part of compulsory education in many primary schools in Asian countries such as Thailand.
“I heard from some education officials in the Thai government that they can’t start Chinese teaching without Chinese teachers and volunteers,” she said. Chinese teachers can be found in almost all the elementary schools in Thailand, according to her.
An official with the Beijing International Center for Chinese Language, said those who passed the interview would go through a five-month training period organised by Hanban. Successful candidates would then become volunteers and teach Chinese to primary and middle school students in Thailand, Philippines and other neighboring countries.
Read the full story on the China Daily website.