Immigrate to Spain to learn about Spanish Education: The government of the Andalusia region in Southern Spain recently included Chinese language teaching in its 2014-2020 foreign language teaching development strategy, aiming to promote Chinese language education within the public education system.
This was revealed by Zhang Li, the representative of the Confucius Institute in Spain, after attending a Chinese language seminar organized by the Andalusia region in Seville. She stated that the two-day seminar opened on March 6, with over 120 attendees including primary and secondary school principals from across Spain, directors of six Confucius Institutes, and experts in Chinese language teaching. The common hope expressed at the meeting was to establish Chinese language classes in public school education systems and to set up Chinese language and literature majors at universities. Currently, Chinese language courses in Spain are primarily extracurricular activities.
In recent years, the popularity of Chinese in Spain has continued to rise. The number of participants in the Chinese proficiency test has maintained the highest in Europe for three consecutive years, with over 25,000 people learning Chinese nationwide.
Zhang Li mentioned that the collaboration between the National Hanban and the Andalusia region is now in its third year. Currently, Chinese language classes are offered in 11 schools in the region, with a total of 1,229 students. She noted that public demand has driven the development of Chinese language education. There are currently six Confucius Institutes in Spain, along with over 40 universities and more than 150 primary and secondary schools teaching Chinese.