Saudi Arabia starts teaching Chinese in schools

The Chinese language is being taught in primary and secondary schools in the Kingdom and is taught by 175 teachers who were invited under an education cooperation agreement signed between China and Saudi Arabia last year. This is reported by Arab News.

The Saudi Ministry of Education believes that knowing Chinese will improve Saudi students' chances of getting into prestigious Chinese universities and finding jobs in the future.

The decision is due to China's growing influence in the global economy and the developing trade relations between the two countries.

The kingdom's ministry has selected several schools for a pilot project to teach Chinese and plans to gradually expand the programme of study to include it in the curriculum up to the third middle class by 2029.

This phased approach will allow the effectiveness of the programme to be evaluated and necessary adjustments to be implemented.

The Kingdom's Minister of Education, Yousef Al-Benyan, emphasised that the government is investing heavily in developing the education system in line with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030.

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