FCTA Schools To Utilize ‘Chinese Corners’ For Cultural Exchange
By: Sunday Shekwonya
The Secondary Schools in Federal Capital Territory will use all the established ‘Chinese Corners’ for cultural exchange and national development.
Director / Secretary of the Secondary Education Board (SEB), Dr. Muhammed Sani Ladan, gave this assurance, while addressing the stakeholders at the ‘Chinese Corner’ inauguration ceremony and ‘NIHAO China’ painting competition award ceremony at Government Secondary School (GSS), Wuse Zone 3, Abuja.
Ladan explained that ‘Chinese Corner’ is a center which provides a platform for educational and cultural exchange between Nigeria and China, which further broadens the global perspective of Nigeria’s students.
His Words: “the Chinese Corner is a Cultural Centre, which contributes meaningfully towards people and diplomacy, while providing educational and artistic opportunities and fostering a sense of community among people from diverse backgrounds. The initiative will also deepen the mutually beneficial cooperation and respect between Nigeria and China.”
The Director revealed that the ‘Chinese Corner’ inaugurated in GSS Wuse Zone 3 is the 12th Chinese Cultural Centres with the FCT-SEB Schools and the 13th, nationwide; saying that the first Centre was inaugurated on the 16th February, 2013 at GSS Garki, Area 10, and since then, it has been success story.
In his address, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Yu Dunhai, said that the ‘Chinese Corner’ is equipped with cultural and modern facilities such as: books, movies, computers, artistic works among others, which will help to increase students’ understanding of diversity.
Dunhai said that one of the primary functions of the 13th Chinese Corner already established in secondary schools in Nigeria is to promote education, which is one of the bilateral agreement made with the Nigerian President when he visited China, recently.
Also speaking at the inaugural ceremony, the Director of Bilateral Cooperation, FCT Education Secretariat, Mr. Paul Oche Ejeh, said that the ‘Chinese Corner’, if put into proper use by the students, will foster relationship between the two countries and facilitate cultural learning.
Ejeh advised the students to utilize the opportunity brought to them from afar to their door post to explore the cultural activities through the materials provided at the Centre in order to bring the concept of ‘global village’ into reality.