Four students receive 2019 Chinese Ambassador’s Award

Barbados’ education sector has benefitted over the years from the good diplomatic relations which exist between this island and the People’s Republic of China.

Speaking at the 2019 Chinese Ambassador’s Award Ceremony on Friday at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Barbados, Education Minister, Santia Bradshaw outlined areas in the sector where such benefits are evident.

She stated, “Within the past three to four years, well over 3 000 students from primary and secondary schools” locally have received training from the Confucius Institute at the University of West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill.

Meanwhile at the tertiary level, “over the last two decades, several Barbadian students have been able to access scholarships to China with a maximum of ten Barbadians being awarded scholarships every year following the signing of the October 2014 memorandum of understanding.”

She added the establishment of the Confucius Institute “in Barbados has provided an opportunity for Barbadian students accessing scholarships to China to learn Mandarin and the Chinese culture before their arrival in China. This development has enabled scholarship winners to get maximum benefit from the time spent in China as previous students reported that one year was simply not enough to gain mastery of the language before commencing their studies.”

Further speaking about contributions at this level, Bradshaw said the Cave Hill Campus and the Global Institute of Software Technology, Suzhou, China “have entered a partnership to establish the UWI-Suzhou Global Institute of Software Technology. There are several students from Barbados and other Caribbean islands currently enrolled in the programme at UWI’s Cave Hill Campus. Twenty of these students continued their training in China at the start of the 2018-2019 academic year.”

Beyond this, the Education Minister said the sector “has benefitted from ChinaAid which is provided over BDS$ 9.3 million in technology to be found in all our educational institutions. Grant funding for the UWI Centre for Food Security and Entrepreneurship and the provision and construction of infrastructure for the Hope Agricultural Institute in St. Lucy has been increased recently from BDS$14.5 million to BDS$29 million.”

Bradshaw expressed appreciation for the contributions made to the education sector. She also congratulated the four UWI students who are this year’s recipients of awards. They have pursued Chinese language classes through the Confucius Institute.

Addressing the audience, Charge D’Affaires of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Barbados, Xi Zou stated the Embassy started the Chinese Ambassador’s Award in 2016. He said, “the Embassy will keep providing as much assistance to push the translanguage learning forward in Barbados.”(MG)