College students get Mandarin scholarships

FIVE students from Hillside Teachers’ College in Bulawayo have been awarded scholarships by the Chinese Government to study Mandarin in the Asian country.

The quintet is part of the 52 students studying the Chinese language at the institution. One of the five beneficiaries of the programme, Ms Faith Zvobgo is already in China while the other four are expected to join her later this week.

Ms Zvobgo was awarded a Chinese Government full waiver scholarship to study towards a Bachelor’s degree in Chinese at Tianjin University.
Hillside Teachers’ College’s acting principal, Dr Sifelani Jabangwe said the introduction of the subject at the institution is largely meant to equip their students for them to be competitive in the job market.

“This year 28 students who took the intermediate and beginners’ level of the Chinese proficiency test during the March and June examination period attained a 100 percent pass rate. From these, five of them were awarded the Cangjie scholarship,” he said.

“Ms Zvobgo, our student from the class of PA2022 was awarded a Chinese government full waiver scholarship to study a Bachelor’s degree in teaching Chinese as a second language at Tianjin University in China. In addition to that, three more students were also awarded the Confucius Institute scholarship to study Chinese in China for one academic year on a full waiver scholarship.”

Since the turn of the millennium, Zimbabwe and China have increased trade and deepened their bilateral relations with an increasing number of Zimbabwean students studying in the Asian country.

Some Chinese nationals have established companies in Zimbabwe while China is also involved in a number of major infrastructure projects in the country notably the Lake Gwayi Shangani project, the new Parliament building and the upgrading and rehabilitation of Hwange Unit 7 and 8 recently commissioned by President Mnangagwa.

The implementation of the projects has also led to transfer of skills between Zimbabweans and Chinese experts working on the projects
Dr Jabangwe said at the moment, they have 52 students learning Mandarin and they are all at different proficiency levels.

“It’s a two-year course for post Advanced Level while those with Ordinary Level pass do the course over a period of three years. For college students enrolled for the diploma in education, the entry is automatic as long you have the passion,” he said.

“We have a class of passionate students from every intake every year. We also offer Mandarin tutorials to the community.”

Besides offering Mandarin, Hillside Teachers’ College together with United College of Education have ventured into fulltime industrialisation through establishing and registering new companies in line with the Heritage Based Education 5.0 model.

The development adds impetus to the on-going efforts by the Government to re-industrialise Bulawayo and anchor the country’s economy on increased high-value production with a focus on substituting imports and stimulating export earnings.

UCE has set up a company called Collinvest (Pvt) Ltd and registered it with the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) while Hillside Teachers’ College has set up a secondary school as part of efforts to bridge the shortage of schools in Zimbabwe, which the Government says it’s in the region of between 3 000 and 4 000.

The college also produces nutritious Madhumbe crisps, which has since been approved by the Government analyst laboratory while a female student has come up with a unique garment design concept to breastfeeding mothers to assist them to breastfeed without exposing any part of their body.