Ｖｉｇｏｒｏｕｓ Ｄｅｖｅｌｏｐｍｅｎｔ ｏｆ Ｓｉｎｏ－Ａｆｒｉｃａｎ Ｅｄｕｃａｔｉｏｎａｌ Ｅｘｃｈａｎｇｅｓ

Sino-African exchanges and cooperation in education is not only an important part of China’s international educational exchanges and cooperation， but also an indispensable component of China’s external relations， particularly China’s diplomatic relations with African countries. Today， China has established educational exchange and cooperation relations with more than 50 African countries. Bilateral educational exchanges have developed from sending students to study in each other’s countries in the beginning to today’s multi-level exchanges and cooperation in various fields and forms. Especially in recent years， China’s Ministry of Education has tried and explored many new ways in the educational cooperation with African countries and made gratifying achievements.

Since the 1950s China has sent over 100 educational delegations to African countries and received more than 90 African educational delegations. China and Egypt have established an annual bilateral high-level education forum， and a multilateral Sino-African Education Minister Forum has provided an ideal venue and platform for high-level education officials to meet and have exchanges.

Granting government scholarships is an important measure that China adopts to train professionals of various kinds for African countries. In the early days of the People’s Republic， China enrolled ten odd students from Egypt， Kenya and Cameroon in Chinese universities. By the end of 2005， China has provided government scholarships for 19，000 students (person/times) from 50 African countries. Among the African students who have studied in China， some have assumed the office of president of the parliament and minister， and some are engaged in the economic and trade exchanges with China， playing an important role in promoting in-depth development of Sino-African friendly relations.

It is gratifying that since China implemented reform and opening up， vigorous development and achievements that attract worldwide attention have been made in Chinese language teaching in African countries with its size further expanding. By July 2005， there were over 6，000 students in African countries studying Chinese， and the Chinese language courses were offered in more than 60 schools in over 10 countries. China has successively dispatched over 200 Chinese language teachers to more than 10 African countries and set up the Confucius Institutes in Kenya and some other African countries.

Along with the economic development and the growing of industrialization， some African countries are in urgent need of a great number of technicians. As China’s vocational technical education is applicable to meet the need of economic development of African countries， Sino-African cooperation in vocational education has broad prospects. In recent years， China has continued to strengthen its cooperation with African countries in vocational education， and carried out cooperation in this field with Egypt， Ethiopia and other countries successfully. For example， China has dispatched 87 teachers in vocational education to states and cities throughout Ethiopia， vigorously supporting the development of local education， scientific researches and economy.

It has been half a century since China dispatched teachers to Africa to help African countries’ universities and middle schools. Up till now， China has already sent more than 530 specialized teachers to 33 African countries and carried out nearly 60 educational assistance projects in 25 African countries and established 23 fairly advanced laboratories involving biology， computer， analytical chemistry， food processing and preservation， horticulture， civil engineering etc. Since China held the first training course for African countries in 1998， it has run 39 such courses in higher education management， long-distance education， vocational technical education， agricultural products processing， computer， research and development of medical plants， etc. 747 people have been invited and get trained in China.

Besides， exchanges and cooperation between institutions of higher learning of China and African countries that started in the 1980s have become an important component part of Sino-African educational exchanges and an important channel for training professionals. According to incomplete statistics， 20 Chinese universities have established inter-college relations with 35 universities in 29 African countries.

The author is deputy director general of the Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges of the Ministry of Education.