PM to set out new package for UK-China education

Prime Minister Theresa May is set to announce a new package of exchange deals, partnerships and commercial contracts which bolster Britain’s already strong education relationship with China.

Visiting the Chinese city of Wuhan, which has the largest student population of any city in the world, the Prime Minister will announce details of a new approach covering pre-school through to post-grad education.

It includes a new commitment to extend the UK-China Maths Teacher Exchange primary school programme for a further two years to 2020.

This will enable an additional 140 primary teachers in England to benefit from further training in China.

The government will also expand the exchange programme to include up to 45 teachers in English secondary schools.

The pioneering scheme involves English teachers visiting China for two weeks and Chinese teachers visiting England for two weeks, enabling schools to experience world-class maths teaching in English classrooms.

Also included is an agreement to facilitate joint training of pre-school staff in the UK and China; and improved UK-China information-sharing on vocational education through more study exchanges; the launch of a new “English is GREAT” campaign, promoting proficiency in English for more people in China.

The campaign will support individuals in improving their language proficiency as a means to achieve their own professional and personal ambitions – and to provide significant commercial opportunities for the UK by opening up a market worth over $2 billion a year. This will echo the UK-Mandarin Excellence Programme, launched in 2016 and which aims to have 5.000 secondary school pupils in the UK fluent in Mandarin by 2020

The Prime Minister will also welcome a major new package of commercial deliverables in the education sector – reinforcing the UK’s position as a global leader in this field.