From 3-4th September 2018, the 2018 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was held in Beijing. A landmark event in the history of China-Africa relations, the FOCAC will further deepen the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between China and Africa, build a closer China-Africa community, and open a new era of win-win cooperation and common development between China and Africa.
From the Tanzania-Zambia Railway, which has been hailed as the road to friendship; to the AU building complex, which symbolises friendship in the new era; to roads, railways, airports, and ports, which help African countries achieve sustainable development; to rural wells, satellite antennas, hospitals, schools, and stadiums, which address the real difficulties and needs of the local people, the image of the cooperation stretches across the African continent. Among the results achieved in China-Africa cooperation, the Open University of China (OUC) has also played its due part.
On 27th July 2018, the opening ceremony of the Joint Learning Centre (JLC) of the OUC and the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) was officially held in Dodoma, Tanzania. The successful establishment and operation of the JLC reflects the close friendship and cooperation between China and Tanzania in the field of education, and also embodies the OUC’s active implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. The international cooperation between the two universities has made important contributions to consolidating and developing the friendship and good feeling between China and Tanzania.
The opening ceremony of the JTC between the OUC and the OUT
The JLC is headquartered in Dar es Salaam, with its first sub-teaching centre in the Dodoma region. The OUC has provided 107 computers, 110 sets of desks and chairs, and the equipment need to assemble two cloud classrooms, all free of charge, and has sent technicians to the OUT for on-site installation and adjustment. In the beginning, the JLC will focus on teaching Chinese as a foreign language, using an online and offline integrated teaching method, and then gradually expand to cover other majors and promote the joint development of both degree and non-degree education. To date, the development and assembly of a Chinese language teaching platform and teaching resources has been completed.
The OUC took an important step as early as last year. On 18th October 2017, the OUC’s Zambia Learning Centre came into being, the first OUC Overseas Learning Centre established on the African continent.
The efforts of the OUC are specific measures to implement the spirit of the document Promote Actions in the Joint Construction of Education along the "Belt and Road"(Jiaowai, 2016 [46]) issued by the Ministry of Education and Work with Countries in the Belt and Road Initiative to Build OUC Overseas Schools, which is included in the OUC’s 13th Five-Year plan. These efforts will not only promote the development of Africa but also help with China's foreign trade development, and further promote exchanges and mutual learning between China and Africa.
The opening ceremony of the OUC learning centre in Zambia
Equipment being installed and adjusted at the OUC Learning Centre in Zambia
In order to meet teaching needs, the OUC has invested in a first group of 137 computers, 200 sets of desks and chairs, and related equipment for three computer classrooms at the Overseas Learning Centre in Zambia. Chinese language teaching resources have been integrated and reconstructed, and the teaching platform has been rebuilt. Based on Zambia's poor internet conditions, changes were made to adapt to LAN-based learning. At the same time, the 100 Sentences for Industrial Chinese (trial edition) teaching materials for three majors — welding, mining, and metallurgy and maintenance — have been issues. The materials were jointly compiled by the OUC Chinese Language Centre and members of the working group for the pilot program of bringing vocational education to foreign countries. The100 Sentences for Industrial Chinese (trial edition) application will be gradually extended to all professional fields, and comprehensive training in industrial Chinese will be carried out at Chinese-funded enterprises in Zambia. In the future, the OUC will expand Chinese language training to other fields besides industrial Chinese, other, non-Chinese companies, and even to Zambian society as a whole, with a purpose of serving the production and operation of companies and the economic development of Zambia, and providing human resources support for the development of Chinese enterprises and the economic and social development of the country in which they are located.
This year is the 5th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by the Chinese government. Over the past five years, the construction of the "Belt and Road" has transformed from concept to action and from vision to reality, and fruitful results have been achieved. The OUC will continue to work with countries in the Belt and Road Initiative, especially developing countries in Asia and Africa, during the "13th Five-Year" period. It will cooperate in the construction of OUC overseas colleges, which will use the “One Learning Centre with Several Sub-Centres” teaching model and engage in providing hardware and software, building teaching resources, and training teachers team for its sub-centres. The OUC will continue to actively serve the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation with the cooperative countries, and create a positive, humanistic atmosphere.
By Wu Yaqi, OUC