Gayle Greene-Phillip the local director of CI and Joanne Li the overseas director

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The Confucius Institute in Antigua and Barbuda is preparing to expand the teaching of Mandarin, the primary Chinese language, and Chinese culture in the country.

The institute has been operating in the nation for the last five years, and now it is looking to establish a physical presence at the University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus to expand its work further.

According to Gayle Greene-Phillip, the Co-Director of the Institute, the development will enable the institute to expand its operations to include a physical unit at the university.

This move comes as the institute welcomed a new Co-director, Joanne Li, from China. Greene-Phillip added that the institute currently teaches Mandarin in two secondary schools, namely Sir Novelle Richards Academy and Glanville Secondary.

At Sir Novelle Richards Academy, Mandarin is a compulsory subject in the first and second forms, and all students are exposed to the language.

In the third form, it becomes optional. Meanwhile, Mandarin is optional at all levels at Glanville Secondary.

The institute also offers an adult program where Mandarin is taught to adults.

The Confucius Institute was initially established at the Antigua and Barbuda Institute for Continuing Education (ABICE), but it shifted to an online format with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Greene-Phillip mentioned that all the classes are free, including reading materials, and the response to the classes has been phenomenal.

Students who complete the HSK exams, a Chinese proficiency test, also save time when they travel to China to study, as it enables them to go directly to their classes without having to spend a year learning the language.

The institute has produced top-performing students who have done the HSK examinations, and two of them recently received scholarships to study in China.

Since its inception, the Confucius Institute has consistently had a co-director from China. Li, the new Co-director, has already visited the UWI FIC and a nearby school.

She said she hopes to visit more schools in the coming weeks and is considering starting classes in local areas for people who work during the day.

Overall, the CI Centre at the UWI FIC is expected to open before the start of the 2024-25 academic year in September, and the institute’s expansion will undoubtedly prove beneficial to the Antigua and Barbuda community.