By: James Kamara-Manneh
The Chinese Embassy in Sierra Leone has continued its efforts in strengthening educational cooperation between the two friendly countries.
During the Awarding Ceremony of 2022 Chinese Ambassador Scholarship/Grant and “Talk with Taikonauts” Event at the Bintumani Hotel Freetown, on the 6th September 2022, Ambassador Hu Zhianliang reiterated the educational collaboration between the two nations.
First of all, Amb.Hu began by expressing his sincere appreciation to the two ministers of education Hon. Minister Alpha Tejan Wurie and Hon. Minister David Sengeh for their precious support to the event.
The Ambassador went further in commending the Sierra Leonean government and people, particularly the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education and the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education for the efforts in promoting educational cooperation between our two countries.
In recent years, the Chinese Embassy has been awarding Ambassador Scholarships to outstanding college students and grants to needy primary and secondary school students in support of Sierra Leone’s educational development.
“Today, 20 college students and 108 primary and secondary school students will benefit from this initiative”,Amb. Hu disclosed.
The Chinese Ambassador to Sierra Leone congratulated all those who are qualified for the 2022 Chinese Ambassador Scholarships and Grants, pointing out that a total of 135 local students have benefited from the Chinese Ambassadors Scholarships.
The 20 college students for the Ambassador scholarships were recommended to the Embassy by the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education as well as various colleges and universities across the country.
The 108 recipients of the Ambassador grants were recommended by the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Fourah Bay College Junior Secondary School and the Sierra Leone – China friendship organizations.
Due to space limits, the Embassy invited only 10 representatives of the grant recipients to attend the awarding ceremony, and the other 98 students will receive the grants sooner.
The results of cooperation in educational development and human capacity building between our two sides are especially significant.
Just in the past two decades, the Chinese government has sponsored over 1100 Sierra Leonean students to study in China under various scholarship programs.
The Chinese government has also invited more than 5100 Sierra Leonean friends from all walks of life to China for short-term training courses or exchanges.
With the concerted efforts of our two sides, an additional 131 Sierra Leonean students have been admitted by the Chinese universities under the Chinese Government Scholarship programs this year.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government has been supporting the Free Quality Education initiated by His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio in various ways, such as providing 2 million RMB yuan as direct financial support, providing computers and other teaching equipment to some local schools and providing thousands of tons of rice aid for the school feeding program etc.
In February this year, the Chinese Embassy cooperated with the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, the Confucius Institute of the University of Sierra Leone and the Sierra Leone – China Friendship Association in launching Small-Small Chinese Lessons in five primary schools in Sierra Leone, offering opportunities of learning basic Chinese language skills to the students and helping bridge cultural distances.
Honorable Minister Sengeh has had two successful virtual meetings with the Chinese Minister of Education and the Vice Minister of Education last year and this year respectively, reaching important consensus in strengthening China- Sierra Leone cooperation in basic education.
H.E. President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the development of China- Sierra Leone relations. Amb.Hu expresses confident that as long as the two countries continue to follow the guidance of the two heads of state and earnestly carry out what we have been agreed upon, China-Sierra Leone educational cooperation will bear even more and bigger fruits, benefiting our two peoples.
After the awarding ceremony, the two countries jointly witnessed a historic and most exciting moment i.e. “Talk with Taikonauts”. The program was specifically arranged for young African innovators. It’s meant to share China’s experience and successes of space exploration with Africa and encourage Africa to build up its own great dreams.
Whereas, the Minister for Tertiary and Higher Education Dr Alpha Tejan Wurie said the relationship between China and Sierra Leone is now 51 years old and there has been educational exchange between these two countries and over a thousand students have gained admission to study in China and some attained their qualifications studying in China with the remarks that education exchange has been the key relationship of these countries.
He went on that it is the responsibility of the Ministry to train people in different centralization and that the UK and China have been key players towards Education citing that over 300 hundred qualified doctors at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation attained their qualifications in China.
He disclosed that 131 Students have been catered for to study in China in various specialization and these students would be required to do a Covid-19 test as these students will continue with the bond the two countries share.
Currently, a total of 200 hundred students are studying in China.
He talked about the purpose of the event which is the Ambassador Scholarship and Awards that has been in existence and a total of 135 students have benefited from it; that this year only 20 Students from different colleges will benefit from the scheme.
Dr. Wurie went on that he is in admiration of space science, as he considers Sierra Leone to build a space station.
He thanked the Ambassador for the Ambassadorial Scholarship Awards and the People’s Republic of China and the President of Sierra Leone for his vision in Education.
“Sierra Leone is a nation blessed with so much potentials and it’s only known through such platforms one can identify them” he opined.
He talked about his personal account of the relationship between China and Sierra Leone and thanked the Ambassador and President of China as he said China has always been a helping hand to Sierra Leone throughout the years that we faced disasters such as the mudslide, Ebola, and Covid-19.
He went on and thanked the Ambassador as he said these activities would leave a positive scar on the minds of young beneficiaries in serving towards the nation and that this will continually severe the relationship between both countries.
He concluded by assuring the Ambassador that these beneficiaries are intelligent students and that the country is very proud of them. He added that the only thing they lacked was the opportunity and that if opportunities are there Sierra Leoneans shines brighter due to our intelligence IQ.
The event was climaxed with a vote of thanks by one of the University awardee, Tejan Bangura who thanked Ambassador Hu for the event as he said a lot of information and knowledge has been acquired through the event.
He concluded that the 2022 Ambassador Scholarship is continued success as they intend to spread the history of China-Sierra Leone to the World and hoped that the relationship will grow stronger.
“Talk with Taikonuats” also added flare to the event and group photos of all awardees climaxed the event.
