insidetoronto.com

A "historic" memorandum of agreement was signed Tuesday between a delegation from the China Overseas Exchange Association and local school officials to promote Chinese culture and language education in Toronto public schools.

The agreement will mean more resources in the classroom for more than 10,000 students within the Toronto District School Board currently taking Chinese language classes each year, said Judy Whitfield, board principal of continuing education.

It will also provide about 300 board instructors the opportunity to take university-level professional development in China, Whitfield added.

"We want to make sure our instructors are the best instructors," she said, noting it took several years to officially partner up with the China Overseas Exchange Association, which runs cultural and educational exchange programs for Chinese-heritage students around the world. The organization is based in China. "This is definitely something to celebrate."

Zhu Taoying, the Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Toronto, supported the partnership and praised the efforts by both Canadian and Chinese education officials to work together.

"Rest assured, my colleagues and I will try our best to do whatever we can to help," she said. "To understand other cultures and to understand other people is very important."

Taoying added that students in China have benefitted from learning English by helping them "understand the outside world" better.

Ward 21 Trustee Shaun Chen (Scarborough Rouge-River) agreed, having returned from China in October as part of a group sent by the board to learn about the education system overseas.

"China is very open now to having partnerships," said Chen, applauding the signing, which will help Toronto students receive a more global education. "The world is becoming smaller."