CAIRO — The Egyptian Ministry of Education has started a pilot project to include Mandarin Chinese as an elective foreign language in the curricula of 12 middle schools across the nation. A Sept. 25 ceremony was held at the Confucius Institute of Cairo University to launch the project, which includes the training of Chinese language teachers, according to a ministry statement.

The project comes as part of a cooperation protocol with the Confucius Institute of Cairo reached in September 2020 between the Egyptian Ministry of Education and China's ambassador to Cairo Liao Liqiang to enhance bilateral cooperation in education and culture.

Speaking at the ceremony, Egypt’s Deputy Minister of Education Muhammad Mujahid emphasizing the strong relations between the two countries. He praised the cooperation with China in the education sector and stressed the government's support for teaching Chinese and introducing the Egyptian people to Chinese culture.

Many observers see the teaching the Chinese language in Egyptian schools as an important step in strengthening cultural and educational bilateral cooperation as well as evidence of the strength of Egyptian-Chinese ties.