The Chinese Embassy to Cambodia on Tuesday in Phnom Penh donated 15,000 U.S. dollars to the Association of Khmer Chinese in Cambodia (AKCC) who was entrusted to allocate the fund to help more than 70 primary and junior schools in the kingdom to develop their Chinese language courses.

From 2000 to now, the embassy altogether provided some 150,000 U.S. dollars for such schools to have better teachers and academic conditions, said Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jinfeng.

The embassy expected that more people and organizations follow suit to spare their support for these schools which were shouldered with the responsibility to spread Chinese language to the younger generation of the close neighbor of China, she added.

Meanwhile, AKCC deputy director Du Ruitong expressed appreciation for the donation, saying that the development of the Chinese-teaching schools in Cambodia had gained speed in recent years thanks to the continuous support from the Chinese government.

Except for the donation, the Chinese government also invited in the past 5 years more than 100 Cambodians who taught Chinese in these schools to China to accept professional training, which greatly promoted the Chinese-teaching level of their schools, he added.

In addition, both sides also discussed the current problems that harassed these schools, such as shortage of qualified teachers and fund.

In 1960s, Cambodia had over 200 schools teaching Chinese. Most of them were closed in the coming years due to war and turmoil. In 1992, some schools resumed their Chinese language courses. Currently, there are 75 schools in Cambodia operating with Chinese language course and the number of their students stands at around 40,000.

Source: Xinhua