UCL Institute of Education leads Mandarin teaching initiative

A new £10 million Mandarin Excellence Programme, led by the UCL Institute of Education (IOE), will see at least 5,000 young people on track towards fluency in Mandarin Chinese by 2020. The programme, the first initiative of its kind, funded by the DfE and run by the IOE in partnership with the British Council, is being rolled out to secondary schools across the country with the start of the new school year. There are 15 schools participating in the first wave of the programme, and hundreds of secondary school pupils in England have already begun intensive lessons in Mandarin Chinese. Pupils will study Mandarin for eight hours a week over the course of the next four years through the programme - a significant increase on the time pupils currently spend on the subject. Katharine Caruthers, Director of the IOE's Confucius Institute said: "UCL Institute of Education is delighted to be delivering the DfE's Mandarin Excellence Programme. Over the last decade, our work in schools has inspired increasing numbers of secondary school pupils to take up Mandarin Chinese. This programme provides a real boost and unique opportunity for more motivated pupils to be on track towards fluency in Mandarin.