Nantong Middle School forges ties with Hungarian school

Nantong Middle School in Nantong, Jiangsu province established a partnership with the Hungarian-Chinese Bilingual Primary and Secondary School located in Budapest, Hungary, on Oct 31.

The two sides signed a friendly memorandum during a Hungarian delegation's visit to the Nantong school that day, agreeing to carry out cooperation in promoting the Chinese language, teaching students, and training teachers.

This was the first time the Nantong school had forged ties with a European counterpart, said Cheng Jinping, the school's principal. He considered it a significant step forward for cooperation with European educational institutes.

The Hungarian school, jointly established by the Hungarian and Chinese governments in 2004, is the only public school in Central and Eastern Europe that uses two languages in the classroom.

The school currently has 510 enrolled students and more than 50 teachers. The school offers daily Chinese language lessons to all students, according to Erdelyi Zsuzsanna, head of the school.

Zsuzsanna expressed hope that some Hungarian students would study abroad at the Nantong school to learn more about Chinese language and culture. She also invited Nantong students to visit Hungary.

The Nantong school has now established partnerships with 12 foreign schools in countries such as the United States and Australia.