Media Releases

Friday, May 2, 2008

CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE IN EDMONTON

The Edmonton Public School Board is proud to host three special events to mark the opening of the Confucius Institute in Edmonton. They are:

  1. Sunday, May 4 at 2 p.m. - the official opening of the Confucius Institute in Edmonton (CIE) takes place at the Alberta School for the Deaf.

  2. Sunday, May 4 at 7 p.m. - a Chinese gala at Eva O. Howard Theatre in Victoria School. The gala will feature a number of performances by the Chinese community and students from the Mandarin bilingual program.

  3. Monday, May 5 at 5:30 p.m. - the District is hosting a banquet at Sutton Place that will feature a keynote address by Dr. Xu Jialu (Shou Ja Lu). Dr. Jialu is the former Vice Chair of the Ninth and Tenth National Congress Standing Committee of the People's Republic of China and Dean of Arts at Beijing Normal.

Housed at the Alberta School for the Deaf, the Confucius Institute in Edmonton has been established in collaboration with Shandong Education Commission and Communication University of China under the authorization and sponsorship of HANBAN (China's National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language).

The partnership will allocate funding and support to Chinese language programming in Edmonton Public Schools, offer increased professional development opportunities for teachers and innovative resources for instruction of Chinese language and culture. In addition, it will encourage increased inter-visitation between Chinese and District students and staff.

A number of dignitaries will be attending the three events including the Lieutenant Governor; MP Laurie Hawn; Minister of Education Dave Hancock; the former Vice Chair of the Tenth Congress standing Committee of the People's Republic of China; the Director General of HANBAN; the Chinese Consulate General from Calgary; MLAs; and other leaders in government, education and business from China and Canada.

Specific information on the three events is attached. (A table has been reserved for any media wishing to attend the banquet. Please RSVP to Jane Farrell at 429-8290.)

For further information, contact:
Jane Farrell, Communications
(780) 429-8290
Cell: (780) 970-4356