Chinese People in Madagascar - Education

Education

Chinese-language education in Madagascar began in the late 1920s; with the 1937 onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese parents could no longer send their children back to China for their schooling, which fueled the expansion of local Chinese education. Two of the most well-known schools, the Kuomintang-run Ecole Franco-Chinoise (兴文学校) in Fenerive, and the co-educational Ecole Chinoise Mixte (华体学校) in Toamasina, were both established the following year. The Ecole Chinoise Mixte at Toamasina was founded by parents who had withdrawn their children from the KMT school; they were alleged to be communist. By 1946, the island boasted eleven Chinese schools. However, after the end of World War II, and especially in the 1980s, parents began shifting their children towards French-language education instead. As a result, the number of schools decreased, and the ones which remained decreased the number of class hours devoted to Chinese-language teaching. Of eight schools in 1972, three disappeared by the mid-1980s; the Ecole Franco-Chinoise, which at its peak had enrolled 629 students, was forced to merge with the Ecole Chinoise Mixte to form the Collège de la Congrégation Chinoise (华侨学校).

By 1995, only two schools remained, in Fianarantsoa and Toamasina. The one in Toamasina, the Collège de la Congrégation Chinoise, enrolled 398 students at the kindergarten through lower secondary levels as of 2008; it continues teaching both Cantonese and Mandarin. The school in Fianarantsoa had about 100 students, including mixed-race children of Chinese and Malagasy descent, as well as non-Chinese children.

For tertiary education, by the 1960s a few Chinese students went on to Francophone universities in Madagascar or in France. In 1957, the Ecole Franco-Chinoise began sending students to Taiwan for education, starting with nine in the first year and totalling 34 by 1964. These students tended to attend the Overseas Chinese Preparatory High School (now part of National Taiwan Normal University) before going on to their degree work; many had trouble with Mandarin. Some returned to Madagascar, but found difficulties in advancement there due to the non-recognition of their degrees.

The Confucius Institute opened a branch at the University of Antananarivo in November 2008. By June 2013, more than 28 Chinese language teaching institutes had been established across the country.