Beijing Hopes Russia to Speed Up Inclusion of Chinese Into State School Exams

The move is necessary for, in the long-term perspective, strengthening the friendly relations between the two countries, to increase service levels and contribute to Russia becoming a more attractive tourist destination, Chinese Ambassador to Moscow Li Hui told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — China hopes that Russia will speed up the process of inclusion of the Chinese language into its unified system of state school exams as a foreign language, Chinese Ambassador to Moscow Li Hui told Sputnik in an interview.

"We have taken note of the fact that the Chinese language is being considered for the inclusion into the Unified State Exam as a foreign language. We hope that Russia will speed up this process."

According to Li, the move is necessary for, in the long-term perspective, strengthening the friendly relations between the two countries, to increase service levels and contribute to Russia becoming a more attractive tourist destination.

He added that there was a considerable lack of Russian tour guides with the knowledge of Chinese, amid growing needs for Chinese-language guided tours around Russia. The ambassador stressed that the flow of tourists from China to Russia has been growing rapidly in recent years.

The Unified State Exam is a series of exams in Russia, which are obligatory for any school student to let them enter a university or a professional college. In 2009, the USE became the only available option of school graduation exam.

The USEs in the Russian language and mathematics are obligatory to get a certificate of secondary education, while other exams can be selected from a broader list, depending on a student's choice of further education. The list currently includes four foreign languages — English, German, Spanish and French.