If you are teaching Chinese in Ireland, please support and sign the petition https://chn.ge/2KANPWp  via @Change in aiming to get official recognition of Chinese as a subject by the teaching council of Ireland. Thank you for supporting the petition.

Teaching Council/Department of Education to recognise Chinese language as a subject

China has a population of over 1.35 billion, the potential consumer market in China offers enormous opportunities for enterprises around the world.  China is not the only country in which Chinese (AKA Mandarin) is the official language. Countries such as Singapore and Taiwan which have a combined population of 36 million also speak Chinese as their official language. Furthermore, 80% of the Japanese characters (Kanji) express the same meanings as Chinese. Japan is the 3rd largest economy in the world in 2017. Taiwan and Singapore which ranked 22nd and 40th respectively (World GDP ranking, 2017).

Five English speaking countries (UK, US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada) have established the importance of learning Chinese for decades. It has been ten years since the first post-primary school in Ireland took on a Chinese course. Ireland’s Strategy for Foreign Languages in Education was published in December 2017 and prioritises Chinese in the implementation plan.  The teaching council in Ireland is currently registering 98,000 teachers in 37 subjects annually. However, Chinese has not yet been a recognised subject.

This petition is aiming to get official recognition of Chinese as a subject by the teaching council of Ireland in order to get as many teachers teaching Chinese as a subject in all areas such as primary, post-primary, private, extra curriculum and Chinese heritage schools as possible.

中国的人口超过13.5亿，中国的潜在消费市场为全球企业提供了庞大的机会。中国并不是唯一以中文为官方语言的国家。新加坡和台湾人口总数为3600万也都以中文为官方语言。此外，80％的日文汉字与中文意思相同。日本是2017年全球第三大经济，台湾和新加坡分别排名第22和第40位。

五个英语系国家（英国，美国，澳大利亚，纽西兰和加拿大）已经公认学习中文的重要性几十年了。爱尔兰第一所中学开办中文课程已经有十年了。爱尔兰的外语教育策略于2017年12月发布，中文在实施计划中占首项。 爱尔兰教学委员会目前每年由37个科目注册98,000名教师。不过，中文课程还未被认可。

这个请愿旨在争取爱尔兰教学委员会尽可能尽快正式承认中文科目，以便让许多在中，小学，私立学校，课后课程和各中文学校等所有领域教授中文之教师登记为合格教师。

中國的人口超過13.5億，中國的潛在消費市場爲全球企業提供了龐大的機會。中國並不是唯一以中文爲官方語言的國家。新加坡和台灣人口總數爲3600萬也都以中文爲官方語言。此外，80％的日文漢字與中文意思相同。日本是2017年全球第三大經濟，台灣和新加坡分別排名第22和第40位。

五個英語系國家（英國，美國，澳大利亞，紐西蘭和加拿大）已經公認學習中文的重要性幾十年了。愛爾蘭第一所中學開辦中文課程已經有十年了。愛爾蘭的外語教育策略于2017年12月發布，中文在實施計劃中占首項。 愛爾蘭教學委員會目前每年由37個科目注冊98,000名教師。不過，中文課程還未被認可。

這個請願旨在爭取愛爾蘭教學委員會盡可能盡快正式承認中文科目，以便讓許多在中，小學，私立學校，課後課程和各中文學校等所有領域教授中文之教師登記爲合格教師。