The University of Nairobi in Kenya held a Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards workshop on Saturday. It was the first such workshop in Africa, and incorporated all African countries that teach Chinese language and culture.

Previously the Center for Language Education and Cooperation, an institution under China's Ministry of Education, published new grading standards for international Chinese language education last March.

Stephen Kiama, vice-chancellor of the University of Nairobi, said the university has worked with China's Tianjin Normal University to nurture excellent local Chinese language teachers.

"This is the most authoritative standard to guide global Chinese language teaching. Therefore, it is imperative for all local Chinese language teachers to have a thorough understanding of the standards," Kiama said.

He added the teachers are required to localize teaching under the guidance of these standards, which is why the university has incorporated localized teaching demonstrations into its agenda.

Zhong Yinghua, president of Tianjin Normal University and the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching, said: "I think the workshop will help more local teachers fully comprehend the grading standards and apply them to a variety of future teaching activities, such as classroom instruction, textbook writing and assessment, and continuously advance their Chinese instruction standards."

The workshop, which saw more than 200 people attend, will be instrumental in planning and implementing Chinese language education in Kenya, according to the University of Nairobi.