Are Chinese-English bilingual schools the future of primary education?

Speakers: Li Ningjing and Sam Duckett

[Photo: Bing.com]

There are just two classrooms at Kensington Wade, a shiny new independent prep school opening in west London in September.

The charts contain only Chinese symbols, the books are in Mandarin, and laid out are traditional oriental fans, scrolls and artwork. Even the school's world map, which might normally have Europe at the centre of the picture, instead shows gives Asia and the Pacific the limelight.

Kensington Wade is the first of its kind in western Europe: a dual language English-Chinese prep school, offering completely bilingual education for children between the ages of 3 and 11. Children of any background are welcome

It also comes with a bold promise. Staff are telling prospective parents that by the time their child leaves to go on to secondary school, they will be entirely fluent in Mandarin Chinese, while at the same time receiving just as good an education as any pupil of a 'normal' English language school. By instilling that bilingual mindset, it's thought, students here will be better prepared for the rigours of global 21^st century life than any other children in Britain.

The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI.