The Confucius International Education Group has launched the Confucius Baccalaureate with UK NARIC, which developers have described as a “supermarket of different education curriculums”.
Bringing together six traditional arts – Propriety, Music, Archery, Riding, Reading, and Mathematics – the system has been piloted at CIEG’s schools in China, as well as at Riddlesworth Hall School in the UK and at the Clinton Community School District in the US.
“This work echoes what Confucius did 2,500 years ago”
These six arts will be developed into the Confucius Baccalaureate, which students will study alongside exams, which universities recognise.
“This system is like a supermarket of different education curriculums,” said 76th descendant of Confucius and CIEG founder, Kong Lingtao.
With this education system, students can pick out their own courses from different curriculums, and study the six arts at the same time, Lingtao added. This gives the students a rounded education, he said.
“UK NARIC has been working together with us to come up with the Confucius Baccalaureate to share the source of Confucius to contribute to modern education.”
Lingtao created the internationalised New Six Arts, an innovative educational philosophy, which mixes modern Chinese international school education and Confucius’ educational philosophies and beliefs with “elite” Western education and qualifications.
“It’s a big recognition of my ancestor’s work,” Lingtao noted, adding, “This work echoes what Confucius did 2,500 years ago.”
Under the system, students at CIEG schools in China study British GCSEs and A Levels qualifications, alongside intensive English studies preparing students for IELTS, as well as the six arts.
Extra SAT tuition for students wishing to study in US universities is available.
The internationalised New Six Arts is designed to allow Chinese international schools to cultivate elite students who will be “ready to face the fiercely competitive challenges and harmonious development on the global stage”.
Steve Miller from UK NARIC explained that the pilot of the Confucius Baccalaureate will probably lead to students studying the six arts alongside their other exams.
“Some of the effort is to try and find ways in which the Confucius idea is incorporated with the international exams,” he said.
“At the moment it looks like there will be continued use of the international exams but the six arts will be certified alongside,” he added.