Uruguay-based school a success

MONTEVIDEO - Uruguay's Confucius Institute has seen demand expand so quickly that, according to the rector of the University of the Republic, or Udelar, more teachers are urgently needed just three months after it opened its doors.

"We need more teachers because the activity is growing at a breakneck speed," said Roberto Markarian, whose university manages the institute in conjunction with Qingdao University in eastern China's Shandong province.

The Montevideo-based Udelar, a leading university in the Latin American country, currently has around 200 students enrolled in Mandarin classes at both the institute and the Foreign Language Center run by Udelar's Humanities Department.