Learners at Groote Schuur High School pose for photos during the launch of Confucius Classroom in Cape Town, South Africa, March 24, 2017. (Xinhua/Werner Herboth)

CAPE TOWN, March 26 (Xinhua)-- South Africa on Friday opened its fourth Confucius Classroom, adding impetus to Mandarin learning in the country.

The Groote Schuur High School (GSHS) in Cape Town is the first among the four to be sponsored by the Confucius Institute.

Marius Ehrenreich, Principal of the school, said the Confucius Classroom provides a good opportunity to study Mandarin and the Chinese culture.

As more and more South Africans study Mandarin, friendship and cooperation between South Africa and China will grow, he said.

Kang Yong, the Chinese Consul General in Cape Town, said the past years have witnessed growing enthusiasm in studying Mandarin in South Africa.

He attributed this to the development of Sino-South African relations and the growing business opportunities such relations provide.

The introduction of Chinese Mandarin as the fourth language offered at GSHS allows learners to make connections with a world completely new and indeed foreign to them here in the South of Africa, Ehrenreich said.

It adds significantly to the school's efforts to grow its links with foreign cultures, languages and people so as to gain a broader world view, he said.

According to the school, learners in Grade 8 took to the new subject with unrivalled and unbridled enthusiasm, which carried over to Grade 9 in 2017.

More than 40 schools across South Africa have introduced Mandarin since 2016, the Ministry of Basic Education said.

As planned, a total number of 500 schools in South Africa will offer Mandarin as a second additional language in the next five years.

The roll-out of Mandarin teaching was incrementally implemented in schools with Grades 4-9 and 10 in January 2016, to be followed by Grade 11 in 2017 and Grade 12 in 2018.

Under the South African Schools Act of 1996, education is compulsory for all South Africans from the age of seven (grade 1) to age 15, or the completion of grade 9. Further Education and Training takes place from grades 10 to 12.

The Chinese government will send Chinese teachers to South Africa and donate 2,000 textbooks to assist in teaching Mandarin in schools until a South African textbook is developed, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said earlier.

Mandarin is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world.

The Chinese government sponsors much of the Mandarin language education in Africa through the Confucius Institutes affiliated with China's Ministry of Education.

There are at least 46 Confucius Institutes across Africa, five of them in South Africa, with more expected in the coming years.