Carlos Chagas, a school in Duque de Caxias in the southeastern Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, and the state government have agreed that the school should endeavour to teach Chinese and Portuguese, the Xinhua Silk Road website says.

The school will make Chinese a compulsory subject, teaching it to classes of up to 30 primary pupils, secondary pupils or adults, the Chinese state-run website reported last Thursday, the day after the agreement was signed.

Carlos Chagas will thus be the second school in the state where pupils are meant to be conversant with both Portuguese and Chinese, the report says.

It quotes Chinese Consul-General in Rio de Janeiro Tian Min as saying the school will also instruct promising pupils in Chinese culture.

The pupils will learn about Chinese history and art, the Xinhua Silk Road website quotes Duque de Caxias Mayor Washington Reis as saying.