Mickey Mouse might not be the most obvious choice as a language teacher but he and Donald Duck are being put to work in China by Walt Disney as part of a rapid expansion of a schools programme aiming to teach English to 150,000 children a year by 2015.

Disney, which has identified Shanghai as the location of its next theme park, is the first western media company to operate schools in China. It owns a handful in Shanghai and recently opened its first in Beijing.

After a successful trial phase Russell Hampton, president of Disney Publishing Worldwide, said the company wanted to expand from 11 to 148 schools across China in five years. “It is a very sizable opportunity, something that can deliver operating earnings of well over $100m in the next five years,” he said in an interview.