On December 3-5, the 2018 UNESCO Global Education Meeting was held in Brussels, Belgium. Vice Minister of Education Sun Yao attended the meeting and delivered a speech at the Ministerial Roundtable Segment held on the morning of December 5.
In his delivery, Sun emphasized that the Chinese government was sparing no effort in bolstering education through development and investment. He gave an overview of the measures taken and progress achieved by China in pursuing more universal access to, and more equity, higher quality and more openness in education.
Sun also underscored how, China’s national education conference which was held in September, had been the source of comprehensive proposals for accelerating the modernization of education. He declared that China would continue on the path of education with Chinese characteristics based on a people-oriented development agenda, adding that greater effort would be made to reinforce student moral development and promote their all-round education, while pursuing fair and quality education that would be suitable and more flexible for everyone. To this end, Sun said, China was willing to work with other countries to meet the education development goals by 2030. He expressed the hope that, UNESCO would play a greater role in facilitating exchanges with member states and supporting multi-dimensional cooperation and communication, sharing of experiences, and joint efforts towards shared growth, to build a sustainable, brighter future for humanity.
During the Global Education Meeting, the Chinese delegation distributed a richly illustrated and informative brochure, which introduced China’s actions and accomplishments in implementing the Global Education 2030 Agenda as well as its further strategic plans for the modernization of education and the fulfillment of the education development goals by 2030. The brochure was welcomed by all participants of the meeting.
Themed “Education in an Interconnected World: Ensuring inclusive and equitable development”, this Global Education Meeting was the first of its kind held by UNESCO since the adoption of the 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Over 300 representatives from governments, international organizations, specialized institutions, civil society and private sector, including ministers and vice ministers of education attended from more than 30 countries, such as Canada, China, France, Russian Federation, Japan, Kenya and Argentina. The Meeting reviewed progress in implementation of the Global Education 2030 Agenda and adopted the Brussels Declaration. The declaration contains 8 major priority areas of action: promotion of education equity, elimination of illiteracy, care for vulnerable groups, promotion of gender equity, reinforcement of civic and sustainable education, establishment of open and flexible educational systems, improvement of teachers’ education, and increase of educational investments. These proposals will be submitted to the next High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in 2019.
