On June 6, Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng attended the 2nd Asia-Pacific Regional Education Minister’s Conference (APREMC-II) via video link.
In his speech, Huai pointed out that nowadays the world was facing complicated and tremendous challenges, and only by taking preemptive reform actions could the world accomplish the SDG 4- Education 2030. In the last two years, China had tackled numerous challenges in COVID-19 pandemic control and prevention, poverty alleviation and education modernization, and remarkable progress had been made towards the SDG 4- Education 2030.
Building on China’s experience, Huai put forward three suggestions to achieve the goals: 1) Re-calibration of education goals: the fundamental purpose of education is to prepare students to become well-rounded individuals who have moral integrity, intellectual knowledge, physical health, aesthetic sensitivity, a hard-working and industrious attitude. More focus should be put on the learning of ecosystems and life and equipping students with sophisticated digital skills; 2) More inclusive and equitable education system of higher quality: efforts should be made to provide more equitable public education services, close the urban-rural gap in education, enhance industry-school-academic collaboration, increase the adaptability of higher education and vocational education to meet social demands, and offer diversified life-long learning opportunities; and 3) Digital education reforms: China was implementing a nationwide strategy to advance reforms in digital education, and resources were being mobilized to build national-level digital education platforms.
Huai said China hoped to deepen its cooperation with UNESCO and Asia-Pacific countries to explore ways to nurture the next generation of talent, push forward reforms in digital education, speed up the post-pandemic recovery of education systems and try to achieve the SDG 4- Education 2030.
Organized by UNESCO and UNICEF EAPRO, this conference serves as a regular platform to press ahead the Education 2030 Agenda, and a regional consultation for the upcoming Transforming Education Summit 2022 scheduled to be held in September. Its theme was “Education Recovery and Transformation towards more Responsive, Relevant and Resilient Education Systems: Accelerating Progress towards SDG 4- Education 2030”. The event was attended by UNESCO Assistant Director-General and ministerial-level officials from over 20 countries.
