The goal of "learning essential life skills" has brought together
100 educators from 20 countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific
region in Beijing to discuss how to improve education for students.
Upgrading education - a worldwide topic - is particularly important
for China, whose population makes up one fifth of the world's
total. China needs to turn its massive population into a human
resource advantage, said Liu Bin, president of the China
International Association for Educational Exchanges, at a forum on
improving education quality, which opened yesterday.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949,
especially over the past 20 years of reform, the country has made
great achievements in popularizing education among its citizens,
said Liu.
For example, according to the results of the fifth national
population census, the number of illiterate people aged above 15
has been reduced to 6 percent from 15 percent in 1990, when the
fourth national population survey was carried out.
Liu said more effort is needed to promote educational programs for
people of different ages. This includes expanding enrolment for
higher learning institutions and senior middle schools, encouraging
individuals or non-governmental organizations to set up schools to
supplement state-run ones, and introducing information
technology-aided education in schools.
China is also actively promoting comprehensive education -
encouraging students to excel at not only academic studies, but
also in other areas. The move aims to phase out the previous
text-oriented rote teaching to equip students with all-round
skills, according to the Ministry of Education.
The forum is being sponsored by the United Nations Education,
Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO), the Chinese National
Commission for UNESCO and the China National Institute for
Educational Research.
During the two-day forum, UNESCO Asia-Pacific members will exchange
views on shifting traditional education to modern comprehensive
learning, which teaches students academic knowledge, fine art and
sports, as well as morality, independent-thinking and
creativity.
(China Daily 06/13/2001)