On October 7th, Teacher Education Centre under the Auspices of UNESCO was established in Shanghai. It’s the first Shanghai-based education secondary institution which was formally established after 4 years of planing and construction. It would contribute to global education governance and education development.
In the November of 2017 in Paris, the 39th general assembly of the UNESCO passed the resolution to set up a Teacher Education Centre under the Auspices of UNESCO in Shanghai.
On October 7th, the opening ceremony was held with online and offline methods. According to the introduction, the centre would follow the principle of “teacher is the core of education”. The goal of the institution was to promote education for teachers in the world, especially to offer service and support to improve the teachers’ ability in developing countries in Africa and Asian and Pacific countries.
The general director of UNESCO congratulated on the establishment of the first council and the teacher education centre. He said in his speech that Chinese effort was required to carry out the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development as well as that UNESCO would support the development of teacher education centre and the transforming development of teachers.
Qin Changwei, general secretary of China’s national commission of the UNESCO, said in his speech that the Teacher Education Centre under the Auspices of UNESCO was established to meet the demand of the current era. It pushed forward the development of the education for teachers in the current era and was significant for the implementation of the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development. The teacher education center jointly set up by China and UNESCO represented China’s strong support to UNESCO’s education cause and international society’s high comment to China’s development of education for teacher.
Wang Ping, director of Shanghai’s education commission, hoped that Shanghai would start more exchange, cooperation and mutual-learning between regions and countries through the teacher education centre. He expected the centre to carry out it’s responsibility in all aspects; initiate scientific research; enhance capacity; offer technological service and push forward information sharing. The education centre was also expected to launch close cooperation with other institutions of UNESCO to share wisdom, experience and plans, so as to make the centre a service provider, standard setter and a resource management center in the world.
After the opening ceremony held the conference to establish council of the teacher education centre of the UNESCO. After the discussion, the council decided to select Chen Qun, vice mayor of Shanghai, to be the president of the first council, which was composed of representatives of member states of the UN, representatives of China’s Ministry of Education, representatives of Shanghai education commission and education experts from home and abroad. The council appointed Zhang Min, former president of Shanghai Normal University and the person in charge of the preparation of the education centre, to be the directer of the teacher education centre. The council also passed documents, including the constitution of the Teacher Education Centre under the Auspices of UNESCO and a Four Year Action Plan.