China's Education Sector Adapting with Economy
SHENZHEN, China, Nov. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- With the rapid development of the Chinese economy, the country has witnessed charitable donations exceeding 80 billion yuan (approx. US$13.1 billion) annually for the first time, 36 percent for the education sector. An ever growing number of Chinese companies and foundations have begun to realize that they can revolutionize the fundraising model in the Chinese education sector, especially when it comes to the training and development of professional teachers. This can include setting up special funds for the training of both middle school and high school level educators as well as partnering with educational authorities to improve the teaching abilities of the country's educators. These improvements can come in the form of social innovation, including adoption of a more international perspective in design of teacher trainings and local and national team-based tasks and problem solving.
With support from the National Institute of Education Sciences, the Educational Science Research Institute of Shenzhen, Intel (China), Shenzhen Charity Federation, Shenzhen Innovation Corporate Social Responsibility Development Center (CSRDC) and Ivy Elite Education (IEE) jointly held the summit forum "Using Socially Innovation to Reform the Chinese Education Sector" in Shenzhen on November 23, 2013.
The forum featured over 500 key personalities from across all government sectors as well as many from the country's leading business enterprises and foundations. The forum gave the opportunity for this diverse group to highlight case studies in education and exchange ideas on how to drive innovation across China's education sector, promote the long overdue upgrading of the quality of the country's educators, and discuss the best models of cooperation.
At the forum, Mr Gao Baoli, Assistant Dean at the National Institute of Education Sciences (NIES), the national research program responsible for developing innovative training methods for China's educators, expounded on the importance and value of the research being undertaken by the group. Mr Gao said, "...[The] development of education in China needs to keep pace with the times and it's an important step for all of Chinese society to provide guidance to the country's leading enterprises in setting up special educational foundations in socially innovative ways to drive educational innovation." The research program is directed by NIES with the involvement of nearly ten renowned Chinese education research institutions, including Beijing Normal University, South China Normal University and Educational Science Research Institute of Shenzhen, and a select group of 200 of China's top middle and high schools.
Ms Hu Xiaohong, International Affairs Director for the research program and General Manager of Ivy Elite Education (IEE) said, "[Working] hand in hand with the most prestigious universities and educational institutions around the world, experimenting by bringing in a more advanced international model for the training of teachers, and developing more technologically advanced curricula and programs for the management of education -- these are the efforts that will serve to drive the capabilities of China's educational community forward."
Mr Yang Zhongren, Chief Officer of Corporate Social Responsibility at Intel (China), said, "[With] the acceleration of economic globalization, it behooves China's educational community to be more open-minded and to allow more businesses and foundations to participate in, and speed up, China's educational innovation and social development."
Executives from TCL Charity Foundation, Tencent Charity Foundation and Samsung Group also expressed their desire to be part of the effort at innovation within China's educational system.
