The 2019 Global Education Summit Focused on The Future of Education with Sharing From Diverse Perspectives

BEIJING, Nov. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On November 25th, the 2019 Global Education Summit (hereinfater "GES 2019") kicked off in Beijing. The summit is jointly organized by the China Development Research Foundation, Beijing Normal University, Tencent, GSV(Global Silicon Valley), New Oriental Education & Technology Group, and TAL Education Group, with academic cooperation support from Arizona State University (ASU) and the participation of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Themed "Education for All", the Summit focused on core topics including "Exploring a Common Future", "Education and Science", "School and Society" and the "Sustainable Development of Global Education." Speakers such as Li Wei, the Director of the CPPCC Population, Resources and Environment Committee & President of China Development Research Foundation, Dzingai Mutumbuka, the First Education and Culture Minster of Zimbabwe, Lu Xin, President of the Chinese Society of Vocational and Technical Education & Former Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education, Dong Qi, President of Beijing Normal University, Lu Mai, Vice Preisdent of China Development Research Foundation, Carl Wieman, Nobel Laureate in Physics, Jordan Naidoo, Director of UNESCO "Education 2030" Agenda Cooperation and Coordination Bureau, Richard Culatta, Former Director of Education, Science and Technology Department of the U.S. Ministry of Education, Yu Minhong, Chairman of New Oriental Education and Technology Group, Zhang Bangxin, Founder & CEO of TAL Education Group, Bai Yunfeng, Co-Founder & President of TAL Education Group, Shi Ke, Senior Vice President of New Oriental Education and Technology Group, Yu Haiyang, Director & General Manager of Tencent Investment, and more than 200 others guests from academic, political and business communities around the globe gathered together to carry out in-depth dialogues and discussions regarding significant issues such as exploring education for a common future, combined innovation of education and Science, coordinated operation of education systems, lifelong learning system construction and sustainable development of global education with a view to approaching future education development trends.

Future-oriented joint exploration

How to facilitate future-oriented development in education was one of the core topics of GES 2019. At the opening ceremony, a number of guests expressed the idea that one of the goals of education exploration for a common future is to faciltate equal access to education. Only by facilitating equal access to education and achieving inclusive education can we promote the construction of an open, inclusive and mutual learning environment so as to help build a community with shared future for mankind.

Li Wei delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the summit. According to Li, in the future society will impose higher requirements on education in terms of talent development, education equality and openness. In future societies there will be urgent and strong demands for education system reform, which can be deemed a significant topic during the development process of human society.

Regarding the development direction of future education, Lu Xin delivered a speech themed "future education: reform, structure, quality". According to Lu, national strategies, science and technology development, education planning and talent demands have specified the development direction of future education. China has completed the construction of the largest higher education and vocational education system around the globe, but education is not only a matter of magnitude. More importantly, it is a matter of structure, because high-quality education will fail to find a foothold without a scientific structure. In the midst of ten major reforms resulting from new generation information technology, structural reforms and connections with science and technology, progress will be carried out in ten aspects for the purpose of future education development. In a nutshell, "future education development is a historic process where reform and innovation will be continuously carried out, a process where supply side structural reform will be deeply improved, and a process where the above two will be synchronously implemented and quality of education of various levels and types will be enhanced. It will serve as the logical starting point of education modernization and the foothold of objectives".

Dong Qi delivered a speech on behalf of host Beijing Normal University. According to Dong, efforts in the following aspects should be enhanced in order to solve existing education issues and make future education a reality: enhance in-depth research on the future of society and future education formation, on existing education issues and solutions and on issues related to the combination of S&T and education such as ethics.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development initiated by the UN in 2016 set 17 sustainable development goals, of which, one is to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all." Jordan Naidoo said, "We need a connected and cooperative world to help us coordinate action and achieve a good outcome."

The Chinese model for promoting education equity is a good lesson for the world. As suggested by Lu Mai, we should pay attention to the equity of education for children in remote areas. He advised, "The education in the future must be for all and concern the grassroots and most vulnerable groups. We must prioritize the health and education of children, laying a solid foundation for their development."

On the road of promoting education equity, private education plays a necessary role. Two years after the 2017 Global Education Summit, Yu Minhong and Zhang Bangxin re-opened the "XDF and TAL Dialogue", profoundly discussing how to lead "warm education" from different perspectives and sharing their insights into education for the public benefit.  

As the fundamental social resources, it's always difficult to ensure adequate supply and equal allocation of education. Yet, technologies are disruptive, having broken the traditional bottleneck of education supply and allocation, and contributed to a balanced education. According to Yu Haiyang, Tencent hopes to solve the pain points and problems in education, such as alleviating the unequal allocation of quality education, meeting the needs for learning in fragmented spare time, lifting education efficiency through technological advances, and improving education experiences in innovative and interactive manners.

Constructing a new ecology of integrating education, science and technology

As the core driving forces for social development, technological revolution and industrial transformation are thoroughly changing our ways of production, life and learning. Integration of education, science and technology could improve learning efficiency, upgrade teaching methods and transform educational philosophies. How to realize mutual promotion between education and S&T is a focus of this summit.

According to Bai Yunfeng, Co-Founder and CEO of TAL Education Group, TAL has experienced three stages: talent gathering, technological investment and AI application. "TAL collects information before, during and after the lessons in digital means to build digital portraits of students. Once aided by technology, teaching students in accordance with their aptitude on a massive basis is possible."

The Internet, cloud computing, big data and other modern information technologies are not only promoting the reform and innovation of education, but also expressing new requirements on the talent structure. Talent development is based in good education and is the basis of innovation. Both technological transformation and global development are backed by optimized education and cultivating mechanism. Carl Wieman believes, "By studying how technologies influence the decision-making for education, we would find that technologies can help to make decisions but can't solve all the problems. The traditional word-of-mouth teaching method is not the most efficient way. We look forward to more scientific measurement for building our capacity."

In the past when imparting knowledge was a one-way path, teachers were solely knowledge givers. But now, they have gradually evolved in the teaching process to be guides and designers of learning methods. Out of their major tasks is "imparting knowledge and educating people," so it becomes increasingly important for teachers to educate during the transformation. An important mission for education is to train top talents with innovative capability and cooperative spirits for the future. According to Bai Yunfeng, science and technology are the core support and talents are the key driver for future-oriented education, but the ultimate goal of education has never changed.

As for how to train innovative talents geared to meet the needs of the world and the future, Shi Ke, Senior Vice President of New Oriental Education & Technology Group, said: "we should focus more on two links for the future of education, namely, linking more schools and families and emphasizing family education, and linking more disciplines and holistic education for all-round and healthy growth of kids."

Seeking Sustainable Development of Global Education

In 2015, the United Nations adopted the "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," which outlines the overall goals of sustainable development in the coming 15 years. On that basis, UNESCO adopted the Education 2030 Framework for Action, aiming at increasing access to schools and promoting inclusiveness, equity, quality and learning outcomes. "Education 2030" means that education is starting to surpass public services and becoming a global common interest and responsibility. Jordan Naidoo pointed out: "It ensures inclusive and eqitable high-quality education and facilitates life-long education to create common opportunities for mankind. This educational concept is very ambitious, grand and universal and can change the development of each individual and affect the development of a certain region or even the entire human society."

Starting from the concept of "sustainable development of global education", personal lifelong education and learning will be expanded to every individual. Lifelong education and learning within single countries and regions will be expanded and available in the whole world. The inevitable course to explore sustainable development of global education is to speed up improving the education system of lifelong learning. With the aid of AI tools, one can realize that he or she is not learning for the sake of learning, but also for personal development. AI, which is based on big data and self-adaptive technology, can address human prejudice and play an important role in lifelong learning in the long run.

The construction of the lifelong learning system is inseparable from good operation of the education system. As an important part of the education system, both basic education and higher education are undergoing changes in the selecting mechanism and training system. To find out how the two core modules bridge the gap of different mechanisms and achieve effective connection, therefore creating better quality education supply and cultivating innovative talents for the future, is the important mission of current education.

The open, flexible and complete education system that is oriented to everyone and suitable for everyone requires a broader international exchange and cooperation platform. Education in different countries or regions has its own unique development. Innovation, communication and cooperation in global education are a few of the core features of Global Education Summit 2019. In the opinion of Michael Moe, Founder and CEO of GSV, the global education market is growing exponentially because the education model is highly replicable. Innovative ideas in education in any country or region are worth knowing and absorbing, and the localization of innovative educational ideas worldwide is also accelerating.

This year, the 2019 Global Education Summit joined hands with strategic partners (such as Kwai, China Telecom and SenseTime), the Golden Partner (huohua.cn) and special partners (such as Chagall, zhangmen.com, Robotpen, Education industry cluster and future education research society of Wuqing District, Tinajin, Avenues, Xiaoe-tech, Gymboree, OneSmart, OneSmart|Jiaxuehui and Agora.io) to hold a top-level education summit. This GES also received strong support from the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA), EduLab, EdTech East Africa, EdTech Israel, EdTech Review, EdTechX Global, the British Embassy in China, and the Commercial Office of the Israeli Embassy in China.

SOURCE TAL Education Group

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