On the mornings of November 10 and 11, the "2021 China-New Zealand Regional Education Forum" was held, with participants attending the forum at the Yuanmingyuan Campus of Beijing 101 Middle School Education Group or via video link. The forum consisted of an opening ceremony, keynote presentations, a principals' sub-forum, a sub-forum on international education sharing, etc. More than 20 principals of primary and middle schools, experts and teachers from Haidian District and Wellington exchanged their views under the theme of Empower Potential & Enable Tomorrow: Cultivate Global Talent in the Post-COVID Era. About 200 domestic and foreign representatives attended the forum online.
In his speech, Li Junjie, Executive Deputy District Head of Haidian, said that six schools in Haidian District had signed friendship agreements with schools in New Zealand since the first China-New Zealand Regional Education Forum in 2019. As 2021 marked the 15th anniversary of the sister city relationship between Beijing and Wellington, Li hoped that local governments in China and New Zealand could explore pragmatic cooperation in multiple areas in the post-COVID era and continue to break new ground in China-New Zealand regional education exchange and cooperation.
In their keynote presentations, representatives from schools in China and New Zealand such as Beijing 101 Middle School Education Group and Wellington High School shared their experience on topics including new thinking for talent cultivation in the post-COVID era, adopting technologies to empower teaching and learning, building and connecting diverse learning fields, using local cultural resources to promote education through practice, developing multi-dimensional and cross-disciplinary education for the future, etc.
At the principals' sub-forum, speakers from Middle School Affiliated to Beijing Medical University, Auckland Grammar School and other schools shared views on their characteristic education system, course design on comprehensive practical activities, overall evaluation on students, and diverse teaching methods and assessment, etc.
At the sub-forum on international education sharing, representatives from Upper Hutt College, Tawa College and St Mary's College, based on their schools' characteristics, respectively introduced courses on socio-scientific issues, research-based courses on practical issues in communities, and approaches to relieving students' anxiety through various online activities during the pandemic.
The forum also included a signing ceremony for Chinese members of Silver Fern Initiative. 21 Chinese schools have joined the program. Based on the platform offered by the initiative, the two sides will continue to strengthen pragmatic exchanges and cooperation in education.