ACC Representatives Attended the International Congress on ICT in Education

From 22 to 24 June 2016, the International Congress on ICT in Education themed on “Education Reform in the Internet Age and Education 2030 Agenda” was held in Qingdao, Shandong Province. The Congress was co-organized by UNESCO, the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, the Education Management Information Centre from the Chinese Ministry of Education and Shandong Provincial Education Department. More than 580 representatives attended the Congress, including educational officials, presidents of universities, experts and scholars, as well as representatives of enterprises from more than 30 countries. Ms. Cao Ting, Deputy Director of Information and Public Relations Division of the ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), and Ms. Lin Xiaoqing, Information and PR Official of ACC attended the Congress. 

Mr. Li Qun, Secretary of Qingdao Municipal Party Committee, Mr. Stanley Mutumba Simataa, President of the 38th session of the General Conference of UNESCO, Mr. Tao Xiping, Member of China National Education Advisory Committee, Mr. Du Yue, Secretary-General of the Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO, Mr. Cheng Kai, Vice President of China Disabled Persons’ Federation, Mr. Zhan Tao, Director of the Management Information Centre of the Ministry of Education of China, attended the opening ceremony. 

Secretary Li Qun said that Qingdao was accelerating the process of building it into a smart city. It had made the Internet plus Education Action Plan a priority for educational development. He hoped that educational informationization would create a more suitable environment for the growth of talents for the betterment of the human society.  

President Simataa said that the First International Congress on ICT in Education had passed the "Qingdao Declaration", the first declaration ever on educational informationization. The session shared the best practices of educational information, discussed building an effective international cooperation platform, in order to achieve the target of equitable and inclusive access to quality education for people from all walks of life to enjoy lifelong learning opportunities. 

President Tao Xiping said that promoting educational informatization would not only help improve the quality of education and training of talents，but would also help reduce the inequality in digital opportunity and promote social fairness. He believed that the session would contribute to the implementation of the UN Framework for the 2030 Education Act and promotion of ICT and education depth integration.

Secretary-General Du Yue said that China had a total of 510,000 schools of various levels, 260 million students and 15 million teachers. China would implement the Qingdao Declaration，seize the opportunities of digitalization, carry on educational reform and achieve the educational development goals by 2030. 

From 22 to 23 June 2016，the Conference held two plenary meetings and five sub-forums. Delegates made fruitful exchange and discussions on  opening educational resources, ICT-based instructional leadership and educational transformation, ICT promoting structural transformation of education, ICT and vocational training, and ICT and special education. The Conference adopted the Qingdao Initiative on promoting the construction of informationization of education for the disabled, appealing to jointly exploration of the development road of informationization of education for the disabled. 

Representatives from ACC had extensive contacts with the guests,and briefed on ACC’s mandate and efforts to promote Asean-China educational cooperation. They visited the International Exhibition on Innovative IT Products and Application Achievements in Education at the Qingdao International Convention and Exhibition Centre from 23 to 24 June.