Government creates education pilot zone

The government of Qingdao, Shandong province, has vowed to build the city into a pilot zone for international education in 2020, according to its local education department.

Qingdao will also increase international education cooperation, especially the exchange of teachers and students with other countries, to diversify its education, the department said.

Qingdao's medium and long-term education reform and development plan for 2011-20 forecasts that its number of students and teachers in exchange programs will reach 10,000 by 2020.

In addition, three to four education institutes have joined with foreign entities and another 40 international joint programs will be launched in Qingdao by 2020.

Qingdao will endeavor to introduce advanced curricula from well-known foreign schools, and aims for the number of such international courses to reach 100, the plan said.

"We will increase international cooperation between Qingdao's primary and middle schools and their overseas counterparts and introduce more high-quality international resources," said Wang Quan, deputy head of Qingdao Education Bureau.

Qingdao's international education cooperation dates back to the 1990s and has developed extensively over the past decades . More and more primary and middle schools have established ties with foreign schools.

For instance, Qingdao No 9 Middle School has established cooperative programs with schools in a number of countries including Japan, Germany, Canada, France and the United States since 1992.

"These programs have provided more opportunities for our students to study abroad. They have many choices," said Zhang Yuhui, principal of the school.

Qingdao has 30 joint education programs with schools in other countries for primary and middle schools.

The Qingdao Education Bureau also attaches great importance to improving its service for foreign students.

So far, the city has several international schools - from kindergarten to high school - for foreign children living in Qingdao.

Statistics from the education bureau show that more than 2,000 foreign students from more than 60 countries are studying in Qingdao.

To improve the service for international students, Qingdao will encourage more local primary and middle schools to receive foreign students.

zhaoxinying@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/23/2015 page6)