As part of the eighth China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week, China and ASEAN countries discussed how to better teacher development on Aug 4 in Guiyang. Among the attendees were distinguished guests from Cambodia, the Philippines, Laos, Malaysia, the United States, Thailand and New Zealand.

In his speech, Xu Tao, a director of the Ministry of Education of China, explained how to help kindergarten teachers improve their career paths from the perspective of training, certification and job security systems. Professor Yu Yongping from Nanjing Normal University stressed how to touch the children’s souls, saying that they are the starting point of education and that action, games and teachers are needed to help them grow stronger. Professor Cai Weizhong from the French Lodia Education Research Center called for efforts to increase teachers’ autonomy and improve the verification of school operators to increase teacher satisfaction.

During the academic activity, the participants shared pre-school education development in their countries. For example, Zhang Xuwei, vice director of the ASEAN college at Dhurakij Pundit University, gave a broad picture of preschool education in Thailand and Zhai Lihong, vice president of the Guiyang Pre-school Education College, talked about his education excellence programs. In addition, speakers from the Philippines, the Laos, Cambodia, Taiwan and New Zealand shared their experience and practice of training preschool teachers.

The forum has increased educational exchanges and cooperation among the countries. It can inspire more cooperation and projects to help the teachers and preschool education grow better, the participants said.

The event was initiated by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education and the Guizhou government, and organized by the Ministry of Commerce, the Central Committee of the Communist Young League, the China-ASEAN Center, and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization.