On 30th January 2024, the "Education Digitalisation and Learning Society Construction" parallel session of the 2024 World Digital Education Conference took place in Shanghai, China. This event gathered around 240 representatives from education departments, universities, and research institutions from over 35 countries and regions.
At the meeting, Wu Yan, China's Vice Minister of Education, discussed the progress China has made in promoting a learning-oriented society as a national strategy. He shared insights into China's methods, experiences, and initiatives in establishing a learning society.
Wu Yan highlighted that China is establishing a digital groundwork for creating a learning society and executing a strategic action plan for education's digitalisation. China has successfully developed a national smart education platform called Smart Education of China. Moreover, it has constructed the world's largest educational resource library, boasting over 37.3 billion platform views and more than 2.56 billion total visits. This platform offers free services to 215 countries and regions. Additionally, the National Public Platform for Elderly Education has introduced 436,000 courses, providing 56.4 million services.
China is developing a network of learning cities, with ten Chinese cities already part of the Global Network of Learning Cities. Among these, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Hangzhou have been honoured with the Global Learning City Award. Hangzhou, embracing the "3L" concept (life-long, life-wide, life-deep), is integrating the development of learning spaces with future community development. This approach includes embedding community services to offer residents "one-stop" learning services, thus creating a "15-minute learning circle" in urban areas. Shanghai has introduced a lifelong education credit bank and has established approximately 4.93 million learning profiles for its citizens, representing about one fifth of the city's permanent population. Each year, Shanghai publishes maps of learning resources, learning points for the elderly, and maps for citizens' humanities walks. These maps clearly mark the locations of various educational resources, making it easier for residents to access lifelong education services. Chengdu has successfully set up the "Chengdu Lifelong Learning Education Resource Library" and the "Chengdu Citizen Lifelong Learning Public Service Platform," encompassing 25 categories of education. These range from vocational training and basic education to adult education, serving over 3 million people annually.
China is actively developing learning-oriented communities, having established over 16,800 sub-district and township community schools, along with 364,000 neighbourhood and village learning centres. By integrating online and offline methods, they provide community education micro-courses, distinctive courses taught by capable individuals, and online public lectures, effectively creating "universities at your doorstep". Approximately 1 million online resources have catered to over 36 million learners. In Nanjing, mobile lecturer teams have been mobilised, utilising community education resources to offer free lectures and follow-up services. They have covered over 500,000 kilometers, reaching all sub-districts and townships involved in agriculture within the city. These teams have conducted over 80 types of training, organised more than 1,600 farmer training sessions, hosted over 600 technical service events, and compiled and distributed over 17,000 copies of training materials, benefiting over 140,000 farmers.
As Wu Yan has highlighted, the development of a learning society is a national strategy endorsed by the Chinese government. With the largest digital education platform in the world, China caters to the highest number of learners globally, offering insights and methodologies for fostering a learning-oriented society.
At the conference, the Report on the Development of a Learning-Oriented Society in China during the Digitalisation Process was released. This report highlights China's experiences and case studies in leveraging digitalisation to foster a learning society in recent years. It addresses key challenges, including the rapid evolution of digital technology, the ongoing digital divide, the lack of sufficient resource sharing, and issues related to network security and privacy protection. The report advocates for global cooperation to establish a lifelong learning environment, collaborates on building mechanisms for resource sharing, unites to mitigate digital ethical risks, and strengthens efforts to enhance international exchanges and cooperation.
Reprinted by the OUC News Network from CNR