On October 13, 2013, the opening ceremony of the 9th Lifelong Learning for All Activity Week was held in the Binhai New District of Tianjin, which was hosted by the Department of Vocational and Adult Education of the Ministry of Education (MOE), the Secretariat of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, and the China Adult Education Association. The theme of this activity week was “Achieving the Chinese Dream - Lifelong Learning and Cultivating Everyone's Talents”. The main contents included the demonstration of lifelong learning outcomes and a themed report on “Achieving the Chinese Dream – Lifelong Learning and Cultivating Everyones' Talents”. More than 600 representatives from the country attended the opening ceremony.
Ge Daokai, director of the MOE Department of Vocational and Adult Education recited the speech by Lu Xin, deputy minister of the MOE. Lu Xin pointed out that the lifelong learning for all activity week has become an important touchstone for China to promote the lifelong learning for all and has become an important brand to accelerate the construction of lifelong learning system and learning society. 697 cities participated in the week and it has exerted great social influence. At present, China is well on its way to becoming a prosperous society in many ways. The construction of a learning society is an inevitable choice to promote economic transition and an intrinsic requirement of new urbanization. Lu Xin emphasized that we should build a learning city, accelerate the steps of lifelong learning legislation, and research and formulate standards for learning cities; we should also actively develop continuing education, accelerate the construction of modern vocational education system, promote the cohesion between higher education, vocational education, and continuing education; widely carry out urban and rural community education, continuously advance the construction of community education experiment and demonstration zones, summarize successful methods so as to more easily contribute to the development of country and society; actively create a good environment, explore new areas of learning through various learning activities, provide popular learning contents and forms to meet the needs of social variety.
In the achievement release of 2013 lifelong learning for all, Zhang Shaogang, vice president of the OUC, vice president of the China Adult Education Association, director of the MOE Research and Training Centre for Community Education, read off the notice on the evaluation of community i-experiment lifelong learning activities for communities and families organized by the MOE Research and Training Centre for Community Education, including the First Harmonious Community Calligraphy and Seal-cutting Exhibition, the Third National Community Music Education Activity Exhibition, the Beautiful Community Chinese Painting Competition, the First Community Personal Finance Competition, and the 2013 “ Tea Art” National Tea-ware Creation and Design Competition.
The First Harmonious Community Calligraphy and Seal-cutting Exhibition received 2120 submissions of calligraphy and seal-cutting since starting in May 2003. The Evaluation Committee was composed of famous calligraphers and professors from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, and was in charge of evaluating the submissions. After a three-round evaluation, 10 first prizes, 30 second prizes, 61 third prizes, and 24 organization prizes were chosen and 106 pieces were shown in the exhibition.
The Third National Community Music Education Activity Exhibition received 337 music pieces since opening in May 2012. After the initial evaluation and expert evaluation, 19 first prizes, 29 second prizes, 39 third prizes, and 12 organization prizes were awarded.
The Beautiful Community Chinese Painting Competition received 830 submissions since starting in July 2013. The Evaluation Committee was composed of famous painters and theorists in China, and was to evaluate each entry. After initial selection and re-evaluation, 5 first prizes, 10 second prizes, 20 third prizes, 36 excellent pieces, and 7 organization prizes were awarded.
The First Community Personal Finance Competition received submissions from 523 candidates from 68 communities nationwide. After careful selection, 1 champion, 2 runners-up, 3 third places, 4 experts, and 10 participating prizes were given according to the standards of the skills of national financing planners.
The 2013 “Tea Art” National Tea-ware Creation and Design Competition was opened in June 2012. After initial selection and recommendation, 837 creative designs were received. After initial examination and expert evaluation, 1 first prize, 2 second prizes, 3 third prizes, and 30 excellent prizes were awarded.
Zhang Shaogang emphasized that the community education i-experiment activities have drawn national attention and are attended actively by community residents, and help construct a communication and study exchange platform to increase life quality for the vast number of residents. Through online and offline interaction, they can demonstrate themselves, communicate with each other, learn from each other, and contribute to the construction of a harmonious community. He expressed that in the future, the OUC will actively expand community education i-labs and carry out more community education activities for the citizens, provide support and services to the open university system and the whole society, and make active contributions to the construction of a learning society.
During the opening ceremony, the representatives also visited the exhibition on community education achievements offered by the OUC in recent years. The demonstrated results included the above five activities and the China Community Education Development Report (2012) and Community Education Experiment Theory and Practice Advance — Community Education Work Guide published in October 2013.
By Li Huiqin, the MOE Research and Training Centre for Community Education