RIICE held Opening Ceremony of Tanzanian-Shanghai Mathematics Educator Exchange Program (Phase I) at Shanghai Normal University on September 3. Over 30 Tanzanian mathematics educators and Shanghai expert team attended the ceremony.
Dr. Leoanard Akwilapo, the Permanent Secretary of Tanzania Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, said in his speech that Shanghai is a benchmark for the world's education system, and the positive impact of the England-Shanghai Mathematics Teacher Exchange Program is encouraging. Although Tanzania has already been a middle-income country, the mathematics skills of its primary and middle school students are still relatively weak, which will constrain further development if timely measures are not taken. He expressed his gratitude to Shanghai Normal University and the World Bank for their intellectual, human and financial support to allow teachers from Tanzania Institute of Education and middle schools to participate in this program.
Dr.Aneth Komba, Director of Tanzania Institute of Education, said that this opportunity to join the program was rare and important, hoping that all participants would cherish it and learn something.
Dr.Yuan Wen, President of Shanghai Normal University, suggested that this program would be beneficial for Tanzanian children to receive better mathematics education in the future, and also help to enhance the ability to develop teachers’ international education curriculum of Shanghai Normal University. And she hoped to take this program as an opportunity to carry out more educational cooperation progams with Tanzania.
Mr. Wu Yingjun, Director for International Cooperation & Exchange Division, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, said that in recent years, Shanghai has been deepening the reform and development of basic education, striving for a better management of every school, better teaching quality for every student, better institutional ecology for every teacher’s professional development, and promoting a more high-quality and balanced development of basic education. He hoped that the Chinese and Tanzanian teachers participating in this program would learn from each other.
President Yuan and Director Wu both agreed that they would sincerely welcome Tanzanian educators and teachers to visit Shanghai to deepen exchanges after the pandemic.
Dr. Kin Bing Wu, former lead Education Specialist of World Bank, donated funds to support international curriculum development for teachers at Shanghai Normal University. She expressed her pleasure that Shanghai Normal University would develop the curriculum with the funds for the Tanzania Mathematics Teachers Workshop, supporting the development of education in Africa.
Dr. Liang Xiaoyan, lead Education Expert of the World Bank, summarized this opening ceremony and said that the World Bank is very pleased to play a bridging role in helping Tanzania and Shanghai Normal University establish partnership. The World Bank has invested more than 1.3 billion dollars in Tanzania’s education. The pilot of the seminar could inspire the design of the World Bank’s education program on mathematics education and teacher education. The World Bank would continue to support the smooth running of this cross-cultural seminar and actively follow and promote its success.
After the opening ceremony, Prof. Zhang Minxuan, Director of RIICE and Dr. Huang Xingfeng from SHNU hosted the warn up workshop for the program.
It is reported that from September 3 to December 10, 2021, Shanghai Normal University will conduct workshops on 10 middle school mathematics topics for 33 mathematics educators from Tanzania in 15 sessions. Unlike previous programs, the participants of this program are all highly educated and experienced in teaching. There are 30 mathematics teacher educators from various colleges of education throughout Tanzania, and 3 are from secondary schools affiliated with the most prestigious local Tanzanian universities. More than 60% of the participants have a master's or doctoral degree. It was difficult and time-consuming to develop suitable training contents for them, and the RIICE faced various problems of cross-cultural training. However, the team from Shanghai Normal University, under the leadership of Prof. Zhang Minxuan and Dr. Huang Xingfeng, has gathered together Shanghai experts and international secondary school mathematics teachers and developed handouts, teaching materials and video lessons specifically for this program, which will be shared with the participants.
The successful implementation of this program will be conducive to the refinement and summary of Shanghai's educational experience, continuing to expand the cultural exchanges between China and Tanzania, as well as further enhancing the friendship between the people from China and Tanzania and development of basic education and teacher education in both countries.
Prof. Jiang Mingjun, vice President, Prof. Wu Cheng, Director of the International Affairs Office, Prof. Hu Guoyong, Deputy Director of the International Teacher Education Center also attended the opening ceremony.
(Research Institute for International and Comparative Education, SHNU)