Education blog

Archive for August, 2010

Chinese Language Year in Spain was inaugurated Monday night in Madrid, with the participation of around 400 guests, in an event that saw numerous artistic performances from both Spanish and Chinese students.

The song ‘Tu y Yo’ (You and Me), which was interpreted by students from Kankai University and the Instituto de Confusio ( Confucius Institute) of Madrid, received generous applause from the audience in the Circulo de Bellas Artes, after a magnificent performance.

Many traditional songs such as ‘Mi Partia’ (My homeland), the dance of Xinjiang, ‘Vuelve a Mi Tu Rostro’ (Bring your face back to me), the Guzheng solo instrumental, ‘Lucha contra el Tifon’ ( Battle against the Typhoon), as well as Martial arts, the Torero’s dance and the female solo — Paloma, all of which were interpreted by Chinese students, were especially well received.

Chinese Language Year in Spain is jointly organized by the Chinese and Spanish Education Ministries and the Chinese Embassy in Spain

2010 will see the organization of a series of events such as the III Foro de Rectores Hispano — Chino (III Forum of Hispano- Chinese University Rectors), which is being held in the Galician city if Santiago de Compostella, in the north west of Spain on April 12-13.

The Forum aims to give continuity to the meetings held between the academic institutions of higher education in Madrid (2005) and Shanghai (2007).

The objective of the meeting is to push forward the cooperation between universities of both countries and strengthen educational exchanges in higher learning. The rectors of 25 Chinese and 30 Spain Universities have attended the event.

On the 14th of this month the Dialogue between Chinese and Spanish civilization: Confucius and Cervantes, will take place.

At the moment there are over 40 universities and 100 primary or secondary schools or institutes that teach Chinese to a total of 20,000 Spanish students.

Spain has opened three Confucius Institutes: in Madrid, Valencia and Granada and this month will see a fourth opened in Barcelona.

Chinese Language year was inaugurated by the Spanish Minister of Education Angel Gabilondo Pujol and the Chinese Vice-Minister of Education Hao Ping.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday agreed to further the ties of the two countries.

Hu said China-Germany relations are developing soundly, and leaders of the two countries have maintained close contact.

China and Germany enjoy good opportunities to move forward their ties under the current complex and changeable international circumstances, said Hu. China is willing to join hands with Germany to raise bilateral ties to a new high, he added.

He said China welcomes German President Horst Kohler’s visit to China in May and his attendance of the Shanghai World Expo.

The two countries have vigorously cooperated in the fields of economics and trade, culture, education, science and technology and justice, and enhanced communication and coordination on regional and international issues.

As to climate change, Hu emphasized the issue concerns the world’s sustainable growth and the well-being of the peoples of different countries, so it requires joint response from the international community.

The Chinese president said the results of the Copenhagen climate change conference were hard-won, and developed countries should honor their promises to provide fund and transfer technology to developing countries.

As leaders and representatives from 47 countries gather in U.S. capital Washington to participate in a nuclear security summit, a senior official with the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday the IAEA is ready to provide assistance to efforts in securing loose nuclear materials.

Anita Nilsson, Director of IAEA Office of Nuclear Security, told Xinhua in an interview at the fringes of the summit that the IAEA has programs to give assistance to countries interested in improving the security at facilities where nuclear material is stored, to “lock it up in a better way.”

The Washington summit is aimed at preventing terrorist or criminal organizations from obtaining nuclear material or nuclear weapons.

“Any unsecured nuclear material around the world is a vulnerability, something that needs to be dealt with,” Nilsson said.

With the EU-IMF support mechanism in place, whether Greece will use it or not eventually, the Greek government shall step up reforms without wasting time and energy on speculative games, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said on Tuesday, commenting on the deal reached by the Eurogroup.

“In any case whether we use this mechanism or not, we will evaluate that, it is a safety net for our country that will allow us to do our work with more tranquility. With the existence of this safety net which is at our disposal, we can focus on the promotion of the necessary changes,” Papandreou said at a cabinet meeting on the reforms planned for education.

The package of reforms has already caused reactions of labor unions of teachers and professors, who will hold a meeting later on Tuesday evening to decide on mobilizations.

On Tuesday afternoon, the umbrella labor union of civil servants ADEDY called a new 24-hour general strike on April 22, denouncing the economic and social policies of the government and threatening with more protests.

“We continue and culminate our struggle against the inefficient measures. We can overturn the unfair implementation of the measures,” ADEDY said in a statement released to the press.

Separate sectors have called strikes and stoppages this week, all protesting the austerity measures and reforms in the taxation and pension system. Lawyers across Greece do not attend courts from Tuesday until Friday, taxi drivers have called a 48-hour strike starting from early Wednesday, while employees in public transportation will hold a 4-hour stoppage on Thursday to discuss their next moves.

Houses for accommodating more than 1.37 million quake survivor families in southwestern China have been built with donations from the Communist Party of China (CPC) members, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee said Tuesday.

The quake zone house rebuilding program, which was finished in late March, has benefited 1.31 million households in Sichuan Province, 58,700 in Gansu, and 4,500 in Shaanxi, Chongqing and Yunnan combined, said the department in a statement.

Thanks to the house reconstruction program, quake survivors are now able to live in an environment featuring improved infrastructure for water conservation, telecommunication and sanitation.

Financing of the house reconstruction program in west China’s quake zone totaled 5.4 billion yuan (about 794.12 million U.S. dollars), which was part of the 9.73 billion yuan donated by CPC members across China.

A magnitude-8.0 earthquake struck in May 2008, with the epicenter in Wenchuan of Sichuan Province, leaving more than 86,600 people dead or missing. Shortly after that powerful quake, the CPC members nationwide volunteered to make donations, under a theme of “special membership fees”, for quake survivors.

The rest of the donated money has gone for other relief programs in quake zone, including reconstruction of schools, village-level entertainment centers, facilities for correspondence education, as well as health centers and nursing homes, some of which are still under construction, according to the the statement.

China’s Education Ministry Thursday rejected media reports that about 200 children were buried in the ruins of a primary school that collapsed in Wednesday’s earthquake in western China.

Ministry spokeswoman Xu Mei said the exact number of children buried at the Third Primary School in Yushu county, Qinghai Province, was unknown, but the number was believed to be low.

Xu said education officials were attempting to ascertain the whereabouts of all the children who attended the school.

Education officials would do everything possible to ensure casualties were kept to a minimum, said Xu.

Chinese media reported earlier Thursday that teachers at the school believed that about 200 children could be buried in the rubble.

A statement issued by the ministry Thursday said education authorities were ordered to work to resume classes and reconstruct damaged school buildings as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the China Disabled Person’s Federation planned to dispatch a rescue team of 20 medical workers, including experts in brain and spinal injuries, amputation, neurology and neurosurgery, to the quake zone.

The federation and the China Foundation for Disabled Persons had agreed to jointly donate 1 million yuan (146,483 U.S. dollars) to help disabled people and their relatives in quake-affected areas.

At least 66 students and 10 teachers were confirmed dead in the 7.1-Magnitude earthquake that shook Yushu in northwest China’s Qinghai Province Wednesday, local authorities said Thursday.

The dead students included 22 from a vocational school, 11 from a primary School and 32 from another primary school, the provincial education chief Wang Yubo said at a press conference Thursday morning.

“Schools are still searching for dozens more who are believed to be trapped in the debris,” said Wang.

Dozens of grieved parents were waiting for news Thursday on the campus of Yushu Vocational School, where the girls’ dorms and part of the multimedia center toppled in the quake.

“When the quake struck, the students had just finished their morning exercise. Most of them were having breakfast in the school canteen or cleaning their classrooms,” said the school principal Kunga Tenzin. “Still, some were trapped in the dorms.”

Ayang, a man in his mid forties, waited a day and a night for news of his 21-year-old son.

The quake, which struck Yushu County in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu at 7:49 a.m. Wednesday, destroyed at least 11 schools, said Wang. “It toppled 36,562 square meters of school buildings and seriously damaged another 61,574 square meters.”

“We’re yet to decide whether the national college entrance exam, scheduled for early June, will be postponed in the quake-hit areas.”

More than 1,000 students are scheduled to sit for the test this year, he said.

As of 9 a.m. Thursday, the quake had killed 617 people and left 313 missing. Another 9,110 people were injured.

China’s Tsinghua University will hold a postgraduates’ summer school on construction, which aims to boost exchanges between Chinese and foreign postgraduate students, from June 28 to July 6 in Beijing.

Wu Fan, coordinator of the program, said the program is sponsored by the Department of Construction Management of Tsinghua and has got support from the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction.

The theme of this year’s summer school program is “Construction Practices in China: from the Forbidden City to the 2008 Olympic Venues”, Wu said.

Postgraduate students from Chinese mainland and their peers from universities including the University of Hong Kong, Pennsylvania State University and University of Melbourne will be joined by famous experts and senior business managers in relevant fields to exchange views, Wu said.

The summer school is one of the postgraduate education innovation programs promoted by the Ministry of Education.

The World Expo 2010 in Shanghai is a very timely event, not only because its theme is very relevant to the fast urbanizing world, but also because China has emerged as a mature member of the international community, said the chief of the UN’s trade and development agency.

“I think it comes at a right time for urban issues. It comes at a right time also to showcase what China can do as a mature member of the global community,” Supachai Panitchpakdi, secretary-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The theme of the Shanghai World Expo is “Better City, Better Life,” the first time that the Expos have chosen “city” as their theme.

“It’s very relevant because as you know we are moving into an urbanized world,” said Supachai.

“In a couple of decades from now more than half of the global population will be living in urban areas … some people are even saying 70 percent in the next couple of decades,” he said.

“So I think this is a timely event, timely in a way that is very much forward-looking,” he added.

At least 56 students died in the 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit northwest China’s Qinghai Province early on Wednesday, local authorities said Wednesday night.

Another 40 students trapped in the debris have slim chance of surviving. Five teachers have been reported dead, said Xiao Yuping, deputy head of the education department of Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu in southern Qinghai where the epicenter lies.

Twenty two of the kill students, including 20 girls, were from Yushu Vocational Scool, Xiao said.

Twenty five students have been rescued from the debris of the vocational school, leaving more than 20 students still trapped, China Central Television reported.

Twenty three students were rescued from the debris of Yushu No. 3 Primary School while 36 were believed still trapped, rescuers said.

“All the students have no water, food and are staying on the play grounds,” Xiao said.

The quake, which have killed at least 400 and buried thousands of people, struck the Yushu County in Yushu prefecture at 7:49 a.m. with a depth of about 33 km. The epicenter is calculated to be 33.1 north and 96.7 east, the China Earthquake Networks Center reported.