To serve lifelong education for all, accelerate the construction of a learning society, and further improve the scientific research capacity and professional quality of our teaching and administrative staff, our faculty especially invited Zhuang Jian, President of the Special Committee on Community Education of China Adult Education Association and former Director of the Lifelong Education Department of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, to give a seminar to all our teaching and administrative staff. The seminar, titled Legislation of Lifelong Education in Shanghai, was held on the afternoon of Apr. 15, and participated by nearly 20 teachers and students from Shanghai Normal University.
In the seminar, Zhuang Jian offered a systematic elaboration on the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on the Promotion of Lifelong Education (hereinafter referred to as the “the Regulations”) from four aspects, i.e., basic situation, basic contents, implementation, and reflections on legislation. He pointed out that the legislation process was not accomplished at one stroke. Instead, from the establishment of the legislation research project team in April 2006 to its formal adoption on Janaury 5, 2011, the Regulations passed a total of four stages, namely, submission to Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, deliberation by the Legal Affairs Office of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, review by the Legislative Affairs Committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, and deliberation and approval by the Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress. This legislation process fully reflected the seriousness and scientificity of the legislation of lifelong education in Shanghai. The Regulations contains a total of 4,100 characters under 35 articles, and aims to safeguard the rights and interests of learners and promote lifelong education for all. Its contents mainly involve 12 fields, namely, basis, scope of application, working bodies, responsibilities, funds, division of labor, teachers, open universities, school credit banks, resource integration, remote education, and private non-diploma education management. The formulation of the Regulations can be regarded as a major step in the development of lifelong education in Shanghai and in China.
(President Zhuang Jian giving a speech)
According to Zhuang Jian, the Regulations seeks active breakthroughs, and introduces bold innovations in solving problems related to definition of lifelong education, funds, personnel, responsibilities, and platforms. Thanks to the unremitting efforts, coordination, and communication of all parties concerned, the Regulations has been fully implemented. For instance, according to Article 8 of the Regulations, the relevant departments of the municipal and district/county people's governments of Shanghai shall include the funds for teacher training, learning platform construction, and textbook development into their public finance budgets. Zhuang Jian also pointed out that the Regulations could still be greatly improved, and proposed to improve it in the future from four directions, i.e., “new development of practice: forms beyond the three-tiered network”, “new improvement of understanding: real significance of school credit banks”, “new requirements of the state: lifelong education service system”, and “new provisions of laws and regulations: provisions on private education”.
(Exchanges at the scene)
In the end, Chen Wei, Executive Vice Dean of the College of International Education, made a meeting summary, and thanked President Zhuang Jian for explaining the matter in an easy-to-understand approach. The seminar featured of profound theories, extended time span, deep reflections, and warm care, inspired researchers and scholars in related fields, and successfully achieved expected goals. It is our sincere hope that this seminar will create new opportunities, and contribute to the development of lifelong education in Shanghai.
Drafted by: Guan Rui
Photographed by: Shi Xiaomei
