In January, Xuhui District will become a "regional fundamental education exchange center" in the Asia-Pacific area under an agreement district officials recently reached with representatives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

This means the district will be the first community on the Chinese mainland to serve as a UNESCO training center for overseas teachers, running pilot programs and organizing international educational seminars and workshops, said Xuhui Vice Director Gu Kuihua. "It's a valuable opportunity for the district, which will gain much exposure to the outside world in terms of educational resources and methodologies."

Wang Maogong, director of the district Education Bureau, asserted that Xuhui is known for quality education as it has a dozen recognized primary and secondary schools as well as several international teacher exchanges.

Since 1992, about two dozen of the district's secondary-school teachers have been sent to Australia and Singapore on one-year assignments to teach Chinese, Wang said.

More than 5,000 children from expatriate families are enrolled in Xuhui schools.

"The project can introduce new teaching methodologies to the district," Wang said. "If the pilot programs are successful, they will be used citywide or even nationwide."

Under the UNESCO program, Xuhui will provide training programs for foreign teachers who will be exposed to Shanghai's education experience.

"Of course, we will open Chinese-language seminars to cultivate foreigners who will be teaching the language," said Wang.

Xuhui's Shanghai High School, the first government-run school in the city to admit expatriate students, was selected to be a UNESCO exchange school, said Chew Nan Tsao, a UNESCO official. The school now has more than 600 foreign students.

Tang Shengchang, the high school principal, said, "We will seek more student exchanges involving cultural and independent research with other schools."

(eastday.com November 7, 2001)