Online seminar establishes groundwork for future China-South Africa education cooperation

“The engagement was very, very, very fruitful. We recommend that if possible there would be more interactions and more engagements through various platforms,” said Mmamoshibudi Mabale, on behalf of all the teachers from South Africa at the completion ceremony for the Pedagogical Advanced Seminar on Mathematics, co-hosted by the Department of Basic Education of South Africa and the Chinese Embassy in South Africa.

The seminar was conducted online and lasted for 10 days. The participants included 40 mathematics teachers from South African primary and secondary schools, subject advisors, subject experts, and officials from the South African Department of Basic Education.

The course included modules on the ontological knowledge of mathematics, teaching methods and case studies of mathematics at the basic education level in China, live demonstrations of mathematics classroom teaching and the application of modern educational technology in mathematics teaching, reinforcing application-driven, practice-oriented, and competence-based learning, forming an experiential training model with the in-depth participation of participants.

Li Xudong, Counselor of the Education Section of the Chinese Embassy in South Africa, expressed his sincere congratulations regarding the successful implementation of the seminar. “This practical cooperation in the field of basic education is an important part of the China-South Africa high-level cultural exchange mechanism, and the successful implementation of this training course is an important achievement under this framework.”

Li also expressed his appreciation and best wishes to all 40 South African frontline teachers who had completed the training, hoping that they would apply what they had learned in their future teaching practices and become friendly ambassadors and co-promoters of China-South Africa cooperation.

“I am impressed by their strong learning and eager thirst for knowledge.” On behalf of the Chinese lecturers, Li Na said teachers from both China and South China interacted and shared their teaching experience throughout the whole process of the online seminar.

Hao Fanghua, Principal of Central China Normal University, told People's Daily Online that she was looking forward to the training and in-depth exchanges with her South African counterparts in the area of teacher training so that they might learn more from each other and advance together. The program provides a means to improve mutual understanding and cooperation between the two sides and establish the groundwork for future education collaboration.

The training was organized by the School of Teacher Education of Central China Normal University's Department of Artificial Intelligence Education, with renowned scholars from Central China Normal University's School of Mathematics and Statistics being the main body of participants. To achieve the best possible outcome, a total of 20 experts, including distinguished alumni from Central China Normal University, famous mathematics teachers and researchers from primary and secondary schools in Hubei Province, famous subject teachers, first-line special instructors and famous academics in the field of educational information technology from Central China Normal University were hired to build a strong teaching team to carry out the training program's teaching assignments.

This training program is also the first attempt at collaboration between Central China Normal University and the basic education sector of South Africa.