Followed on from the 2013 seminar on the theme of education for rural development and transformation, INRULED and the Academy for International Business Officials (AIBO) of the Ministry of Commerce of China continued their cooperation on the 21-day Seminar on Education and Rural Development in Beijing from late October to early November. This year, there were 28 participants, including education officials and teachers, from 14 Asian and African countries coming as Bangladesh, Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zanzibar of Tanzania.

The seminar is implemented to ensure an innovative approach to promote the collaboration in education between China and other developing countries and to provide a platform for information sharing. Africa is the  priority of UNESCO and INRULED has made this its top priority. The participants recruited in the seminar are mainly policymakers, teachers and other stakeholders from African countries. With the training manuals and materials developed from the researches carried out by different programme groups, INRULED contributes towards education for rural transformation in Africa through capacity development of stakeholders.

Except for lectures and participatory workshops, the participants also had the chance to pay a field visit to schools and education institutions. Furthermore, with the aim to build up a deep understanding on education issues in developing countries by sharing information and experiences from different contexts, a one-day workshop entitled “Interchange and Dialogue on Education in Countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America” was organized jointly by INRULED and ECNU ICTE (International Center of Teacher Education in East China Normal University) during the field visit. 65 participants from more than 30 African, Asian and South American countries took part into the discussion on topics of school education, teacher education, education management and leadership as well as education and rural development.