On 8 June, Mr. Robert Parua, Education Programme Officer at the UNESCO Cairo, and Ms. Wang Yunhan, Public Relations Manager of Huawei Egypt, visited the UNESCO International Research and Training Centre for Rural Education (INRULED).

During the meeting, Prof. Zhou Zuoyu, Director of INRULED, extended a warm welcome to Mr. Parua and Ms. Wang Yunhan. He recalled the solid foundation of cooperation built with INRULED during Parua’s tenure as an Education Programme Officer at the UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia (UNESCO Beijing), expressing hope that this visit would serve as an opportunity to expand the collaboration from East Asia to the African region. He stated that INRULED is willing to join forces with the UNESCO Cairo, Huawei, and other partners. Through South-South cooperation, the potential cooperation aims to introduce China’s experience and resources in rural education and the construction of lifelong learning systems to Egypt and other African countries. This will effectively promote local rural sustainable development and contribute to the achievement of the Education 2030 goals.

Mr. Parua provided an overview of the current state of education in Egypt and highlighted the key priorities of the UNESCO Cairo Office’s education programme. He underscored Egypt’s ongoing efforts to advance lifelong learning and expressed interest in drawing on China’s experience in this area to support the development of Community Learning Centres (CLCs) across the country. Ms. Wang introduced Huawei’s Technology-enabled Open Schools for All project in Egypt, which leverages digital technologies to strengthen teacher development and enhance the quality of education.

Both sides expressed commitments to promoting knowledge sharing and mutual learning through joint webinars, capacity-development workshops and research initiatives. Potential areas of cooperation include Community Learning Centres, digital transformation of education, technical and vocational education and training (TVET), and lifelong learning.