“先锋中学生”打造学生国际交流平台

    Sixty students from 30 high schools recently attended the International Young Pioneer Roundtable Conference, which ended May 1 at Shenzhen Middle School.

    Students’ achievements at the conference included creation of a platform — the International Union of Young Pioneer Students — to promote international exchange among students and develop study programs based on students’ interests.

    Initiated last year by a student club at Shenzhen Middle School, the conference is independently organized and operated by students with a goal of spreading stories of Chinese education to the world.

    This year’s conference attracted students from 30 elite schools on the Chinese mainland and abroad, including three schools in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and 10 schools in the United States, Germany, Finland and other countries.

    This year’s three-day session focused on designing an ideal school.

    Participating students were required to speak in English about improving education by viewing schools as ecological organisms. They were divided into 10-member groups to discuss their views on ideal school models and how to improve the organism of school education.

    “A school should not be judged as ideal by how much knowledge it imparts to its students,” Shenzhen Middle School student Wang Chen said. “Sometimes, narrowing down the scope of learning into concentrated studies will allow students to invest their energy in their favorite subjects, which is more beneficial for their growth.”

    Yung Sun-yin, from a Macao school, said an ideal school should focus more on cultivating positive personalities and correct values in students — qualities she thought most important to a person’s character development — in addition to spreading knowledge and skills.

    The conference also invited 420 student spectators to view the conference online and post discussed ideas for global viewing. Participants also submitted ideas from the conference in a proposal to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), via email.

    Tang Benyang, an alumnus of Shenzhen Middle School who graduated in 1973 and now works for NASA in the United States, spoke highly of the event.

    “It will be a memorable lifetime experience for participants and will have immeasurable impact on these young students’ future development,” Tang said.

    Shenzhen Middle School Principal Wang Zhanbao said, “The success of the conference lies not in what students have achieved at the end of their discussion, but in how they developed their ideas in the process of discussion.”

    (Zhao Jie)