The opening ceremony of the "special award for national teaching achievements in elementary education", in Karamay. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Karamay held a promotional activity on "special awards for national teaching achievements in basic education" on June 18-19, aiming to promote innovative educational methods and school transformation.

The event attracted more than 1,500 education experts, scholars and teachers from across the country.

It was jointly hosted by the Chinese Education Society and the government of Karamay city; it was also supported by the Karamay education bureau and the government of Karamay district.

Officials and delegates of different departments, including Zhong Binglin, chairman of the Chinese Education Society, and Hu Junhai, vice director of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region Education Bureau, were on hand to attend the event. Chen Xinfa, Party chief of Karamay, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony.

Karamay honors teachers who won a "special award for national teaching achievements in elementary education". [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The promotional activity consisted of an opening ceremony, a sharing session, a theme forum, a strategy session and a field visit.

The sharing session, which focused on education reformation and experience, asked school principals, teachers and students from Karamay to tell stories about their experiences in education. The countryside participants also discussed the quality of education and ways to deepen its reform.

This year's educational promotional workshop had several new highlights. For example, digitized information technology was employed to create a paper-free seminar with all the materials available at the WeChat platform for Karamay education. The participants were able to scan the QR code to take part in the official interactive platform.

The development of education in Karamay

Chen Xinfa, Party chief of Karamay city, makes a speech at the opening ceremony. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Karamay city has emphasized education resources and transformation in recent years.

Karamay’s No 1 Middle School has learned from Beijing National Day School about the best and most practical model for running a school since 2013. In turn, it serves as the educational system transformation pilot school in Xinjiang.

So far, there are 11 schools in Karamay transforming their teaching methods, which creates opportunities for students of different ethnic groups to cooperate and learn from each other.

Karamay aims to encourage teaching method innovation and build from the core value of focusing on individual development during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) period, said Peng Jianwei, the head of Karamay's education bureau.

Edited by Peter Nordlinger