As it is approaching the end of the year, everyone becomes busier. There are a bunch of on-going projects that needed to be reflected on, and making plans for the future steps. In the education sector, our schedule is packed with conferences and speeches in and out of China. I escorted my supervisor, who is the education programme specialist, Robert Parua to attend two on-site lecture in Peking University and Beijing Normal University respectively. A team of graduate students who major in comparative education from Beijing Normal University also paid a visit to our office to learn about the organization. I supported my supervisor to prepare all the presentations, as well as communications with the teachers and students. We received tremendous feedbacks from the students, who were all very engaged and passionate about international organizations and the SDGs. By outreaching with local higher education institutions, we hope that our office could carry out more scale-up projects related to SDG4.

Another focal point of my job is the report of the ASPnet National Coordinators Consultation meeting taken place in March 2018 at Seoul, South Korea. The ASPnet programme had developed flagship projects at the global, regional and national level. The cluster countries covered by the Beijing Office have initiated projects that are implemented in the registered ASPnet schools at national coordinated and facilitated by ASPnet National Coordinators who play a very significant role in advancing the ASPnet at country level.  In order to strengthen the collaboration between ASPnet national coordinators in the sub-region, UNESCO Beijing Office initiated this first ASPnet National Coordinators meeting in 2018 to facilitate a dialogue and coordination within the Cluster Countries discuss achievements, challenges and identify strategies and initiatives to strengthen ASPnet coordination and promote collaboration among the ASPnet Institutions within the sub-region.

We are planning to decide the layout and have the report printed in the next couple of weeks, and it will be distributed among the UNESCO regional offices and national commissions within the Asia-Pacific region. I am so excited and proud to see the final version of it!!!

One particular interesting event was the fire drill on November 8th organized by the apartment where our office locates at. All of our staff and residents in other buildings went down by stairs and gathered at the open space. We learned how to use various tools to put out fire, and everyone got a chance to use a fire extinguisher and blanket. 

Another upcoming highlight is that I will go on my first business trip with my supervisor to Wuhan, China. The Chinese Adult Education Association has organized an on-site investigation to Community Learning Centers which aligns with the “lifelong learning” goal. I will update more details in the next post!