Mr. Xiong Fangjie briefed the meeting attendants on the work of the IRCSE of the past year starting from its establishment. He also introduced the work plan for 2019. According to the new plan, IRCSE would do the following work in the coming year:
1. To further conduct the comparative study of the theory and practice of international elderly education.
2. To compile “spoken English textbooks” and “international travel textbooks” for elderly education.
3. To translate the book “Belt/Road Initiative and Elderly Education” from Chinese to English.
4. To carry out five more specific tasks, namely, (A) to set up a bilingual (Chinese/English) IRCSE website; (B) to inaugurate an online English journal (jointly with Shanghai Open University); (C) to organize an international seminar; (D) to complete a few research projects concerning elderly education; and (E) to offer a training course for staff members in relevant elderly universities.
Those who gave the presentations at the meeting included:
—— Wang Younong, IRCSE Deputy Director and Director of CAUA International Liaison Department. His speech was about the research on “international elderly education”.
—— Yang Deguang, a well-known expert on elderly education and former President of Shanghai Normal University. He talked about the “development and useful experiences of elderly education in America”. He discussed the issue from the driving forces, development stages, organization forms, and so on.
—— Yue Ying, a Research Fellow of Tianjin Academy of Education Sciences. The theme of her speech was “promoting exchanges with foreign experts in the field of theoretical research on elderly education”. She hoped that experts on elderly education around the world could discuss relevant issues through video-meetings, shared mailboxes, and so on. Such cooperation could definitely help people with different cultural backgrounds understand each other in a much better way.
—— Yuan Wen, IRCSE Deputy Director and President of Shanghai Open University. She told the meeting participants that Global Lifelong Learning, an online English journal, was ready to play a role in international exchanges and researches concerning elderly education.
In addition, a number of other guests also spoke at the meeting. They all expressed their support to the IRCSE, and also put forward many positive suggestions. They sincerely hoped to strengthen cooperation with each other and upgrade the level of research on “international elderly education”.
The meeting was strongly supported by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (SMEC). Mr. Ni Minjing, Deputy Director of SMEC, pointed out in his speech that “teenagers are the future of our country, and the elderly are the future of everyone”. The reason that we attach so much importance to the elderly education is that we hope to attach more importance to our own happiness in the future. By 2035, China will enter an aging society in an all-round way. By that time, elderly education will become a huge demand. Elderly education will not only enrich our leisure life, but also make our life more meaningful in our twilight years. So, whether to the country, to the society, or to the family, elderly education is always extremely important.
Mr. Francois Vellas (IRCSE Consultant and AIUTA President) expressed his warm congratulations to this expert meeting. He stressed the importance of strengthening international exchanges on elderly education. He hoped that in future, French scholars would be able to conduct research at IRCSE and help promote more cooperation with each other.
Mr. Lin Yuanhe (IRCSE Consultant and CAUA Vice President) pointed out in his concluding remarks that elderly education in China had benefited a lot from President Vellas and relevant international friends (friendly organizations) represented by AIUTA. He hoped that friends from different countries could work together and (through the platform of AIUTA) make joint efforts to promote the common development of elderly education. This would definitely serve the interest of the elderly all across the world. It could also play a significant role in building the “community with a shared future for mankind”.
At the meeting, Mr. Francois Vellas and Mr. Lin Yuanhe jointly launched the project of the Chinese-English IRCSE website. Besides, three more people have been invited to join the IRCSE guest expert team. They are respectively Ms. Clancey Houston (Founder of Bo'an Academy), Ms Yue Ying (Research Fellow of Tianjin Academy of Education Sciences), and Ms. Lu Qi (Chief of Scientific Research Division of Shanghai Open University). A certificate was officially issued to each of them.