A ceremony is held for the launch of the new UNESCO Teacher Education Center office building in Shanghai.

The UNESCO Teacher Education Center in Shanghai moved into a new building on Monday.

The facility, the first Category-2 center under the auspices of UNESCO in China, was approved to be founded in Shanghai at the 39th UNESCO Assembly on November 4, 2017, in Paris France.

It plans to cooperate in UNESCO's Education 2030 Agenda, which aims to wipe out poverty through sustainable development by 2030, and promote lifelong professional development for teachers worldwide.

The decision was made as Shanghai was noted for its outstanding performance in many international educational assessments.

In 2016, Shanghai's junior high school teachers were rated as the world's most qualified in the Teaching and Learning International Survey, carried out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development over three years, among teachers from 38 countries and regions.

Shanghai teachers received the highest scores in 12 categories, including efficiency of lessons, encouraging student engagement and professional training.

The center was officially launched at Shanghai Normal University on October 7 last year, and now has a brand-new office building at 55 Guiling Road in Xuhui District of Shanghai, embarking on a new journey to contribute to education worldwide.

Wang Ping, director of the Shanghai Education Commission, said the center has conducted research on basic education and teacher professional development, organized training programs and workshops for teachers, and facilitated cross-national and cross-regional exchanges in teacher education policies and resources over the past year.

"We've made fruitful achievements and we're confident in fulfilling our mission to share Chinese wisdom and Shanghai solutions in promoting education," he said at the office building launch ceremony on Monday.

Yuan Wen, president of Shanghai Normal University, pointed out that teachers play a crucial role in promoting high-quality education and improving the cultivation of talent, which is a shared task for both China and the rest of the world.

"The new office building means we can rely on a better platform with better software and hardware to carry out research and trials on a larger scale and a deeper level," she said.

Shahbaz Khan, director of UNESCO's Beijing office, delivered a speech via video link. He said the center is the only UNESCO organization dedicated to bilateral cooperation in teacher education.

Based on the achievements made by the research team at the center, he said he wished they continue to think about how to cope with the global challenges for teacher development. He also promised that the office will continue to support the center in the future and push forward reforms in teacher education in countries, regions and the whole world.

Borhene Chakroun, director of Policies and Lifelong Learning Systems Division at UNESCO, said the center's work in the past and its future plans all fit the goals put forward at the UN Transforming Education Summit, including building schools to promote policies of equity and inclusion that create respectful, safe and healthy learning environments for students, to promote lifelong learning and support professional development for teachers, and promote digital learning. He said he wished to establish more partnerships with the center in the future.

Chen Qun, vice mayor of Shanghai, praised the center for overcoming the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, and making great progress in the past year under the support of UNESCO, the China National Commission for UNESCO and the Shanghai government.

"It has carried out deep research in teacher education and organized several international exchange programs," he said. "We hope the center will deepen its research, innovate teaching methods, promote reform in teacher education, expand training programs for teachers in less developed regions to improve their teaching capability."

A forum will be held on Wednesday to discuss how teachers should develop their teaching skills in the digitization of education.