The Global Child Rights Platform, with a focus on child-based classroom and school management and cross-region cooperation in research, training and education, was launched online at Inner Mongolia Normal University (IMNU) in Hohhot on April 14.

The program is built to enhance knowledge and capacity in people and organizations regarding the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The five modules of the Global CRC Classroom and School Management Online Program are designed both for individual and collective learning.

The program targets individuals who are active in the educational sector, but it can be used by anyone who meets children in their professional role. The program was developed in close cooperation with researchers from the Child Rights Institute at Sweden’s Lund University, the Faculty of Education and Society at Malmö University and change agents in 16 partner country networks.

The program, funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), is a campus-based international training platform that ran from 2003 to 2016. It initiated more than 250 change processes with some 800 participants in the education sector around the world reflecting the CRC in policy as well as in practice.

The launch ceremony was attended by professors from Lund University, officials from autonomous region’s education departments, and directors from Inner Mongolia universities and colleges.

Zhang Haifeng, vice chancellor of IMNU, conveyed his welcome to participants involved in the program. Wu Haiyan, dean of the College of Foreign Languages of IMNU, presided over the ceremony.

In recent years, SIDA and Lund University have jointly organized a senior international training project regarding CRC Classroom and School Management with the purpose of protecting the rights of children, increasing children’s awareness and ability to become involved in school and classroom activities, creating a safe, inclusive, student-centered and democratic education system, and enabling children to have equal opportunities to participate in social events as citizens.

The project has carried out 21 training courses since 2003, usually for the benefit of 30 trainees from 10 developing countries from Africa, Asia and South America. Each phase lasts about one and a half years and nearly 700 trainees have taken part in the project, which includes four-weeks of intensive instruction in Sweden.

With the approval of the Ministry of Education, China has organized 36 members to participate in 13 sessions of the program since it was first held in 2003, 34 of whom were from Inner Mongolia. Of all the members currently participating in the project, three are from the Education Department of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and 11 are from the College of Foreign Languages of IMNU.

The training program has pushed forward the reform of regional education concepts through publicizing the participatory teaching mode based on autonomous learning and inquiry patterns. It contributed to the establishment of the CRC R&D Center in IMNU.

Moreover, it provides a platform for universities of China, and especially of Inner Mongolia, to work with Lund University to communicate and cooperate in academic research and practice.

The IMNU College of Foreign Languages has undertaken design and construction of the Chinese webpage on the CRC online platform which has received approbation from the Swedish instructors. More professional research and training are expected to be conducted in the future.

The launch ceremony of the Global Child Rights Platform is held at Inner Mongolia Normal University in Hohhot on April 14. [Photo/IMNU]

Attendees of the Global CRC Classroom and School Management Online Program after the launch ceremony on April 14 [Photo/IMNU]