The seventh annual Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals (STI Forum) was held from 5 to 6 May 2022. The theme for the STI Forum 2022 was: “Science, technology and innovation for building back better from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. The International Mayors Communication Centre (IMCC) was granted to organize the side event with the theme of SDG4 Quality Education. 

The Forum was convened by the President of ECOSOC H.E. Mr. Collen Vixen Kelapile and the outcomes of the Forum will be delivered to the United Nations Sustainable Development High Level Political Forum. As per its mandate, the Forum was organized by the UN interagency task team on STI for the SDGs (IATT), convened by UN-DESA and UNCTAD, and the 10-Member Group of high-level representatives appointed by the United Nations Secretary General.Speakers discussed how to better build back the world from COVID-19 from the perspective of science, technology and innovation.

The side event SDG4 Quality Education organized by the International Mayors Communication Centre (IMCC) was successfully completed at 19:55 May 6, 2022 (GMT). The side event has got the support from Shenzhen Foreign Affairs Office and Guangdong provincial government and the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and China NGO Network for International Exchanges. The side event has had supports from IMCC’s partners. Ms. Jin Lan led the team and invited nine speakers to the event, including the President of Shenzhen Institute of Technology, the youth college student alliances from Beijing, Shanghai, the United States, Canada and Australia, as well as the young private entrepreneurs and leaders from public welfare organizations focusing on rural education. They discussed the two themes: educational equality and educational entrepreneurship.

The side event was live streamed on the third-party platform organized by the Chinese Elite Consortium. There have been 601282 viewers of the side event from 15 April to 6 May 2002, as per the data provided by the the platform. The video of the side event was also on the UN web link and may be expected to have over hundreds of millions viewers.

Ms Jin Lan, Executive Director of International Mayors Communication Centre delivered the following speech and acknowledgment 

Dear President, His Excellency Mr. Collen Vixen Kelapile, President of the UN General Assembly, His Excellency Mr. Abdulla Shahid, Under Secretary General of the United Nations, His Excellency, Mr. Liu Zhenmin, dear distinguished guests, friends and colleagues, it is my great honor to present at this event and share your thoughts.

The International Mayors Communication Centre, the IMCC, has been promoting the SDGs since it was granted the special consultative status by ECOSOC in July 2017. I also presented at the High-level Political Forum in 2018 and 2019. The IMCC has the honor to be granted as the side event organizer of the 7th Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals. As an international organization developing in China, I would to share with you the real stories happened in China, which is about 1.4 billion people reducing poverty, bringing about education equality, and promoting employments.

From 2012 to 2021, in the process of promoting education equality and sharing high-quality education,  Chinese government took solid steps to ensure every child has the equal opportunity and is confident and has hopes for the future.

Our President Xi Jinping said, educational equality is an important base of social equality, we should let every child has the opportunity to receive education. By 2021, the consolidation rate of nine-year compulsory education in China has reached to 95.4%, an increase of 3.6 percentage over 2012, and the popularization of compulsory education has exceeded the average level of high-income countries in the world. In the stage of compulsory education, local governments implemented the method of building files for each child, which historically solved the long-standing problem of children being dropped out of school and fully realized the guarantee of compulsory education.

"Strive to make every child has the opportunity to receive education", this is the solemn commitment made by Chinese government. It is also our direction that we will be forwarding to.

In 2021, 90.9% of the children in the national compulsory education stage who moved with their parents to other places for a living, enrolled in public schools or had the private schools’ services paid by the governments.

In 2021, the gross enrollment rate of 3-year preschool reached 88.1%. The coverage rate of inclusive kindergartens reached 87.8%, and the proportion of children in public kindergartens reached 51.9%.

Educational opportunities for children with disabilities also increased significantly. In accordance with the principles of accurate verification, scientific evaluation and classified placement, local governments give priority to arranging school-age handicapped children to attend schools nearby, and provided them with door-to-door teaching services for those have severe disabilities and unable to attend school. In 2021, the enrollment rate of compulsory education for school-age handicapped children was more than 95%. On this basis, it will ensure full coverage of enrollment for all children with disabilities.

Let hundreds of millions of children share high-quality education under the blue sky

President Xi Jinping said, we should promote the comprehensive development of urban and rural compulsory education, narrow the gap between urban and rural educational resources, promote educational equality and cut off the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

According to the media reports, Odierliang, the head master of Luoyigan primary school in Meigu County, Liang shan Yi Autonomous Area, Sichuan Province, said: "the most beautiful building in the village is our school." Now the new school building has a standardized plastic playground and student dormitories surround in this remote mountain village, making the villages like a beautiful countryside oil painting.

Since November 2012, China has successively implemented programme such as compulsory education, improving the weakness and capacity of compulsory education, focusing on strengthening building rural schools, and 99.8% of schools have met the basic requirements.

"I like the big screen in my class. The teachers in the big screen sing very well, and we may have the same classes as students in the city " In shi ba dong primary school, Huayuan County, Xiangxi, Miao Autonomous areas, Hunan Province, the children there loved their internet classroom.

At present, there is 100% networking rate of primary and secondary schools across the country. The national public service system of digital education resources has connected all 32 provincial e-platforms, and the level of educational informatization has been greatly improved.

With the improvement of facilities, we have enhanced the team building of teachers in rural areas. Since November 2012, the scale of the "special position plan" has been expanding. The central government has invested 77.9 billion yuan to supplement 1.03 million teachers for rural schools in the central and western regions, covering more than 1 thousand counties and more than 30 thousand schools in 22 provinces in the central and western regions. By 2021, about 10 thousand normal school students has been trained every year for primary and secondary schools in poverty-reduced counties and land border counties in central and Western China.

In recent years, the education department has made great efforts to promote the compulsory education of admitted to school nearby without taking examinations. In 2021, the proportion of public compulsory education schools in 36 large and medium-sized cities in China was more than 99%. The proportion of large size classes in the national compulsory education stage was reduced to 0.71%, and the number of super-sized classes was reduced to 0.01%. We have solved the issues such as "fever of choosing school" and "large size class quota".

Let every child has a chance to be outstanding

President Xi Jinping said that, we should promote education so that we can accurately reduce poverty, focus on helping children from financially difficult families to receive education, and let every child have confidence and hope for the future.

We should make the majority of students grow up healthily and happily, give every child a chance to be outstanding, and create more fair educational opportunities for students in mountainous areas where transportation is not convenient.

Xie Fei, is a student from poor family in Xi Ji JCounty, Gu Yuan City, Ning Xia Hui Autonomous Region. He was admitted to China Agricultural University, thanks to the national special plan for key universities to recruit students from rural and poor areas. "Thanks to the good policy,  otherwise I can’t go to Beijing to study at University," he said.

Like Xie Fei, there are many students who benefit from the "special enrollment plan". From 10 thousand in 2012 to 122 thousand in 2021, more than 820 thousand students have been admitted, greatly increasing the possibility of students in poor areas to obtain high-quality higher education resources.

Vocational education also provides many young people the opportunity to change their fates. Zha xi Zhu Ma is the nurse working at the Chengdu First People's Hospital in Sichuan Province. She carefully took care of patients. She said with gratitude, "I thought I was going to feed sheep all my life. I couldn’t imagine I could continue my study and even settle down in Chengdu and become a nurse".

At present, more than 70% of the students in China's vocational colleges come from rural areas. From 2013 to the end of 2020, more than 8 million students from poor families received secondary and higher vocational education.

Let more and more children walk out of the mountains and, with their dreams, fly higher and farther. It is inseparable from a perfect funding system. Chinese government has continuously improved its subsidy system and increased investment to help millions of students from families with financial difficulties to finish their studies.

Shen Jianli, a village farmer from Hu Gang village, Dan Cheng County, Henan Province, finished the loan procedures and felt relieved. He said "It's great that the student loan has solved the problem of tuition fees! Both children can go to college. I can apply for special assistance after enrollment, and national grants. I don't have to worry about the living cost."

According to the media reports, China's student aid programme has three full c overages: which are, full coverage of students, full coverage of public and private schools, and full coverage of students with financial difficulties. The three full coverage systematically ensures "no student is drop out of school due to financial difficulties".

The above data indicates that China has a fairer and higher quality education system. The achievements of equal education development will benefit more and more people.

We worked with Shenzhen Institute of Technology, a vocational school established in 1985 in Shenzhen, which is a young city with rapid economic development. Shenzhen Institute of Technology has developed with the city for more than a decade. It has been cooperating with companies such as Huawei, Amazon, Tencent, Siemens and other world-famous companies in raising a large number of high-quality technical and skilled students. Shenzhen Institute of Technology is committed to promoting educational equality, recruiting students from poor families for reducing their tuition fees, endowing students with skills through vocational education, enabling students to achieve high-quality employment and entrepreneurship, lighting up the light of hope of students from poor families. Every student who has a job or starts his or her own business would lift the family out of poverty. That is the best practice done by Shenzhen Institute of Technology, for education to create life well-being.

Dear distinguished guests, we are the sustainable development stakeholders from all over the world. We encountered a lot of challenges and difficulties caused by the COVID-19 in building back the world economy. IMCC has chosen the youth because young people are the key factors to build back the world from the COVID-19. The world needs the ideal light from young people to dispel the depression. The world needs bright sunshine. We are honored to have young speakers today. With their young and hopeful eyes, they have found the bright road of bringing about high-quality education. I would like to express my loyal gratitude to all the speakers for their contributions and efforts. I will prepare a report of your ideas and cases to the STI Secretariat . At the same time, I would also thank every young volunteer for preparing for this "Quality Education" side event and all partners who have supported us. Now, I would like to invite our team members to make a short notes and express their best wishes to our event.

I wish it is a beautiful world with prosperous economy, where all children live happily under the blue sky with clean water. I wish we can hear sound of children reading books aloud all of the world where it is surrounded by flowers and fragrance. I wish our city, Shenzhen China, where we are now holding this event would provide more solutions for the world's sustainable development. I wish all speakers and online participants peace, health and happiness. I declare that the side event has completed with great success. Thank you all!