Doors open for school exchanges in Shanghai

Shanghai will open its doors wider to foreign exchange and expat students, the Shanghai Education Commission said yesterday.

The announcement was made during the 2007 Shanghai Education Forum, which opened yesterday. The two-day forum gathered more than 1,000 scholars and educators to discuss education in the context of globalization.

To promote local schools' communications with the outside world, commission officials said that they would try to match local primary and secondary schools with foreign counterparts and make sure every school has their own foreign exchange partners.

The match-making effort will be concentrated on elementary schools in the city's suburban areas, such as Nanhui District and Chongming County.

About 25 percent of the 1,500-plus elementary and secondary schools are seeking international exchange partners. Most of them are in rural areas, according to Jiang Yanqiao, the commission's international exchange division director.

The scheme can help short-term student visits or exchange programs, and build partnerships in academic activities.