On the afternoon of November 17, 2025, the 5th Governing Board Meeting of the UNESCO Teacher Education Centre (TEC) was held at the Centre’s Governing Board Hall. Chen Qun, Vice Chairman of the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Chair of TEC’s Governing Board, attended and presided over the meeting. A total of 11 board members participated in a hybrid online-offline format, including Borhene CHAKROUN, Representative of the Director-General of UNESCO; Ge Siying, Deputy Secretary-General of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, representing Secretary-General Qin Changwei; Getachew ENGIDA, Former Deputy Director-General of UNESCO; Andreas SCHLEICHER, Director of the Directorate for Education and Skills at the OECD; Professor HAN Soonghee from the Graduate School of Education, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea; Ms. Qin Lin, representing Li Yongzhi, President of the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences; Professor Zhou Zuoyu from Beijing Normal University; Yuan Wen, Former President of Shanghai Normal University; Professor Ding Gang from East China Normal University; and Professor Zhang Minxuan, Director of TEC. Also present at the meeting were Carlos VARGAS TAMES, Head of the international Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030; Ye Linlin, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission; Chen Heng, President of Shanghai Normal University; and Jiang Mingjun, Vice President of Shanghai Normal University. Relevant responsible staff from the International Exchange Office of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, the International Affairs Office of Shanghai Normal University and TEC attended the meeting as observers.
At the meeting, Ye Linlin delivered a welcome speech on behalf of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission first. He fully affirmed TEC’s remarkable achievements in global teacher professional development over the past year, which aligned with the mandate and four core functions entrusted by UNESCO. He emphasized that the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission will continue to support TEC’s high-quality, sustainable and institutionalized development, enabling it to grow into a more internationally influential Category Ⅱ Institute that makes greater global contributions.
Chen Heng also stated that Shanghai Normal University will continue to fully support TEC’s development, share academic and international cooperation resources, and drive TEC to become a hub of innovation for global teacher education and a dissemination center for outstanding teacher training experiences.
Subsequently, Zhang Minxuan submitted a comprehensive report to the Governing Board on TEC’s current infrastructure construction, human resource deployment and talent development status. He also reviewed TEC’s landmark achievements over the past year in the four core areas of knowledge production, capacity building, technical services and information sharing. Meanwhile, he introduced TEC’s 2026-2029 development plan and action plan.
All board members listened carefully to the report and conducted full discussions and deliberations. They highly recognized the achievements TEC has made over the past year under the leadership of Director Zhang Minxuan, and put forward valuable suggestions and professional guidance for its future work and development. The Governing Board expressed the hope that TEC will further play a leading role in global teacher education by focusing on teacher professional development, expanding global cooperation networks, advancing multilingual translation and dissemination of outcomes, strengthening cooperation with UNESCO Headquarters, and actively participating in the formulation of the Post-2030 Global Education Agenda.
Zhang Minxuan extended sincere thanks for the valuable suggestions from all board members. He stated that TEC will fully absorb all suggestions, further improve the four-year development plan and action plan, continuously enhance institutional efficiency, deepen teacher education research, expand international partnerships, and contribute more wisdom and strength to the global cause of teacher development.
Finally, Chair of the Governing Board Chen Qun announced that the Governing Board had adopted the report after deliberation. He fully affirmed TEC’s outstanding achievements once again and wished TEC greater success in the future.
