Yidan Prize Summit Shapes an Outlook on the Future of Education

Dec 12, 2017 07:00 JST

Source: Yidan Prize Foundation

350 world leaders gather in H.K.on Monday to exchange insights and strategies towards redefining education of the future

HONG KONG, Dec 12, 2017 - (Media OutReach) - With today's educational systems remaining essential to preparing new generations for an increasingly complex and uncertain future, the largest international prize in education, the Yidan Prize, presented the inaugural Yidan Prize Summit towards navigating ways of revolutionizing education and driving mankind into an era of human-machine interdependence.

Welcome remarks by Dr Charles Chen Yidan

Cherie Blair, Founder, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women

Carol S. Dweck, Yidan Prize for Education Research Inaugural Laureate

Vicky Colbert, Yidan Prize for Education Development Inaugural Laureate

With the theme "Education Redefined: The Future is Now", the summit brought together more than 350 global leaders including business leaders, policy makers, and senior representatives from multilaterals, NGOs and academia to discuss collaborating across sectors and responding to inexorable challenges by an innovative, sustainable, transformative and scalable approach.

The event featured prominent speakers including the inaugural Yidan laureates, Professor Carol S. Dweck of Stanford University and Vicky Colbert, founder and director of Fundacion Escuela Nueva in Colombia, H.E Dr Ahmed Al-Eissa, Minister of Education, Saudi Arabia, Cherie Blair, Founder, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, Dr Qian Tang, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO, Jaime Saavedra, Senior Director, Education, World Bank Group, and among others, many distinguished businesses, academics and government officials.

The day's summit offered a platform for outcome-driven dialogues around topics such as:

- Classrooms of the Future: Implementing Innovative Learning - How can innovative educational technologies be integrated into today's classroom to create a more engaging, inspiring and effective learning experience?

- Investing in Future-Ready Education - What are the opportunities for productive and mutually beneficial collaboration between investors and educators that will future-proof education for the younger generation?

- Closing the Skills Gap in an Automated World - What can be done to fill the gap between the skills taught in school and those required for a vastly different marketplace of the future?

- Everyone Counts - Education for All by 2030 - What needs to happen in the next 12 years to achieve this UN Sustainable Development Goals?

"At the inaugural Yidan Prize Summit, we have a wealth of experience gathered, from those who work on the front lines teaching to research and practice innovation to those investing in EdTech to ease the way for great technologies to reach the market, to formulate education policies that affect the direction of education resources investment. Such multi-stakeholder dialogue is critical to redefining education for a better future," said Dr Charles Chen Yidan, Founder of the Yidan Prize and Core Founder of Tencent Holdings.

At the award presentation on Sunday, the inaugural Yidan Prize laureates accepted the awards and a gold medal, each conferred by The Honorable Mrs Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, GBM, GBS, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Nominations for the 2018 Yidan Prize are currently open, and will be accepted until March 31, 2018. To nominate, visit http://nomination.yidanprize.org.

About Yidan Prize

The Yidan Prize is founded by Dr Charles Chen Yidan, the core founder of Tencent Holdings Limited. The Prize aims to recognize and support change makers for their most forward looking innovation that can create sustainable impacts on education systems for a better future. The Prize comprises two categories - the Yidan Prize for Education Research and the Yidan Prize for Education Development.

The Prize is financed and governed by a HK$2.5 billion (US$320 million) independent trust. Each prize carries an award of HK$30 million (US$3.87 million), being a cash award of HK$15 million (US$1.9 million) and a HK$15 million (US$1.9 million) project fund, and a gold medal. Through a series of initiatives, the prize serves to provide a platform that allows the global community to engage in conversation around education and to play a role in education philanthropy. For more information, please visit www.yidanprize.org.

The 2017 Yidan Prize Award Ceremony was held on Sunday, December 10 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, the Yidan Prize Summit on Monday, December 11 at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong. Details of the Summit at http://summit.yidanprize.org/.

Media contacts
Yidan Prize Foundation
Lawrence Lui
Tel: +852 2155 1582
Email: summit@yidanprize.org

Mikhailov & Partners
Valya Plotnikova
Tel: +7 495 956 39 72 (ext. 1187)
Mob: +7 926 167 35 57
Email: Plotnikova@m-p.ru

Source: Yidan Prize Foundation
Sectors: ASEAN, Education