On June 24, 2016, a group of SSEF members visited the Ministry of Education of China. Deputy Director of the Ministry Kewei Du and Deputy Director of the Department for Compulsory Education Jingbo Li warmly welcomed the SSEF group led by the Vice Chairman Steve Ting, the President Wen Yuan, and the Assistant Chief Yang Ma. In the meeting, they discussed the achievements and challenges of China’s rural education development, and SSEF’s functions and roles in the related areas.

First, SSEF presented the recent progress and positive changes of program implementation after the SSEF’s China Representative Office was established in Beijing since 2013. Then, Director Du addressed the meeting with a report of the recent developments and challenges, in particular, the impact of the guidelines published in “Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010 – 2020)” on the rural compulsory education.Lastly, the Ministry of Education suggested several important strategies for SSEF to maintain the consistence with the Chinese government’s education and development, strengthen the care for the left behind children in rural areas, and keep up the good work in the training programs (principals training, teachers training, online training, and art teachers training etc.)

During the meeting, SSEF was recognized by the Ministry of Education with their continued support. SSEF not only care about the hardware facilities for children’s education, also pay more attention to children’s long-term living and learning conditions, as well as the sustainable development as a mission, so that we will be able to do more and do better.