On October 16, the sixth edition of the “Building Friendships and Sharing Knowledge” cultural exchange program officially launched in Xiamen, China. This initiative, co-hosted by the Xiamen People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and Huaqiao University, specializes in enhancing math teaching skills for secondary school educators from Brazil and Indonesia.
Among those attending the opening ceremony—both in person and virtually—were Ceará State Governor Lúcio Gonçalves de Freitas, Consul General Lan Heping from the Chinese Consulate in Recife, and Consul General Xu Yong from the Chinese Consulate in Surabaya. Additionally, Huang Shaorong, Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Fujian Province, Zhang Quan, Director of the Xiamen Foreign Affairs Office, and Lin Hongyu, Vice President of Huaqiao University, were also present.
Governor Freitas emphasized the importance of this training program in enhancing Brazilian educators’ understanding of China’s foundational mathematics education system, thereby creating a valuable platform for knowledge exchange among teachers from both countries.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Brazil. Consul General Lan highlighted that this training initiative is a concrete manifestation of cultural exchange under the BRICS cooperation framework. It symbolizes the strengthening ties between Fujian Province and Ceará State, as well as between Xiamen and Fortaleza.
Consul General Xu pointed out that the “Building Friendships and Sharing Knowledge” program significantly fosters cooperation and goodwill between Xiamen and Surabaya. It has become a new platform for various sectors of Surabaya to gain a deeper understanding of China.
Deputy Director Huang expressed her enthusiasm for the online courses, noting that they are a beneficial response to the trend of global educational exchange. They aim to promote shared teaching resources and further enhance educational and cultural cooperation between Fujian, Brazil, and Indonesia.
Vice President Lin shared details about Huaqiao University and the project’s curriculum. He hopes this training will deepen collaboration between Chinese and foreign educators and contribute to the global development of foundational mathematics education.
The “Building Friendships and Sharing Knowledge” program, developed jointly by the Xiamen People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and Huaqiao University, focuses on citizens of friendly cities and faculty and students from partner schools. It aims to showcase the achievements of China’s modernization in a multi-faceted manner and has successfully held five sessions to date.
With support from the Chinese Consulates in Recife and Surabaya, along with the Fujian Foreign Affairs Office, this iteration of the program has attracted participation from 3,070 math teachers from Brazil’s northeastern states and 217 high school math teachers from Indonesia. Its goal is to promote development and lifelong learning while aligning with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG-4), which focuses on improving global education governance and enhancing the quality of foundational mathematics education worldwide.