Shanghai was conferred the UNESCO Learning City Award 2021 for the first time during the Fifth International Conference on Learning Cities that was held in Yeonsu-gu, the Republic of Korea from Oct 27 to 30.

Other recipients of the award include Wyndham in Australia, Damietta in Egypt, Clermont-Ferrand in France, Dublin in Ireland, Osan in Korea, Huejotzingo in Mexico, Al Wakra in Qatar, Jubail in Saudi Arabia, and Belfast in the United Kingdom.

The award by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is open to the 229 members of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities and is given every two years.

This year's event saw education experts and representatives deliberate on the conference theme "Global health education and emergency response".

David Atchoarena, director of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, pointed out that Shanghai has made outstanding progress in providing citizens with lifelong learning opportunities, and all citizens can develop themselves and contribute to solving local and global challenges in a rapidly changing world.

The city currently has an elderly education system composed of four municipal universities, 44 systematic schools, 18 district universities, 221 sub-district schools, and 5,589 learning sites in the neighborhood for senior citizens, and 12 lifelong learning experience bases.

Shanghai has also integrated education, cultural tourism, and science and technology resources to establish 145 experience sites and 1,271 experience projects that draw the participation of more than 2.5 million citizens every year.