Asia and the Pacific

The Institute for Adult Learning (IAL) is an autonomous institute within the Singapore University of Social Sciences. Its mandate is to be the national centre of excellence in learning, practice and research for the Training and Adult Education (TAE) sector in continued support of the national SkillsFuture movement.

The initiative of accepting all Afghan children, regardless of documentation and legal status, to schools has been active in Iran since 2016. According to the decree issued in 2015, all Afghan children have the right to study side by side with Iranian citizens at a school level, getting both primary and secondary education (NRC, 2017).

As Thailand ranks second in having the most rapidly growing ageing population, the Cheongdoi municipality decided to take necessary steps to care for and provide development opportunities for its elderly population. With a very limited time to prepare a response to demographic change, all sectors require economic and social restructuring and enhanced collaboration to address the needs of an elderly society (Punyakaew et al., 2019).

Shanghai was the first Chinese city to adopt the learning city concept: in 1999, it began to promote the lifelong development of all its citizens. At the level of policy and administration, this involved devising leadership mechanisms, reforming the city’s legal system and publishing guidance documents. On the ground, Shanghai began to offer a greater variety of learning opportunities to its citizens, including different methods of classroom teaching, digital learning, learning groups and study tours; all were designed to encourage participation in lifelong learning.

In 2005, Okayama City, Japan, established an ESD Promotion Commission with various stakeholders to develop a plan to harness formal and informal learning to promote sustainability and environmental awareness. In 2015, a new plan was developed that identified eight priorities and was further supported by the 2016 initiative of emphasizing the intention to make Okayama a learning city. The aims of the plan included assisting people who have a vision for the future that coincides with the principles of education for sustainable development (ESD) to participate in the process of city development, facilitating traditional culture and fostering intercultural exchange, protecting the environment and strengthening the economy (UIL, 2017).