KUALA LUMPUR: The city of Petaling Jaya (PJ) in Selangor is named as one of the 10 winners of the 2019 Unesco Learning City Award for its exemplary progress and commitment to promote education and lifelong learning at the local level.
The Unesco Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) said PJ had made great strides to improve access to public learning spaces, providing free bus services across four city routes which also double as information disseminators through their on-board screens.
“The city is also making good use of the resources provided by the partners,” UIL said in a statement posted on its website on January 31.
Nine other winners are Aswan (Egypt), Chengdu (China), Heraklion (Greece), Ibadan (Nigeria), Medellín (Colombia), Melitopol (Ukraine), Santiago (Mexico), Seodaemun-gu (Republic of Korea) and Sønderborg (Denmark).
The awards will be delivered during a ceremony at the 2019 International Conference on Learning Cities in Medellín, Colombia.
The statement added that despite their very different starting points and the various economic, political, social and environmental contexts, the winners have initiated innovative and target-specific policies and programmes that provide fruitful opportunities for their communities to benefit from lifelong learning.
The guiding documents of the Unesco Global Network of Learning Cities define a learning city as a city that effectively mobilises its resources in every sector to promote inclusive learning from basic to higher education, revitalises learning in families and communities, facilitates learning for and in the workplace, extends the use of modern learning technologies, enhances quality and excellence in learning, and fosters a culture of learning throughout life. – Bernama
