Pingtan No.1 Middle School in Fujian province re-signed a sister school partnership agreement with Taiwan's Hsinchu Municipal Chien-Kung Senior High School on June 23, continuing their friendly relations built in 2012.

The move was considered a boost to educational cooperation and exchanges between Pingtan and Taiwan.

At the signing ceremony, held in Pingtan, Fu Ruiqi, principal of the Taiwan school, gave local specialties as gifts and made mention of some friendly exchanges with the Pingtan school in the past four years.

Fu noted that thanks to the partnership, students in the two schools are able to attend classes together during the summer and winter breaks,and teachers are able to exchange ideas.

During the visit, the principal, along with teachers and parent representatives from Taiwan, also attended a class given at Pingtan No.1 Middle School.

Wu Changru, head of the teachers association of the Taiwan school, gave a thumb-up to the class, particularly the interaction between the teacher and students.

Wu Mingchang, principal of the Pingtan school, said that the school has adopted a new student-oriented teaching model, dividing a regular 45-minute class into three parts – 20 minutes for teaching, 20 minutes for student discussion, and five minutes for teachers to give assignments, which encourages students to learn actively.