UNESCO’s recently appointed Director-General, Irina Bokova has chosen her new senior management team. Among the new Assistant Directors-Generals, scheduled to take office on 1 July, Dr Qian Tang has been appointed to oversee Education.

Dr Qian Tang was born in China and gained a Bachelor degree in Education from Shanxi University. This was followed by a Master degree in Exercise Physiology then a doctoral degree in Biology from the University of Windsor, in Canada. Dr Tang has a broad background in education, teaching at the high school level, promoting bilateral cooperation between universities at an international level, as well as work in planning, coordination and national policy formulation in the field of vocational and technical education. Before he joined UNESCO in 1993 he was Deputy Director-General at the Bureau of Science and Technology of the Shaanxi Provincial Government in China. At UNESCO he started as a Senior Programme Specialist and within three years became the Chief of Section for Technical and Vocational Education. In 2000 he was appointed Director of the Division of Secondary, Technical and Vocational Education. From July 2001 Dr Tang was responsible for overall programme coordination of the Education Sector. He served as Deputy Assistant Director General for Education immediately prior to his current appointment.

UNESCO