Education pioneers honored

The Yidan Award this year goes to former Stanford University professor Linda Darling-Hammond and Soochow University's professor Yongxin Zhu.

Specializing in teaching, Hammond's work promotes educator preparation, school redesign and has taken an active role in expanding educational opportunities to those underserved.

Zhu's program, the New Education Initiative transforms home environments into positive learning spaces, the initiative covered more than 4000 schools in remote regions of China.

"The Yidan Prize champions the most innovative ideas in education and helps scale them so as many people as possible can benefit," said Koichiro Matsuura, chairman of the prize's judging committee and former director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Founded in 2016, the Yidan Prize awards education veterans for their contributions to education research and development.

The prize consists of a medal, a cash prize of HK$15 million and a project fund of HK$15 million for each of the two winners.