SCIO briefing on speeding up work to build a strong educational system, developing education that meets the people's expectations

Speakers:

Mr. Huai Jinpeng, minister of education

Mr. Wu Yan, vice minister of education

Mr. Deng Chuanhuai, director general of the Department of Policies and Regulations of the Ministry of Education (MOE)

Mr. Liu Zicheng, director general of the Department of Comprehensive Reforms of the MOE

Chairperson:

Mr. Chen Wenjun, director general of the Press Bureau of the State Council Information Office (SCIO) and spokesperson of the SCIO

Date:

July 6, 2023

Chen Wenjun:

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome to this press conference held by the State Council Information Office (SCIO). This is the 19th briefing in the series "Embarking on the New Journey — A Government Perspective." Today, we have invited Mr. Huai Jinpeng, minister of education, to brief you on speeding up work to build a strong education system and developing education that meets people's expectations. Also joining us today are Mr. Wu Yan, vice minister of education; Mr. Deng Chuanhuai, director general of the Department of Policies and Regulations of the Ministry of Education (MOE); and Mr. Liu Zicheng, director general of the Department of Comprehensive Reforms of the MOE.

Now, I'll give the floor to Mr. Huai for a brief introduction.

Huai Jinpeng:

Ladies and gentlemen, friends from the media, good morning. It is a great pleasure to meet you here. I would like to express my gratitude for your long-term concern, understanding, support and assistance in the field of education.

First of all, I would like to introduce the progress in the education sector regarding the implementation of the guiding principles of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which aims to accelerate the development of a strong education system that meets the expectations of our people.

As we all know, a prosperous education system leads to a prosperous nation, and the strength of education contributes to a strong country. Emphasizing the importance of education is a cherished tradition of the Chinese nation. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, has prioritized education as a major national undertaking and a key focus of the Party. Significant decisions have been made to expedite the modernization of education and build China's strength in education, resulting in historic achievements and transformative changes in the field. Currently, China has established the most extensive education system in the world, and its level of education modernization has reached the upper-middle tier worldwide, laying a solid foundation for the construction of a country that is strong in education.

The 20th CPC National Congress has provided clear guidelines for building a strong education system by 2035. On May 29, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech during the fifth study session of the Political Bureau of the 20th CPC Central Committee, outlining the direction and fundamental principles for building a strong education system. The MOE's leading Party members group has acquired a deep understanding of the decisive significance of the establishment of both Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and firmly upheld Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and upheld the Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership. We have accurately grasped the essential characteristics, connotation requirements, and goals and paths of building a strong education system with Chinese socialist characteristics. We have started compiling the outline for the construction of an education powerhouse. By combining themed education, we will transform the directives of the Party Central Committee and the expectations of the people into vivid practices of high-quality development, effectively answering the major question of the era — "What is the role of education in building a strong country?"

First, it is essential to fulfill the fundamental tasks of education. The core issues of building China's strength i education revolve around who and how to train, and to what end. We must always bear in mind the original mission of educating people for the Party and the country. Through the comprehensive implementation of the Party's educational policies and the fulfillment of education's fundamental mission of nurturing moral character, we will ensure the cultivation of talents who will contribute to the Party's cause and facilitate the progress of a strong modern socialist nation. To this end, we will extensively incorporate Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era into textbooks, classrooms and the minds of students. We will integrate ideological and political education throughout colleges, secondary schools and primary schools, implementing projects such as fostering a new generation capable of shouldering the mission of national rejuvenation, implementing extensive ideological and political courses, and reinforcing the teaching of core socialist values. Additionally, we will enhance online education capabilities, employing the invisible influence of education to guide students in listening to and following the Party's leadership. We will comprehensively deepen quality education, develop plans for students' physical fitness and aesthetic education, implement plans to develop students' working habits, integrate labor education throughout the entire talent development process, encourage reading activities among young students, promote mental health among students, and strengthen science education to cultivate students' exploratory and innovative thinking while carrying out the "double reduction" policy, thereby establishing a solid foundation for their future growth and success.

Second, we will establish a high-quality education system. In the past decade, education at all levels and sectors in China has experienced a historic leap, gradually improving the open and flexible education system that serves over 1.4 billion people. Guided by a people-centered development philosophy, we will focus on high-quality development as the guiding principle of education at all levels and sectors. We will consolidate the foundation of basic education, enhance higher education, create a significant growth pole for vocational education, and accelerate the establishment of a lifelong learning-oriented society. Prioritizing developing competent teaching staff, we will strengthen teachers' moral standards and improve the teacher education system with Chinese characteristics. We will guide teachers to embrace the ambition of devoting themselves to the teaching profession and contributing to the country's strength, while fostering a social culture that respects teachers and values education. We will develop comprehensive plans for both "bringing in" and "going global" in education, with the aim of building China as an important center for education and innovation. China's doors to education will always remain open. On July 28, the 31st FISU World University Games will be held in Chengdu, Sichuan province. We warmly welcome young people from around the world to join us at this event and work together to make dreams come true.

Third, we will focus on core functions. It is the core function of a strong education system to support and lead Chinese modernization. Now, 240 million Chinese people are receiving higher education, and the new labor force receives 14 years of education on average. Higher education has significantly changed China's labor force quality mix. In recent years, universities and colleges have made a number of high-level scientific and technological achievements and indispensable contributions in original innovation and research on core technologies in key fields. We will comprehensively enhance our ability to develop high-quality education services, better support the building of world hubs for talent and innovation, and consolidate the foundation of people's happiness and national prosperity through education. We will launch a strategic program for comprehensive reforms in higher education and make pioneering moves to improve the quality of talent nurturing and produce first-class innovators, serving national strategies and regional economic and social development, while optimizing education layout and structure. We will give top priority to speeding up the development of world-class universities and superior disciplines with Chinese characteristics, vigorously develop basic disciplines, emerging disciplines, and interdisciplinary subjects and implement major programs training first-class talents in basic disciplines, outstanding engineers, and outstanding physicians, as well as form synergies to address inadequacies in training high-level, first-class innovators. We will step up organized scientific research in universities and colleges, concentrate resources on original and leading scientific and technological breakthroughs, and move faster to build an independent knowledge system in philosophy and social sciences. We will facilitate the construction of provincial-level modern vocational education systems and municipal industry-education consortiums, as well as industry-education consortiums for various sectors to cultivate high-quality technological and technical talents.

Fourth, we will stimulate impetus and vitality. We are well aware that it takes systematic leaps and qualitative changes for an education system to go from big to strong. We will use policies, systems, and mechanisms to offer motivation and guidance, and use educational assessments to further education reforms and innovation and abate utilitarianism in education. We will promote education fairness in comprehensive education reforms in an all-around manner and move faster to build a high-quality and balanced basic public education service system. We will promote the exchange and rotation of outstanding backbone teachers and offer more convenient access to education, as well as care for every student. The plan to improve the nutrition of students in compulsory education benefits over 37 million rural students every year, and the average height of male and female students in these areas has increased by 4.2 centimeters and 4.1 centimeters since 2012, respectively. We will further improve the financial aid system so that it covers students at all stages of schooling, and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas and among different regions, schools, and groups. We'll also give every child access to fair and quality education, and better meet their needs for sound education. We will further implement national education digitalization strategic action, upgrade the smart education platform system, build and make good use of the world's largest education and teaching resource repository, and upgrade the national digitalized big data center. We will consider digitalization in education as a crucial breakthrough to explore new avenues of development and foster new competitive advantages, so as to provide strong support for the modernization of education and the construction of a leading country in education.

That's what I have for now. Next, my colleagues and I would be very glad to take your questions. Thank you.

Chen Wenjun:

The floor is now open to questions. Please identify the media outlet you represent before raising your questions.

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CCTV:

The report to the 20th CPC National Congress noted that education, science and technology, and human resources are the foundational and strategic pillars for building a modern socialist country in all respects, and we must regard talent as our primary resource. What plans do the MOE have for improving the overall quality of domestically cultivated talent and fostering outstanding innovators? Could you please elaborate on the measures and arrangements? Thank you.

Huai Jinpeng:

Thank you. I will take this question.

General Secretary Xi Jinping said in the report to the 20th CPC National Congress that "We will … comprehensively improve our ability to nurture talent at home. All this will see us producing first-class innovators and attracting the brightest minds from all over." At the fifth collective study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on May 29, he further stressed "strengthening the nurturing of first-class innovators at home to provide talent support for achieving breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields." To implement the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress, the MOE has adhered to principles on talent nurturing, education and teaching, and the needs of national development, and strived to improve talent nurturing at home and cultivating first-class innovators. Our efforts are mainly in five aspects:

First, by fostering virtue. We have remained guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in fostering virtue, and promoted the integration of the ideological and political education curriculum across all levels, from elementary schools to universities. We have implemented projects fostering virtue among the new generations by developing ideological and political education curricula and the national youth reading campaign. We have upheld education fairness and pursued higher quality, constantly improved the system of ideological and political work in schools, and guided students to steadfastly follow the Party and its guidance. In particular, we have actively promoted the comprehensive reform in higher education and consolidated the role of basic education as a foundation.

Second, by stepping up the cultivation of basic research talents. We have promoted the cultivation of first-class innovators through the outstanding talents program, the program of foundation consolidation, and the program of cultivating students excel in basic disciplines. We have started to implement the national strategic action for cultivating first-class talents in basic disciplines. Currently, we rely on 288 bases in 77 high-level universities for that cultivation. These have attracted over 30,000 outstanding students to engage in basic disciplines, forming an echelon network of first-class talents in those disciplines. At the same time, we have intensified efforts to conduct basic research in talent development, enhancing the ability of nurturing talent in basic disciplines through strengthening basic research.

Third, by serving the national strategy. We have strengthened talent cultivation, especially for urgently-needed and high-level talents, to meet the needs of the country's economic and social development. Through systematic layout, we have planned to establish 18 national colleges and innovation research institutes for outstanding engineers and promote the integration of industry and education. We are set to build a batch of national colleges for outstanding doctors to train good and noble-minded doctors with outstanding clinical capabilities. The development of new disciplines of engineering, medical science, agricultural science, and liberal arts are deepened, and the first batch of 12 colleges of future technology, 50 modern industrial colleges, and a group of colleges with specialized characteristics have been built.

Fourth, by strengthening talent training in philosophy and social sciences. We have increased cooperation with practice sectors and accelerated talent cultivation in fields of foreign-related rule of law, international communication, and economics. We have also fully advanced teaching in Chinese political and legal practice, journalism and communication, economics, and arts education to create "golden curriculums," and made efforts to cultivate high-quality talents in archaeology, intangible heritage, foreign-related rule of law, international organization, international communication, and related fields.

Fifth, by striving to train more technical and skilled personnel with higher quality, such as skillful and master craftsmen. At present, we have established the largest vocational education system in the world. Every year, around 10 million high-quality technical and skilled personnel graduate from the country's secondary and higher vocational schools, ensuring a steady flow of human resources to serve economic and social development. We will adopt integrated design of vocational education personnel training systems, and further enhance the adaptability of vocational education in order to provide a strong source of talent and skill support for the building of a modern socialist country in all respects. Thank you.

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Cover News:

Higher education plays a leading role in building China's strength in education. Next, what will the MOE do to deepen the comprehensive reform of higher education? What's your comment on the "Shanhe University" topic recently discussed online? Thank you.

Wu Yan:

I'm grad to answer your questions. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that higher education is an important indicator of a country's development level and potential. To give full play to the leading role of higher education in strengthening education, the MOE will implement the comprehensive pilot reform of higher education as one of the nine major projects this year.

Our main target is innovation. We must first significantly improve the talent innovation capabilities of higher education institutions. Second is to greatly enhance their sci-tech innovation capabilities so as to provide a strong fundamental support and strategic leading force to achieve Chinese modernization.

Our main task is to carry out two kinds of trials. First is to carry out trials on fully improving the quality of independent talent cultivation to train top-notch innovative personnel. Second is to carry out trials on enhancing the adaptability of our capacity and quality to serve national and regional economic and social development.

Our main path and method require three steps to be launched "in an organized manner." First is to cultivate top-notch innovative personnel in an organized manner. Second is to promote sci-tech innovation in an organized manner. Third is to serve national and regional economic and social development in an organized manner, focusing on the national major strategic needs and regional leading industries.

In the process of work, we will insist on "three integrations." First, we will deepen the integration of vocational education and general education. By interconnecting universities and higher vocational schools in the same region, we will train all types of top-notch innovative personnel across the entire chain. Second, we will deepen the integration of industry and education and take extending the education chain, serving the industrial chain, supporting the supply chain, building the talent chain, and upgrading the value chain as an important part of comprehensive reform. Third, we will strengthen the integration of science and education. Cutting-edge sci-tech achievements will be introduced into every link of talent cultivation, including core courses, textbooks, and practices, and high-level scientific research will be used to support high-quality talent cultivation to serve the high-quality development of the economy and society.

Through comprehensive reform, we also emphasize the "three enhancements." First, we will enhance target orientation, proactively undertake the country's major tasks, and carry out frontier research at the top level. Second, we will enhance problem orientation. Through thorough research, we will focus on major problems and adopt differentiated polices in different provinces and schools. Third, we will enhance result orientation. Taking the implementation of strategic cooperation agreements between the MOE and provincial governments as the starting point, we will build regional talent centers and innovation highlands, and form an innovation paradigm through pilot zone-style reform.

When carrying out the two kinds of trials, we will also focus on the following three aspects. First, we will expand advantages. We will encourage pilot universities to make continuous efforts in areas where they have national comparative advantages to create new strengths to drive development. Second, we will strengthen weak links. We will focus on bottleneck fields to do integrated research for breakthroughs. Third, we will break new ground. We will carry out forward-looking research on future groundbreaking technologies in the following 10-15 years so as to seize opportunities and lead future development in original innovation from the source of science and major root technology research, as well as the training of top-notch innovative talents.

We have also noticed the issues about "Shanhe University," as mentioned in your question. In the face of the new situation of higher education, as it enters a new stage of popularization and the new challenges and issues related to contributing to socioeconomic growth, the MOE will focus on the targets of enhancing national competitiveness, contributing to major socioeconomic development strategies, and promoting common prosperity. To achieve these targets, the MOE will work on optimizing the structure of higher education resources, and support the central and western regions, especially the populous provinces, in expanding the scale of higher education resources and optimizing their types and regional distribution. Thank you.

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Wall Street Journal:

Thank you very much. I'd like to ask a question about the high unemployment rate among youth in China today, specifically as it relates to the education system. My question specifically is, to what extent do you view the unemployment rate of more than 20% among youth in China today as a reflection of any weakness, for example, in the higher education system in China today? Are the graduates of Chinese universities being equipped with the skills they need to enter the workforce? In what areas could you improve this? Thank you very much.

Huai Jinpeng:

Thank you for raising such significant questions. We have also monitored this issue and plan to make more efforts accordingly. I'd like to invite Mr. Deng to provide more information.

Deng Chuanhuai:

College graduates are invaluable talent resources for both the Party and the nation. In 2023, the number of college graduates in China reached 11.58 million. The MOE has steadfastly carried out the directives and requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. It has spared no effort to launch the campaign promoting employment and entrepreneurship among college graduates and expediting employment promotion work. The campaign can be summarized in the following six aspects.

First, the MOE has worked to explore channels for creating jobs. Under the guidance of the MOE, universities have built targeted connections with enterprises and expanded channels for employment in a bid to explore more job opportunities. The MOE has also launched campaigns that bring tens of thousands of enterprises onto university campuses, aiming to ensure the ongoing success of campus recruitment activities, encourage more graduates to participate, and further effectively bridge the gap between job supply and demand in the market.

Second, the MOE has worked to expedite the recruitment process. The MOE has worked with related government bodies to speed up the hiring process for policy-backed positions within government departments, public institutions, and state-owned enterprises. The MOE has launched a group of programs targeting primary-level jobs. This includes the special job program enabling college graduates to serve as teachers in rural compulsory education schools; the program encouraging college graduates to pursue careers in rural agricultural, educational, medical and poverty alleviation sectors; the program engaging college graduates to volunteer for primary-level positions in western regions; and the program offering college graduates community-level positions. In collaboration with healthcare authorities, the MOE also initiated a special program enabling college graduates to serve as medical workers in rural areas.

Third, the MOE has made efforts to communicate and implement its policies. The MOE released overviews of employment and entrepreneurship policies. The MOE also issued "policy maps" that outline employment promotion measures nationwide and communicate related policies to the public in a bid to ensure the understanding and utilization of these policies by college graduates and employers.

Fourth, the MOE has improved employment guidance services. The MOE has strengthened personalized guidance for college graduates yet to secure employment. The MOE organized a range of internship and trainee programs. These efforts aim to boost the confidence of college graduates and help them find jobs as soon as possible.

Fifth, the MOE has strengthened employment assistance for key groups. The MOE has directed universities nationwide to implement a "one-to-one" assistance mechanism. The MOE also carried out an employment skill training program, which recommend at least three positions for college graduates from low-income families. The national college student employment service platform is organizing special recruitment sessions, and all graduates are welcome to participate and explore potential job opportunities.

Sixth, the MOE has enhanced follow-up services for college graduates. Education institutions will launch ongoing employment services for unemployed college graduates by offering consistent job recommendations, employment services, and key assistance measures after they leave school. The MOE also collaborates with human resources and social security authorities to ensure that unemployed college graduates can access public employment services.

In recent years, the MOE has ramped up efforts on the supply-side reform of higher education and taken multiple measures to promote integration between industry and education sectors and enhance collaboration between universities and enterprises. The MOE also launched follow-up surveys about college graduates' employment status. These surveys aim to ensure that graduates' employment outcomes can better affect disciplinary arrangements and talent development schemes and better align higher education with the needs of socioeconomic growth.

Promoting employment among college graduates is the due responsibility and aspiration of the education sector. In the current graduation season, we will intensify our efforts to facilitate successful employment for more graduates. We would like to take this opportunity to call upon employers to consider hiring more college graduates, which will help strengthen their talent pool. We also sincerely hope all sectors of society join hands and contribute toward boosting employment among college graduates. Thank you.

Huai Jinpeng:

This question is very well-posed. Building upon the valuable information shared by Mr. Deng, I would like to add a few additional points.

First, the number of college graduates in China this year reached 11.58 million, an increase of some 8 percent over the same period last year. As socioeconomic growth transitions towards a high-quality phase, the demand for many talented individuals is increasing. In the meantime, it has become evident that college graduates' employment not only affects them but also attracts the attention of the entire society. This matter has been given great importance by General Secretary Xi Jinping, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. The employment rate on July 2 was 2 to 3 percentage points higher than the same period last year. With the joint efforts of all sectors of society, our achievement is worthy of recognition. At the same time, these 10 million knowledgeable and ambitious graduates in their 20s will inject great vitality into social development and enterprise innovation and research. We need to offer proactive support and create favorable conditions for the employment of college students, ensuring their successful transition into the workforce. In particular, we must focus on meeting their basic employment needs and assisting graduates facing hardships. In this aspect, the Chinese government, society and the MOE have been working proactively to ensure that every such student is offered at least three to five positions. By doing so, we can better adapt to their needs and support their lives. In conclusion, we are committed to meeting graduates' basic employment needs and stimulating their vitality and innovation capacity.

Second, approaches to education and teaching, along with disciplinary settings and structures, should be consistently adapted to economic and social development. It is crucial to ensure a reasonable level of alignment while also being moderately forward-thinking. The talent supply of college students should effectively match the labor market, and being appropriately forward-thinking, which presents new requirements for the structure of higher education and regional educational adjustments and layouts. This is also very important. Not only should the students learn to grow as individuals, but also have the opportunities to apply what they have learned, as social development continually needs a constant source of talent support.

Third, the employment expectations of young people have changed greatly compared to a decade or five years ago. I recall a student sharing that he has many academic and career options, not necessarily to return to his hometown but maybe to venture outside for a few years. While some of these ideas might not be fully supported by his family, he feels he can choose flexible employment, securing multiple offers before making a decision. However, at the same time, we promote a more proactive employment perspective, encouraging young people to understand the society through practice and work, creating value with their youthful vigor and dedication. We are particularly grateful to all sectors of the society for their support of the education and employment of college students. Many enterprises recognize the pivotal role talent development plays in fostering enterprise innovation and market growth, nurturing and reserving talents, and collaborating with the education system to promote the better development of society and contribute to the improvement of overall human capabilities.

I just added a few words because this is really a big concern for us. Thank you.

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Chengdu.cn:

The CPC at its 20th National Congress set a clear goal for accelerating high-quality, balanced development and urban-rural integration in compulsory education. How will the MOE promote the achievement of this goal? Thank you.

Liu Zicheng:

I am glad to answer this question. Compulsory education concerns tens of thousands of families and garners widespread interest. In 2021, all counties across China passed the national assessment of balanced development in compulsory education. This represents a new milestone in the history of China's education development, signifying that China's compulsory education has entered a new stage of development. According to our planned objective, the majority of the country's counties will achieve the high-quality and balanced development in compulsory education by 2035. There's still considerable work ahead to attain this goal, and we will focus on five aspects to advance this work.

First, we will strengthen areas of weakness by promoting the standardization of school development. We will initiate a project to standardize the development of compulsory education schools, promoting the basic conditions of compulsory education schools, including campus and dormitories, teaching instruments, class size adjustments, and more, to meet the required standards. This approach aims to create an optimal teaching, cultural and living environment.

Second, we will help the disadvantaged by promoting the integration of urban and rural education. We will lay out urban and rural schools reasonably in line with population changes. We will also strengthen the construction of boarding schools and small rural schools, fully leveraging the leading role of urban schools to elevate the quality of education in rural areas.

Third, we will promote the balanced allocation of teachers and education resources. We will carry out exchange and rotation of teachers and headteachers in an orderly manner, advance the reform of "County Management and School Recruitment" in teacher management. We will improve the support and incentive mechanism for teacher exchanges and rotations. For instance, teaching in rural schools should be specified as a requirement for seeking senior professional titles and a priority in selection and appointment of primary and secondary school principals. We will provide incentives and support for schools that train and provide outstanding teachers. At the same time, more training shall be given to teachers to elevate the level of teaching and education.

Fourth, we will leverage digital means to foster smart resource sharing. We will improve and fully utilize the national smart education platform for primary and secondary schools, build a digital education platform system featuring connectivity, joint contribution and shared benefits, and broaden the coverage of high-quality education resources.

Fifth, we will promote equity and institutionalized educational care. We will fully implement the policies that children can receive compulsory education at schools close to where they live without having to take entrance exams, and public and private schools can start recruitment simultaneously. We will guarantee equal access to compulsory education for children living with their migrant worker parents in cities. Financial assistance and support will be offered to care for and help students from economically disadvantaged families, left-behind children, and those with disabilities, ensuring that hundreds of millions of children have access to quality education together.

Recently, the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council General Office jointly issued Opinions on Constructing a High-Quality and Balanced Basic Public Education Service System, which further improved the policy guarantee system around the above five priorities. We will take multiple measures to promote the implementation and effectiveness of these tasks, actively carry out the establishment of high-quality and balanced compulsory education in counties, and steadily advance the national assessment to ensure that the high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education is achieved by 2035 as scheduled. Thank you.

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21st Century Business Herald:

We have noticed that the MOE implemented the national education digitization strategy last year and has made positive progress, and the national Smart Education of China platform won the 2022 UNESCO ICT Prize. What are the plans going forward to further implement the education digitization strategy? Thank you.

Huai Jinpeng:

Thank you for your question. I'm happy to answer. The digitization of education is an important part of modernizing education. We hosted the World Digital Education Conference this February, with more than 130 countries and regions participating. At the conference, I also talked with international education workers and researchers about China's thinking and practice on "digital transformation and the future of education." On the basis of the last decade, the MOE fully implemented the national education digitization strategy last year to provide society with a streamlined, efficient, safe and reliable digital education platform through typical applications with a focus on service. The basis of our work is "connection first, content-based and cooperation-prioritized," which in English is the "three Cs"— "connection, content and cooperation." This means that we are strengthening the integration of advantageous education resources across the country through cooperation, and jointly advancing the digitization and modernization of education through effective cooperation of both domestic and global education resources. We hope to pool China's quality resources, digitalized resources and our wisdom based on past development, or "string pearls into a necklace" metaphorically speaking. We hope to raise its value, transfer its energy and better serve and support the development of education.

Since the platform launched one year ago, more than 200 million youngsters have studied online, especially in remote mountainous areas and rural areas, where they can access high-quality educational resources from Shanghai, Beijing, as well as Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. As Mr. Liu mentioned just now, the quality and balance of compulsory education has been achieved. We have achieved the balanced allocation of advantageous resources, which we did not manage in the past. Since its launch, the platform has received more than 26 billion visits, making it the world's largest resource pool for education and teaching. You also mentioned that China's practice of the digitization and modernization in education was fully acknowledged by UNESCO, winning a UNESCO prize.

The report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC states that we should advance digitization in education, build a learning society and a major learning-oriented country where people can keep studying life-long. The general secretary noted during his keynote speech on May 29 that digital education is where our country can achieve breakthroughs in opening up new areas and forming fresh strength of educational development, and emphasized more should be done to encourage digital education to provide effective support for personalized learning, life-long learning, expanding the reach of quality educational resource and modern education.

In practice, we continue to improve our efforts on related work, such as the massive open online courses (MOOCs) program in western areas, which has provided more than 190,000 MOOCs and customized courses for universities in western China, giving strong support for talent training in universities in western areas. We helped open more than 4.46 million courses with mixed teaching models there, and students have taken 495 million courses. For example, at the end of last month, when we held an on-site promotional event for national education digitization in Wuhan, we noticed that a course on electronic circuit systems at Tsinghua University was connected with universities at Beijing, Wuhan and Guizhou. As a public basic course, students can all share in the same class, ask questions at the same time and answer them together. It was difficult to achieve this in the past. There is an old saying: "the peacocks fly southeast." While promoting education services in China's central and western regions, especially during the last decade and the past five years when stronger efforts have been made, education in China has shown a unique climate whereby "the peacocks fly northwest." Education workers from universities in eastern China and Beijing go to universities in the western regions to support local construction. They are not only serving as presidents or professors, but also working with local researchers to form teams and research forces in higher education, providing services for the regional economies and talent development. At the same time, we also have corresponding assistance in vocational colleges where we still have room to boost efforts to improve the fairness and quality of education. Of course, we have also seen the effective use of digital resources, which is of great significance to better serve the whole society.

In the next step, we will focus on four aspects: First, we will build a national big data center for the digitalization of education and make it an important platform for us to provide high-quality resource services, a national digital education resource sharing center, a gathering center for public educational services, and a management and evaluation center for digital resources. Digitization is not just about technology, nor is it just a platform or about turning resources into numbers. More importantly, it will leverage our education reform and genuinely serve students' learning and development, support teachers' education and teaching activities, and enhance schools' management and governance capabilities. Additionally, It will improve our research capabilities in education modernization in the new era.

Second, we will enhance the use of big data in education and teaching activities. At present, many people pay much attention to artificial intelligence's impact on education. Starting with digitization and intellectualization, there is no big data, no big model, and no effective application combined with vertical fields to improve education's comprehensiveness and accuracy. Therefore, it requires new methods. In this regard, we need to intensify efforts to strengthen education and teaching empowered by big data, better promote the balance of high-quality resources, and better serve the comprehensive development of people and the improvement of education capabilities. At the same time, we will use such a platform to improve teachers' abilities. Last year and this year, during the winter and summer vacations, teachers were provided with online digital learning to strengthen the service of their teaching activities and the cultivation of students. In this respect, basic, vocational and higher education have all yielded good results. Since the beginning of this year, we have used digital education to empower rural education pilots to better organize and allocate resources. We have organized nearly 100 volunteers from four colleges and universities to leverage the national smart education platform to target more than 1,600 students in four key rural revitalization counties to conduct digital education assistance experiments. These practices play an important role in young people's digital literacy and technological knowledge skills, as well as in improving teachers' teaching activities. During this experiment, we provided digital support and experience through the two categories of information technology and art for a total of 190 class hours. There are imbalances and incoordination in this regard. However, the chances of achieving better coverage capabilities are greatly increased, and we will continue to strengthen our work in this area.

Third, we will enhance the ability of education to deliver effective public services. The National Smart Education Platform provides a public service platform that is not only for learning and improving teachers' skills but also provides public service products for all students and society. For example, by the end of June, a total of 95 special recruitment sessions had been provided for this year's fresh graduates, collecting 16.24 million pieces of job information and providing 16.24 million jobs for 11.58 million fresh graduates on the National 23456 Graduate Employment Service Platform. As I previously stated in my response to the question from the Wall Street Journal reporter, for students with special difficulties, according to the requirements of the central government and social expectations over the years, the employment rate of students from families with difficulties is 2 to 3 percentage points higher than that of students in the normal system. Therefore, we need to support some students who have difficulties getting employed. And we need to respect some students who have flexible choices. In addition, some students have new pursuits and considerations. So besides providing learning, digital education platforms should strengthen their public service capabilities by employing tools such as MOOCs, micro-classes, and virtual reality. Moreover, they should utilize virtual reality and augmented reality technologies to enhance areas that were previously challenging to experiment with and required hands-on abilities. This is an extension of modern education through digital education platforms. These platforms are not simply about moving textbooks and classrooms online; they provide enhancements with new service functions and capabilities.

Fourth, we will strengthen the internationalization of digital education. As an open country, we believe China should share its educational resources, capabilities, models, and methods with the world. We also call on the world to share educational achievements, clues, and education modernization efforts to provide effective and better resources to people and students across the globe, which is also an important basis for better open cooperation and people-to-people exchanges. We also expect and continue to strengthen exchanges and cooperation between China and our international counterparts in digital education. Developing digital education, promoting education digitalization, and advancing education modernization are the trends of our times, the need for development, and the direction of reform. We have accumulated experience in this area and discovered new problems. We also found that it is extremely important for constructing a leading country in education in the future. We will continue to work hard in this regard. At the same time, it is an important supporting aspect of a learning society and lifelong learning. Therefore, in these aspects, we will be more oriented and focus on educating the elderly, building more open universities, and better providing a learning environment for the whole society where one does not necessarily go to school. For example, youth literacy activities are carried out through this method so that everyone can learn at any time, anywhere. Digital education is not only a technology and platform but also a public service and an important aspect of supporting the future learning society. It is also a crucial aspect that needs to be studied and taken into consideration for future policies and systems.

Thank you for your question.

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China Education Television:

As we all know, first-class universities are the main force of basic research in universities and the birthplace of major scientific and technological innovations. We would like to know, what measures will the MOE take to promote the integration of science and education and further develop scientific and technological innovation capacity to tackle bottlenecks in key and core technologies? Thank you.

Huai Jinpeng:

Thank you for your question. It's a major issue of great concern to all. Mr. Wu will share his answers with us.

Wu Yan:

I'm glad to answer your question. First-class universities are the main force of basic research and the birthplace of major scientific and technological breakthroughs. Over the last period, the MOE has vigorously promoted the integration of science and education to enhance the ability of independent innovation and improve the quality of independent talent training. In the field of basic research, we have produced many original achievements of great significance, as seen in the quantum anomalous hall effect. At the same time, we have gathered strength to make breakthroughs in scientific research and built a number of advanced equipment for the country, including the cutter-suction dredger Tianjing and the high temperature gas cooled reactor, making significant contributions to tackling bottlenecks in key and core technologies.

In a bid to provide support for achieving breakthroughs in key and core technologies, we have mainly adhered to two orientations: goal-orientation and problem-orientation. We have encouraged universities to make scientific research breakthroughs in an organized manner. Over the last period, the MOE has concentrated its efforts on formulating the outline for building China into an educational powerhouse and made specialized arrangements in the work of scientific technological innovations for universities.

In the next step, we will provide support to realize scientific and technological independence and advancement at a higher-level, speed up well-organized scientific research at universities, promote integration of science and education, and gather strength to make breakthroughs in key and core technologies. As universities represent the birthplace of major scientific and technological breakthroughs, one of our major tasks is to effectively address the urgent needs of the country and tackle a batch of bottlenecks in key and core technologies.

Since last year, we have made an intensive effort to conduct scientific research in an organized manner, aiming to gathering scientific strength from universities to remedy the insufficient ability to serve the major strategic needs of the country. We have also fostered a number of major research projects focusing on basic, strategic, and pioneering industries, and concentrated our efforts on making breakthroughs in scientific research. We will also deepen the integration of projects, platforms, and teams, regard major projects as the main driving force, accelerate the integration of platform resources, strengthen the construction of integrated platforms for key and core technology breakthroughs and engineering research centers under the MOE, and build multidisciplinary teams to generate great synergy. We will also upgrade the evaluation system, strengthen the guarantee of policy resources, and establish an evaluation mechanism that is compatible with the organized scientific research model, especially the contribution- and quality-orientated evaluation mechanism on landmark achievements. At the same time, we will ensure the allocation of educational and scientific resources, such as the talent planning and graduate enrollment programs, favors major scientific research tasks.

To make breakthroughs in key and core technologies, we should not only make vigorous efforts but also create a great synergy, which means enhancing industrial application of such technologies and generating new momentums of high-quality development in various industries. We will actively reach out to industries and enterprises, put enterprises at the forefront of our scientific research, send good teachers and students where they can put their knowledge to real use, transform technology into products, turn products into industries, and turn the potential of scientific research and innovation in colleges and universities into real productive forces to promote the high-quality development of industries so as to create a new prospect featuring deep integration of industry, universities, and research institutes. We will carry out a new round of strategic cooperation agreements with provincial regions, conduct in-depth cooperation with relevant provinces and municipalities, actively respond to the needs of industry, enhance innovation capacity through organizational strength, better integrate into regional economic development, and become the power source of regional economic and social development.

Last but not the least, to provide high-quality talents to advance key and core technologies, we should strengthen the training of top-notch innovative talents to improve their real ability in solving complicated problems. As the old Chinese saying goes, "a sword is sharpened on a stone, and a man is tempered in bitterness." The cultivation of top-notch innovative talents should be realized through high-level innovative practices. We should abide by reality and bring teachers and students closer to the frontline of production. As I just mentioned, we should solve practical issues and produce concrete results. Hereby, I would like to share some good news with you all. This year, we have made a major breakthrough by conducting strategic cooperation with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). We have released the funds of the NSFC on an earlier stage, further enhanced support for outstanding doctoral students, and jointly launched a pilot program to fund outstanding undergraduate students. This is a brand-new exploration in the path and method of training top-notch innovative talents. We will further implement the national strategic action for cultivating top-notch talents in basic disciplines and the plan for building core elements for cultivating top-notch innovative talents. We will also work on the establishment of the national innovation zone for the integration of science and education, accelerate the layout in areas where strategic scarcity are seen and emerging cross-cutting areas, and comprehensively improve the ability and quality of independent training of top-notch innovative talents.

Thank you.

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Nanfang Metropolis Daily:

The report to the 20th CPC National Congress stated that we would advance comprehensive education reform and refine the systems for school management and educational assessments.. What measures will the MOE take to improve the educational evaluation system in the future? Thank you.

Huai Jinpeng:

I would like to invite Mr. Liu Zicheng to answer your question about educational evaluation reform.

Liu Zicheng:

I'm happy to answer this question. Educational evaluation influences the direction of education development and guides its orientation. On Sept. 28, 2020, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued an overall plan for deepening educational evaluation reform in the new era, making comprehensive arrangements for addressing deep-rooted problems known as the "five-only" malady, which means an overemphasis on test scores, admission into higher-level education institutions, diplomas, number of published papers and prestigious titles when evaluating students, teachers and schools. General Secretary Xi Jinping has attached great importance to educational evaluation reform and emphasized the importance of implementing the overall plan.

The report to the 20th CPC National Congress set out new requirements for refining the educational assessment system. During the fifth group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping further stressed the need to deepen the reform of educational evaluation in the new era and build a world-class evaluation system that features multiparty participation and conforms to China's reality. Since the overall plan was issued, the MOE has worked with other relevant departments to take a series of measures to resolve the "five-only" malady. Overall, we have gotten off to a good start in educational evaluation reform. Substantial achievements have been made at the current stage, and a broad-based consensus has been reached on addressing the "five-only" malady. The system of supporting policies and institutions has steadily improved at the national level. Many regions and schools have developed many successful experiences and practices. China's educational evaluation reform has also had a significant international impact.

In the new era and on the new journey, our work enters a crucial period during which we must further promote educational evaluation reform and make more substantive progress. Next, to build China's strength in education, we will destroy the old and build the new, focusing on the latter. We will pursue educational evaluation reform as the initial step, and then promote reform in a coordinated manner in the ways students are cultivated, in the modes schools are run, and in the management system and support mechanisms. All these will boost our vitality and add fresh impetus to accelerating efforts to build a leading country in education. To be specific:

First, we will make greater efforts to raise public awareness. We will guide people to establish a scientific outlook on talent, personal careers, and education in the whole society and reverse the utilitarian trend in education. Second, we will improve supporting policies and establish a sound educational evaluation system covering all academic stages and education types. This will help remove the last crucial hurdle in the reform process. Third, we will follow role models and give full play to community-level reform and innovation as a new fountain of strength. We will also effectively carry out pilot reforms and intensify publicity to promote the good experience of models. Fourth, we will strengthen supervision and rectification. Greater efforts will be made to supervise and monitor any violations of the overall plan. Violators will be urged to rectify their problems in time. By doing so, we will ensure that all the directives are executed without fail. Fifth, we will nurture a sound environment that features equal opportunities, favorable public opinion, harmonious families, and a culture of integrity and trustworthiness. This will create favorable conditions for the smooth and steady progress of reforms.

Thank you.

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Chao News:

I've noticed that there have been some recent reforms in the field of vocational education, such as the construction of municipal industry-education alliances and actions to promote industry-education integration. Are there any specific plans for the future of vocational education? Thank you.

Wu Yan:

The CPC Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to vocational education. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress made it clear that we should promote collaborative innovation in vocational education, higher education, and continuing education. It emphasized the importance of promote integration between vocational education and general education, between industry and education and between science and education, thus positioning vocational education as a distinct category within the educational system. It pointed out the direction for vocational education reform in the future. At the end of last year, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued a guideline to deepen the reform of a modern vocational education system. The guideline made it clear that at present and for some time to come, vocational education reform is primarily about developing a modern vocational education system. Our main tasks can be summarized as "one priority, two major respects and five focuses."

"One priority" means the MOE and relevant provinces will jointly explore new development models of modern vocational education that suit specific provinces. Provincial-level regions will be encouraged to foster their own development strategies in line with major national strategies and local industrial development requirements, and establish modern vocational education systems that conform to local conditions. By doing so, they will foster an enabling mechanism and environment for vocational education development.

As for the two major aspects, the first is to focus on regions. Based on industrial parks, we will integrate high-quality resources, promote various entities' deep participation into the operation of vocational schools, and foster a city-wide industry-education integration system featuring talent training, scientific and technological innovation and entrepreneurship, and facilitating high-quality industrial economic growth. This means making vocational education reforms at the city level. The second is to focus on industries. As the chain heads, some enterprises will lead the integration of the upstream and downstream resources and work with schools and scientific and research institutions to build a number of cross-regional industry-education integration communities featuring complementary advantages, resource sharing, joint cultivation, collaborative innovation, and integrated development.

The five focuses of the vocational education are as follows. The first is to improve the key school-running capabilities of vocational schools, optimize the setting of majors centering on the development of key regional industries, and develop core courses, core textbooks, core practice projects, and a core teacher team for vocational education. New methods, technologies, and processes will be introduced in a timely manner into education and teaching, and digital empowerment will be leveraged to constantly improve the ability to cultivate talents and quality of the talents. The second step is to better develop a teacher team, establish a contingent of teachers strong in both theory and practice, constantly improve the teacher cultivation and training system, and open up the two-way flow channels of school and enterprise personnel, building a contingent of teachers strong in both theory and practice and in line with the development of vocational education. The third step is to construct an industry-education integration practice center. We will align with the forefront of industrial development and establish a number of open regional industry-education integration practice centers that combine teaching, social training, real production, and technical service functions. The centers will serve students in internship and practice training and provide scenes for enterprise staff training, technique transformation, and technological research and development. The fourth is to expand the channels for students' growth and development, further integrate the vocational and general education, and promote vocational education at different levels, thereby developing a vocational education system characterized by vertical penetration and horizontal integration. Fifth, mechanisms for international vocational education exchanges and cooperation should be innovated, and "bringing in" and "going global" be coordinated, which indicates bringing in high-quality overseas vocational education resources while encouraging those involved in domestic vocational education to partake in overseas exchanges and cooperation. A number of projects, such as Luban Workshops and Silk Road Schools, have exerted important influence in the countries along the Belt and Road. We should deploy such good projects in more Belt and Road countries and strive to develop vocational education standards, teaching resources, and teaching equipment with international influence so as to better serve the internationalization of Chinese enterprises. At the same time, this will also cultivate a large number of high-quality and skilled technical talents for the countries along the Belt and Road and improve the quality of vocational education and talent training in these countries. Thank you.

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China News Service:

General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed the need to improve the strategy of educational opening up, and put equal emphasis on introducing overseas educational resources and going global, and that the brand building of "studying in China" should be vigorously promoted. How does the MOE view the situation of educational opening-up? What are your main considerations? Thank you.

Liu Zicheng:

I am glad to answer this question. Opening up and cooperation is the sure path to build China's strength in education. The CPC Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, has attached great importance to the opening- up of education. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has announced on many major domestic and international occasions that China will continue to open up its educational sector and underlined that promoting education modernization requires consistent efforts to advance opening-up and enhancement of inclusiveness, mutual learning and interconnectivity between countries. In a speech delivered at the fifth group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping again made important deployments on educational opening-up, providing fundamental guidance in this regard for a new era.

Under the arrangements and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the MOE has actively advanced education exchanges and collaboration between China and other countries and made positive progress. The overall layout of China's educational opening-up has been consistently improved, the building of opening-up hubs has vigorously accelerated, and educational reform has constantly played a bigger role in advancing educational opening-up. China's participation in global educational governance has been continuously deepened, and remarkable achievements have been secured in Sino-foreign educational cooperation, as well as people-to-people communications. I will share with you some data. First, China has signed agreements for mutual recognition of academic qualifications and degrees with 58 countries and regions. Second, China has conducted Mandarin teaching in more than 180 countries and regions worldwide and, accumulatively, there are nearly 200 million people outside China studying and speaking Chinese. Third, more than 1.3 million Chinese students are studying in over 100 countries worldwide. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the number of returnees has accounted for more than 80% of those who studied abroad in the same period.

At present, the MOE is thoroughly studying and implementing the guiding principles of the speech delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the fifth group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. In accordance with the strategic plans made by the central authorities, we will actively integrate into and serve the new development pattern, promote educational opening-up to a higher level with wider coverage and scope, and with more initiative and flexibility, and make positive contributions to building China into an major world education center with a strong influence. Thank you.

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Hong Kong Bauhinia Magazine:

Without a strong teaching workforce, a powerful education system is impossible. Building a strong teaching workforce is the most important foundational work for building China's strength in education. What are the achievements made in this regard? Additionally, what are your considerations for the next step and what measures will you take? Thank you.

Huai Jinpeng:

In education, how to enhance the teaching workforce is a matter of common concern and represents the most fundamental issue. We kindly invite Mr. Deng Chuanhuai to answer the questions.

Deng Chuanhuai:

Thank you for your questions. A great nation needs a strong education system, and by extension, a powerful teaching workforce. Teachers are the most important resource for education development. General Secretary Xi Jinping has placed significant importance on developing the teaching workforce and showed deep care for teachers and other educational workers. Throughout the years, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the MOE has comprehensively deepened reforms in building the teaching workforce in the new era. Both the quantity and quality of the teaching workforce have significantly improved. From 2012 to 2022, the total number of full-time teachers in China increased from 14.629 million to 18.804 million. The percentage of rural compulsory education teachers with a bachelor's degree or above has reached 76.01%. Teacher training is jointly provided by 225 normal universities and 565 non-normal universities. The personnel arrangement for faculty and staff in primary and secondary schools has met standards at the provincial, prefectural, and county level. National honors have been awarded to outstanding individuals, such as "People's Educator" title awarded to Yu Yi, Wei Xinghua, and Gao Mingxuan, and the "July 1 Medal" granted to Zhang Guimei. Teachers such as Li Baoguo, Huang Danian, Zhang Yugun, Chen Liqun, Wu Rongjin, Liu Yongtan, and Wan Buyan have been recognized as "Role Model of the Times." In recent years, the political status, social standing, and professional standing of teachers have continuously improved. Teachers have devoted themselves to nurturing students. They have demonstrated a love for teaching and their students and a dedication to educating people, making significant contributions to the Party and the country's cause.

As time progresses, the status and role of teachers become increasingly prominent. To offer support in building China's strength in education, the MOE has initiated a strategic project to improve the quality of the teaching workforce, focusing on six aspects: First, we will strengthen teachers' professional ethics and conduct by combining high-level guidance with bottom-line management, establishing a common value pursuit among teachers, upholding "zero tolerance" for violations of professional ethics, and guiding teachers to exercise self-discipline and self-improvement. Second, we will launch a national plan to cultivate excellent primary and secondary school teachers in top-tier comprehensive universities, and promote science curriculum teacher training in such universities as represented by the ones involved with developing world-class universities and disciplines. Third, we will maintain that the primary responsibility of normal universities is to train teachers, implement coordinated plans to enhance the quality of teacher education, optimize policies for government-sponsored teacher education, and deepen the implementation of the targeted training plan for improving the performance of primary and middle school teachers in underdeveloped areas in China's central and western regions. Fourth, we will enhance teachers' ability of disseminating knowledge and nurturing souls, and improve the training of high-level primary and secondary school teachers. We will also reform the national training program for primary and secondary school teachers, enhance scientific literacy among them, implement digital initiatives for teacher development, and implement programs for cultivating reputable teachers and principals. We will also strengthen training of university teachers and build teaching teams at universities nationwide following the role model of Huang Danian. Fifth, we must optimize teacher management and resource allocation to address new population development trends. Focusing on the national pilot reform for improving teaching workforce in basic education, we will promote comprehensive reforms in training and recruitment, staffing, professional ranks and titles, salary and benefits, and job positions. We will adapt to the needs of small-class and personalized teaching, and optimize teaching resource allocation. Additionally, we should prioritize building the rural teaching workforce, introduce management measures for vocational school part-time teachers, deepen the reform of university teacher assessment and evaluation, and implement various plans to improve education in underdeveloped areas, such as recruiting retired good teachers and letting educational personnel work in teams to be more helpful. Sixth, we will make more efforts to ensure the welfare of all types of teachers at all levels. We will consolidate the achievement of ensuring that the average wage income of compulsory education teachers is no lower than that of local civil servants, improve policies for rural teachers' living allowances, strengthen teacher housing security, and provide transitional accommodation for rural teachers.

The general secretary has repeatedly pointed out that encountering a good teacher is a blessing in one's life while having good teachers in a school brings glory to the institution, and a nation that continuously produces excellent teachers is hopeful. The MOE is committed to implementing the decisions and arrangements made by the general secretary and the CPC Central Committee regarding building a strong teaching workforce. We will take more effective measures to build a strong teaching workforce in the new era, promote a social atmosphere of respecting teachers and valuing education, and encourage and attract more outstanding talents to be devoted teachers, really put their mind to teaching, and be willing to teach for their entire life.

Thank you all!

Chen Wenjun:

Last question, please.

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The Poster News APP:

"What do we cultivate, how do we cultivate and who do we cultivate for" are the fundamental questions in education. Fostering noble minds is crucial to building a socialist education powerhouse with Chinese characteristics. What is your latest thinking over this and what news measures are taken? Thank you.

Huai Jinpeng:

Thank you for the excellent questions. Recently, we have been implementing the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the decisions and arrangements made by the CPC Central Committee, and formulating an outline for building China's strength in education. As we pursue the grand goal of advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-style modernization, we study and contemplate the role and direction of education, and we don't consider education issues just as education issues. We look at education related issues from the perspective of people's general wellbeing and the country's socioeconomic development. We also explore the important connotations of building China's strength in education by examining the inherent principles of education, talent development, and scientific and technological advancement. We contemplate how to build China's strength in education while keeping in mind the grand goal of great rejuvenation, people's general wellbeing, and the principles guiding the development of education and related areas, and we always know that the fundamental issue is to foster talents with lofty thoughts. This fundamental task is the most crucial issue in building China's strength in education.

Educational philosophy has always taken an extremely important position in traditional Chinese culture. As is known to all, Confucius put forward the concept of "education for all without discrimination" and "learning to be human." Fostering virtue and cultivating people is a crucial part of our traditional educational philosophy. The role of education in shaping social values is much more emphasized than its role in imparting knowledge and developing vocational skills. "The teacher is the one who can propagate the doctrine, impart professional knowledge, and resolve doubts." As an old saying goes about traditional culture, "it is easier to find a teacher who can impart knowledge but it is difficult to get a teacher who can teach you how to be human." The latter part of the saying illustrates the important role of teachers in cultivating students' morality and good conduct. There are also other sayings, such as, ", we can understand how we should conduct ourselves through our contact with things," "the pursuit of moral principles in daily life should be true and sincere," and, "we should rectify our mind so as to follow moral principles in daily life." All these have demonstrated the importance of educational philosophy in traditional Chinese culture. Education worldwide attaches importance to the cultivation of morality and decent values, which is also a universal principle of education. Fostering virtue and decent values has been taken as a crucial part of education throughout history and across the world. That is a significant element of Chinese culture and Chinese spirit.

We all have expectations for education; what kind of society and world we hope to live in determines the education we will choose. The core objective of China's education in the new era is to carry out the most basic task of fostering virtue through education, which is also the core issue of building a leading country in education. Our education aims to cultivate young people into those who strive to be new-era exemplary youths with ideals, a sense of responsibility, grit, and dedication. That is the call of the times and a requirement for realizing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. At the same time, we have also seen that society and the economy are constantly evolving and we are confronted with some problems such as imbalances and inadequacies in development. This requires education to fully carry out the most fundamental task of fostering virtue through education. Not only should we teach students how to learn and enable them to acquire knowledge but we should also help them to develop abilities and prepare them for their future life in society so that they can integrate their personal abilities with the development of society.

Huai Jinpeng:

Meanwhile, we should also teach students how to coordinate with others to resolve conflicts and problems, how to interact with other students and society, and how to coexist with their natural environment. Therefore, we see that people have many expectations for the future and are reflecting on reality and future development when faced with the changes in our times, rapid growth in knowledge, and especially the accelerating evolution of the technological revolution and industrial transformation. As a result, the task of fostering virtue and education is to enable students to understand society, themselves, and communication among people. At the same time, it is also very important to achieve inclusiveness, understanding, and development through exchanges and cooperation among different cultures in contemporary society. Thus, there are more tasks for education nowadays than ever before. However, fostering virtue and decent values is the core tasks among them, which is also what General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed. That is, we should take nurturing a new generation of capable young people who will fully develop socialism and carry forward the socialist cause as the core issue of education. From this perspective, education is of critical importance to the future of our country and our Party.

The MOE has all along taken every effort to carry out the basic task of fostering virtue through education and has for the first time this year set up major projects and special actions in research and practice. Just now, Mr. Wu talked about the "9+9" projects of the MOE, among which are the "project for developing grand ideological and political courses" and the "project for forging the inner strength of the new generation of young people." They are two systematic practices with distinctions and interconnections. In the development of the "grand ideological and political courses," we will focus on the design and teaching of the course "Introduction to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era." We will deepen the comprehensive reform of different types at different levels and integrate the political education curriculum across all levels, from elementary schools to universities. We will continue to upgrade the teaching and research system for ideological and political courses and carry out actions to enhance the abilities of teachers. With all these efforts, we will make an effective improvement in work systems, competences, and the quality of the "grand ideological and political courses."

The "project for forging the inner strength of the new generation of young people" is to launch 10 special campaigns focusing on raising students' level of understanding of thoughts and theories and improve their mental health and personality. Due to time limits, I will not introduce them one by one. We hope to establish a batch of major leading platforms and demonstration bases and launch a group of quality projects. We will guide officials and teachers to closely connect and fully interact with students and jointly analyze the laws of growth of students and the development of education as well as better integrate them in practice. We will address the major topic of integration and integrate fostering virtue through education into practice. Education should not only have theories and methods. More importantly, it should give priority to action. Through the effective integration of knowledge and action, we will teach students based on practices so as to achieve the cultivation of virtue and decent personality in students. That is our greatest aim.

We will give priority to promoting these two projects in the education system. However, education is a complete process and it is a system. We will pursue an education system that will foster sound moral grounding, intellectual ability, physical vigor, aesthetic sensibility, and the work skills of students. We'll also launch the program to strengthen students' physical health, improve their aesthetic abilities, and cultivate their habits for physical work. And we will integrate moral education into physical and aesthetic education and physical work in practice to enable students to learn about society and practice through personal experience. For instance, the MOE has organized social practices for students to engage in and experience the three-year fight against COVID-19. We have advanced medical students who are participating in social practice programs at the community level in areas, such as old revolutionary base areas. After graduation, these students go to mountainous areas to experience the environment and future development and combine their work with social practices. The social practice program has been organized relating to poverty alleviation, enabling students to learn from social practice so that they can feel the changes and the needs of social development and realize the importance of contributing to society and improving their abilities. Therefore, by developing an education system that will foster sound moral grounding, intellectual ability, physical vigor, aesthetic sensibility, and the work skills of students, we hope to carry out the fundamental mission of fostering virtue and better accomplish the critical goal of cultivating people.

Just now, Mr. Deng mentioned that we should strengthen the ranks of teachers in education and make teachers one of the most respectable occupations. In prioritizing the development of education, China will not only give priorities to education in terms of resource allocation and policies but also foster public respect for teachers and public support for education so as to enable teachers to better serve the mission of cultivating people and address the eternal topic of fostering virtue through education. I believe that with the changes of the times and the development of education, in response to the eternal question of fostering virtue and decent personality which concerns people's growth and development, we will continue to improve our work and abilities and work together to give full play to the role of learning in cultivating people and serving practical purposes. With all these efforts, we will develop education that meets people's expectations and make the whole of society respect teachers and support education so as to shoulder the great mission of Chinese modernization and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Thank you for your questions.

Chen Wenjun:

Thank you, Mr. Huai. Thanks to all the speakers and friends from the media. Today's briefing is now concluded. Goodbye!

Huai Jinpeng:

Thanks to friends from the media. We are inspired by your attention, understanding, and support for education, and we are driven forward by your expectations for the future development of education. Thank you all.

Translated and edited by Wang Yiming, Wang Qian, Zhang Jiaqi, Zhang Rui, Lin Liyao, Li Xiao, Zhu Bochen, Yuan Fang, Liu Caiyi, Huang Shan, Zhang Tingting, Yang Xi, Yan Bin, Qin Qi, Liu Sitong, Ma Yujia, Xu Xiaoxuan, Wang Yanfang, Xu Kailin, Li Huiru, Tom Arnsten, and Jay Birbeck. In case of any discrepancy between the English and Chinese texts, the Chinese version is deemed to prevail.