Nestled in the heart of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province is defined by its expansive landscapes, sparse population and challenging transportation links. For the people of this region, access to quality education has long been a cherished goal.
In 2019, with support from Shanghai Municipality, a middle school was established in Xining, capital of Qinghai, specifically to meet the educational needs of children from Golog. This school provides a nurturing environment, featuring a lush green campus, well-equipped dormitories and smart classrooms where students from Golog can pursue their dreams.
The education system in China is now entering a new phase, focused on promoting high-quality development and transforming the country into an educational powerhouse.
Becoming a global leader in education has been a long-cherished aspiration of the Chinese nation since the dawn of modern times, said President Xi Jinping at the National Conference on Education, convened in Beijing on September 9 and 10. He emphasized that this objective is foundational to building China into a great country and realizing national rejuvenation on all fronts through Chinese modernization. He called for solid progress toward making this vision a reality.
The goal of education is to shape the character and abilities of future generations. Xi stated that building a leading country in education is a complex, systematic undertaking. We must focus on the fundamental task of fostering virtue and educating people, with the goal of nurturing a new generation of capable young people with sound moral grounding, intellectual ability, physical vigor, aesthetic sensibility and work skills, to build socialism and carry forward the socialist cause, he added.
Xi further stressed the importance of consistently using the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to guide education, implementing initiatives to foster virtue through education.
Children play games at a kindergarten in Baini Village in Leye County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on June 11 (XINHUA)
Lifting basic education
Xi went on to underline the importance of adopting a people-centered approach in education, aiming to continuously improve the inclusiveness, accessibility and convenience of public education services. This will allow more people to benefit from the outcomes of education reform and development. He advocated for a better allocation of educational resources across regions, promoting high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education, and gradually reducing disparities between urban and rural areas, different regions, schools, and other groups.
Liu Shanhuai, a professor of rural education and education policy at the China Institute of Rural Education Development, Northeast Normal University, told newspaper China Youth Daily, “We need to focus on both improving the quality and increasing the quantity of compulsory education.”
Improving quality involves expanding and optimizing existing educational resources.
For example, many regions have adopted a group management model, where weaker schools are integrated into established high-quality school groups. In this model, top-performing schools provide management expertise and skilled teachers, sharing resources across the group.
Increasing quantity, then, involves the development of a new cohort of high-quality schools. Liu elaborated, “As we comprehensively improve quality, we will gradually reduce gaps between regions, urban and rural areas, and different schools.”
Students from a vocational school in Weixian County, Hebei Province, learn auto repair techniques on June 7 (XINHUA)
Strategic needs
The public now aspires not just for access to better compulsory education, but for better higher education.
China today boasts the largest higher education system in the world, with its overall quality ranking among the top globally.
Xi stated, “By focusing on sci-tech development and national strategic needs, innovation capacity should be improved, the layout of higher education should be optimized, and mechanisms for adjusting academic disciplines and talent cultivation models should be improved. More focus should be placed on basic, emerging and interdisciplinary subjects, as well as nurturing top-tier talent. Research cooperation between schools and enterprises should be strengthened to enable quicker transformation of sci-tech achievements into productive forces.”
This year, 24 new majors were added to the official catalogue of undergraduate programs, including a specialized course in intelligent marine equipment, to meet social and economic demand. These adjustments reflect a commitment to both national strategies and regional development needs.
“Whatever talent is needed in Lin-gang, we will establish the corresponding major to meet that demand,” Gong Siyi, President of Shanghai Dianji University, said. In recent years, the university has developed programs in vital industries, including intelligent manufacturing, new-energy vehicle engineering, aircraft manufacturing and robotic engineering, responding to both national strategic priorities and the developmental goals of Shanghai and the Lin-gang Special Area, a strategic development zone in Shanghai. New-energy vehicles refer to vehicles completely or mainly driven by new energy sources, including battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles and fuel cell vehicles.
All in all, these programs provide essential talent support for key strategies and industrial sectors.
Initiatives like the Strengthening Foundation Plan have been introduced to better align university education with national strategic goals. Launched in 2020, this program is now implemented in 39 universities, including Peking University and Tsinghua University, intensifying the cultivation of innovative talent in fundamental fields such as mathematics and physics.
The Science and Technology Backyard initiative, launched in 2009, encourages agricultural researchers to engage with rural communities, conducting studies and offering free guidance to farmers. This program has since been expanded nationwide, with over 1,800 “backyards” established, integrating talent training, technological innovation, agricultural progress and social services.
To enhance basic research and achieve technological breakthroughs, more universities are exploring “unchartered territories” in the pursuit of high-level technological self-reliance. In Shanghai, universities are setting up research institutes to attract outstanding young scientists from around the world, focusing on fundamental disciplines such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and life sciences for original, long-term research.
On November 7, 2023, the city’s Fudan University inaugurated the Xianghui Research Institute, dedicated to supporting exceptional scientists. This institute focuses on reforming talent service and management systems, aiming to foster a research-friendly environment conducive to fundamental research. It targets top scientists who have produced internationally recognized, groundbreaking research in the last five years in fundamental research over the past five years and who can identify original, challenging scientific questions.
Lei Qunying, a professor at the School of Basic Medical Sciences at Fudan University, was among the first six scientists to be supported by the institute. Metabolic sub-health is a high-risk factor for cancer. In the future, Lei will focus on the metabolic origins of cancer and provide new insights for the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
The institute guarantees long-term support and personalized services for over 10 years, which allows young scientists to concentrate on their research.
A newly recruited teacher at a high school in Liuyang, Hunan Province, presents flowers to her own high school teacher on September 9 as part of the school’s Teachers’ Day celebrations (XINHUA)
Serving economic development
Vocational education plays a big part in economic and social development, forming an integral part of the national education system and human resources development. Xi stated at the conference, “We must establish an education system that promotes integration between vocational and general education, and between industry and education, and we should make efforts to cultivate high-caliber craftspeople and skilled talent.”
In recent years, vocational colleges have trained approximately 10 million skilled workers annually for the country. China has built the largest vocational education system globally, with more than 10,000 vocational schools—attended by over 30 million students.
Li Meng, a fresher at Hunan Railway Professional Technology College, chose vocational education over an undergraduate program this year. “Our rail transport major is superior to some undergraduate programs. Additionally, my school has established cooperative programs with many subway companies, making it easier for me to secure a job as a subway train driver after graduation,” she told newspaper Workers’ Daily.
In December 2022, the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, the country’s highest state administrative body, issued the Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Modern Vocational Education System. Following these guidelines, the Ministry of Education has been promoting the establishment of industry-education integration partnerships.
In July 2023, the Ministry of Education supported the establishment of the first national industry-education integration community—the National Rail Transit Equipment Industry-Education Integration Community—at Changzhou Railway Higher Vocational and Technical School in Jiangsu Province, east China. This community fosters the active participation of enterprises in vocational education, concentrating on curriculum development and internships.
Wei Wenbin, human resources manager at Goertek Inc., a manufacturer of electroacoustic components and a leading enterprise in the integration community, told newspaper Economic Information Daily, “We have invested over 100 million yuan ($14 million) in producing equipment for training vocational college students, and more than 60 engineers and technicians from our company serve as instructors. This industry-education integration model supplies nearly 2,000 skilled personnel to our company annually.”
Wei mentioned that his company collaborates with over 50 colleges and has established more than 40 school-enterprise cooperation programs. Under this integration model, students emerge with strong competencies, making vocational schools a reliable source of skilled employees for industrial development. –The Daily Mail-Beijing Review news exchange item
