Advance National Strength and Prosperity Through Education

Advance National Strength and Prosperity Through Education*

May 29, 2023

The report to the 20th CPC National Congress lists education, science and technology, and talent in a separate section, planning their development and sounding the call for faster progress in building our country into an education powerhouse. The powerhouse we envision must be Chinese and socialist in nature and subject to the Party’s overall leadership. The fundamental task of our education is to foster students with high virtue in a bid to cultivate talent for the Party and the country and fulfill the mission of serving national rejuvenation. The way to realize this is through the modernization of education philosophies, systems, institutions, methods and management, and of the content of textbooks. This will allow our education to play a leading role in supporting Chinese modernization and, ultimately, to meet the people’s expectations. We must fully implement the Party’s education policies, pursue people-centered development of education, make plans in advance, effectively respond to changes, and vigorously explore new territories. We must accelerate the modernization of education, lay a solid foundation for improving the wellbeing of our people, advance national strength and prosperity through education, and provide strong support for rejuvenating the Chinese nation.

First, we will foster new generations capable of shouldering the mission of national rejuvenation. What talent should we cultivate, what approach should we take, and for whose benefit? These are the fundamental issues we must address and the core questions we must answer as we build our country into an education powerhouse. Our goal is to nurture successive generations of capable young people with sound moral grounding, intellectual ability, physical vigor, aesthetic sensibility, and work skills who will fully develop socialism and carry forward the socialist cause. We must ensure that younger generations will become our qualified successors to advance the cause of the Party and build China into a great modern socialist country. Just as plants should be watered at the roots, education should focus on character building. We should tirelessly educate and inspire students with the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, strengthen their core socialist values, and inspire them to develop firm ideals and convictions, to always follow the Party’s leadership, and to devote themselves to the country and the people. Through further reform and innovation, we should endeavor to integrate moral and political education across all levels — from elementary and high schools to universities — and make courses of moral and political education more targeted and appealing. As the internet becomes an even more important part of the life and work of young people, we should let it play a greater role in fostering talent of high caliber and strengthening the moral, political and ideological work in our schools.

Second, we will move faster to build a high-quality education system. China’s education is transitioning from rapid growth to high-quality development. High-quality development is the lifeline for all types of education at all levels. We should accelerate the building of a high-quality education system, in a bid to empower sustainable socio-economic development. Basic education is the foundation for building an education powerhouse. The firmer this foundation, the steadier our progress, and the greater the momentum towards becoming a leading country in education. We should extend safe and quality development of pre-school education to benefit all children, promote the quality and balanced development of compulsory education, and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas. Basic education should not only help solidify the foundations of students’ knowledge, but also rouse their interest in science and exploring the unknown, and inspire their exploratory spirit and innovative thinking. We should foster a sound outlook on talent, success and education throughout society, move faster to reverse the utilitarian trend in education, and create a healthy education environment. Higher education takes the lead in building an education powerhouse. Globally, all countries with strengths in education excel in higher education. One of our major tasks is to accelerate the development of world-class universities and strong disciplines with Chinese characteristics. We should make every effort to strengthen basic disciplines, emerging disciplines, and interdisciplinary courses, promote innovation in scientific research by targeting global sci-tech frontiers and meeting our country’s major strategic needs, and constantly strengthen our capacity for original innovation and the quality of talent cultivation. We should promote lifelong learning to build a learning society and nation. By encouraging everyone to learn wherever and whenever they want, we will raise the education level of our people, strengthen human resources in all respects, and foster well-rounded development for all.

Third, we should increase the capacity of education to serve high-quality development. Serving high-quality development is an important task in the drive to build China into an education powerhouse. In today’s world, talent is the primary resource, science and technology the primary productive force, and innovation the primary driver of growth. Strategies for building China into a powerhouse of education, science and technology, and talent are consistent and complementary. We must advance them in an integrated and coordinated manner to promote a multiplier effect in high-quality development. To provide intellectual support for achieving breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields where we have encountered obstacles due to external restrictions, we should further strengthen education in science and engineering, and rely on ourselves to cultivate the most talented innovators. We should systematically analyze our country’s talent development trends and shortages in all areas. Based on the current state of sci-tech development and our country’s major strategic needs, we should dynamically adjust and optimize the structure of disciplines in institutions of higher learning, and focus on developing the talent required for our national strategies, particularly those with the most essential and sought-after skills. Our education should increase its support for and make greater contribution to our country’s high-quality development. We should coordinate vocational, higher and continuing education, and promote the integration of vocational and general education, industry and education, and science and education, in order to continuously cultivate skilled workers, master technicians, and outstanding craftspeople.

Fourth, we should boost vitality in education through deeper reform and innovation. A transition from quantitative to qualitative growth in education necessitates systemic leveling up and fundamental change, which must be driven by reform and innovation. To advance the modernization of our education governance system and capacity in all respects, we should apply holistic thinking in coordinating reform of education and school running models, management systems, and support mechanisms, and resolutely break away from any concepts, systems and mechanisms that restrict the high-quality development of education. Equity in education is an important foundation for social fairness and an intrinsic requirement for building an education powerhouse. We must promote equity in all aspects of our comprehensive reform in education, narrowing the gaps in education between urban and rural areas, and between different regions, schools and groups. We must strive to ensure that every child enjoys fair access to quality education, so that we better meet the people’s needs for good education. Evaluation bears on the direction of education and the success in building China into an education powerhouse. Focusing on this goal, we should reform evaluation in the new era, and build a world-class system that features participation by diverse stakeholders and suits our country’s reality. We should further improve and strengthen oversight on the quality of textbooks, and make sure they follow the correct political orientation and embrace our socialist values. We should do our best to prepare quality textbooks that impart knowledge, inspire wisdom, and nourish the roots of students’ growth. Digitalization in education is where our country can achieve breakthroughs in opening up new areas and gaining new development strengths. There are more than one billion internet users in China. We should further encourage digital education to effectively support personalized and lifelong learning, expand the coverage of quality educational resources, and provide strong support for education modernization.

Fifth, our education should exert a stronger global influence. Based on international developments, we should improve our strategies and policies for educational opening up, better coordinate “bringing in” and “going global”, and effectively leverage world-class educational resources and innovation factors, to develop China into an important and influential world education hub. We should take an active part in global education governance, boost the Study in China program, better present China to the world, share our experience, make our voice heard, increase our influence, and have a greater say in education worldwide. We must remain firm in expanding opening up. In keeping with our holistic approach to national security, we must firmly adhere to the correct orientation and ensure security in educational opening up.

Sixth, we should cultivate competent teachers. To strengthen education, we must first have competent teachers. Strengthening the ranks of teachers is the most important requirement for building China into an education powerhouse. We need to refine our teacher training system to cultivate a highly qualified and well-structured generation of teachers who are morally upright, specialized, and full of vitality, and coordinate and redeploy these teachers and other staff members across different regions in accordance with the country’s actual needs. We should foster public respect for teachers and public support for education, make teaching one of the most respected occupations by raising teachers’ political, social and professional status, and encourage and attract talented people to become teachers who will devote themselves to the job for the long term, even a life-time. We should raise teachers’ professional ethics and standard of conduct, and inspire them to foster firm ideals and convictions, maintain moral integrity, develop a strong knowledge base, show empathy and care for their students, embrace the aspiration of “contributing to the building of a great modern socialist country through diligent teaching”, and devote themselves to imparting knowledge and cultivating students.

Building China into an education powerhouse is a responsibility shared by the whole Party and all of society. We must uphold and strengthen the Party’s overall leadership over education and continue to improve the leadership system for education, in which Party committees assume unified leadership, Party and government bodies cooperate and share responsibilities, and related departments perform their respective duties. The Central Leading Group for Education should focus on building China into an education powerhouse, further strengthen top-level design, make overall plans, push for and coordinate the efforts of all, and ensure that assigned tasks are duly accomplished. Party committees and governments at all levels should be fully aware of education’s paramount importance to the nation, prioritize its development, and make greater efforts in terms of organization and leadership, development plans, resources support, and financial input. Schools, families and society should work closely and strive towards building China into an education powerhouse. The whole Party and the entire nation should maintain firm confidence and persevere in our efforts to achieve this goal as quickly as possible.

* Part of the speech at the fifth group study session of the Political Bureau of the 20th CPC Central Committee.

(Not to be republished for any commercial or other purposes.)