(Source: Weiyan Education 2026-03-08)

Editor’s note:On the morning of March 7, the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress held a press conference on people's livelihood. Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng, Minister of Civil Affairs Lu Zhiyuan, Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Wang Xiaoping, Minister of Culture and Tourism Sun Yeli, and Director of the National Health Commission Lei Haichao answered questions from Chinese and foreign journalists on issues related to education, civil affairs, human resources and social security, culture and tourism, and health. What questions did Minister Huai Jinpeng answer? Let’s review together——

People’s Daily reporter:Education is the foundation of people’s livelihood. What major work has the Ministry of Education done to address the masses’ educational concerns and improve the level of educational public services? What's the progress? What are the considerations and arrangements for basic education during the “15th Five-Year Plan”?

Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng：Thank you for your question. It is a great pleasure to attend today's press conference. I would like to take this opportunity to thank friends from the media and all sectors of society for their long-term concern, support and understanding of education.

General Secretary Xi Jinping has always cared about education and emphasized the need to develop education with the people as the center, with special emphasis on the political, people-oriented and strategic attributes of education. Prime Minister Li Qiang's government work report made clear arrangements for promoting educational equity and quality improvement, and integrating the development of educational science and technology talents. It can be said that education is connected to the expectations of thousands of families and is related to the healthy growth of every teenager and child; it is connected to the future of the country and is related to the cultivation of talents for modernization construction. Currently, our country is organizing the largest and most high-quality education in the world. Here, I will inform you of some data:

First, the overall situation.Currently, there are 440,000 schools of all levels and types in our country, with 280 million students and 18.7 million teachers.

The second is basic education.The gross enrollment rate of preschool education is 92.9%, which is 28.4 percentage points higher than before the 18th National Congress and significantly higher than the average level of 84.7% in OECD countries. Last year, the one-year free preschool policy benefited 14 million children. Compulsory education, on the basis that all 2,895 counties across the country have achieved basic balance, 572 counties (accounting for 19.8%) achieved high-quality balance at the end of last year. The gross enrollment rate of high w88 casino education reached 92%, 7 percentage points higher than before the 18th National Congress. Last year, 1,300 high schools were built, renovated and expanded across the country, and 1.49 million new places were added. More children have the opportunity to attend high w88 casino. At the same time, we have strengthened safety nets. The proportion of migrant children studying in public and government-subsidized schools exceeds 97%, an increase of 11.2 percentage points from the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan; the enrollment rate of compulsory education for children with disabilities remains above 97%; the student financial aid system benefits approximately 150 million students every year. In some key indicators of international students, China is in the leading position. The International STEM Education Research Institute was established in Shanghai, which shows that the quality of China's basic education and science and technology education is highly recognized internationally.

The third is higher education.During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, a total of 55 million talents have been delivered to society, and the gross enrollment rate has more than doubled from less than 30% before the 18th National Congress to more than 60% now. In the past two years, we have actively responded to the people's concerns about receiving high-quality higher education through the expansion of high-quality undergraduate programs and the enrollment of "double first-class" colleges and universities by 38,000 people. In addition, in the past five years, 18 general undergraduate colleges and universities and 70 vocational undergraduate colleges have been added, increasing undergraduate enrollment by 700,000; international cooperative education has been promoted, and more than 540 Sino-foreign cooperative education institutions and projects for undergraduates and above have been added, with an additional supply of 350,000 degrees.

The data I report to you can show that we have made new breakthroughs in providing universal and high-quality education public services. The popularity and key indicators of basic education have comprehensively exceeded the average level of middle- and high-income countries. In particular, preschool education and compulsory education have reached the average level of high-income countries.

Currently, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation are accelerating. my country's population and social structure have undergone profound changes. The masses have put forward higher requirements for education. The new journey of Chinese-style modernization has created rare development opportunities for education. The Party Central Committee released the outline of the plan for building a powerful country in education. The education system has launched the implementation of a three-year action plan and launched 41 reforms in six categories. The country has taken solid steps in building a powerful country in education.

I just mentioned that basic education is very important. People’s livelihood is the most important thing, and basic education comes first. In the next step, we will focus on building a fair and high-quality basic education system in an all-round way, implement major basic education projects, and focus on four tasks.

First, expand quality and improve fairness.On the one hand, higher standards will expand the coverage of high-quality resources. The focus of preschool education is to increase the supply of places in public kindergartens, the focus of compulsory education is to improve construction standards to meet the needs of building a strong country, and the focus of high w88 casino education is to continue to promote the revitalization of counties. At the same time, we should improve education and teaching capabilities, strengthen science and technology education and humanities education, and cultivate students' core competencies. On the other hand, we must firmly adhere to the bottom line of educational fairness. We will continue to carry out special operations for sunshine enrollment and improve the long-term mechanism for fair admissions. Ensure equal access to education for migrant children, left-behind children, and children with disabilities.

Second, optimize resources and focus on quality.In order to actively respond to the sequential peaking of the w88 casino-age population, we have strengthened forward-looking research and judgment, established a national monitoring system, optimized resource allocation, focused on increasing the net population inflow into cities and towns and the supply of degrees in areas with weak foundations, and strengthened the adjustment of educational resources across w88 casino stages according to local conditions. Support qualified areas to carry out small-class teaching pilots, expand the implementation of the "Silver Age Plan", and successfully run township boarding schools and necessary small-scale rural schools.

Third, strengthen teachers and help teachers to grasp the basics.Implement the teacher development action plan to attract more outstanding talents to engage in education, and allow high-quality teachers to cultivate the country's future talents. Promote the educator's spirit to be integrated into the entire process of teacher training and throughout all aspects of education and teaching. Support more high-level universities to carry out teacher education, carry out teacher training in an organized manner, and continuously improve teachers’ professional qualities and teaching and educating abilities. What I particularly want to say here is that it is the silent hard work and selfless dedication of more than 18 million teachers across the country that has propped up the blue sky of education in the motherland. I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude and respect to the teachers. I also hope that the whole society will continue to care for teachers and carry forward the fine tradition of respecting teachers and valuing education, so that teachers can have a sense of happiness in their posts, a sense of accomplishment in their careers, and a sense of honor in society.

Fourth, standardize governance and ensure safety.We will launch a special campaign for campus safety, and work with the public security, health, market supervision and other departments to build a stronger campus safety defense line with stricter and more practical measures. Continue to clean up and rectify illegal w88 casino operations, overtime study, campus bullying, etc., and carry out in-depth special management of "w88 casino meals", teaching aid subscription, and w88 casino uniform purchase. Through every little thing, the masses can feel that the protection and care of the party and the government are around them. This year we will continue to carry out the annual campaign to standardize the management of basic education, crack down on violations as soon as they appear, and strictly prevent the problem from rebounding.

Providing education that satisfies the people is our solemn commitment, and it is also our important responsibility. We will remain steadfast and go all out to improve the people's sense of educational attainment with concrete actions and results.

China Women’s News reporter:The healthy growth of children is the most important thing for every family. We have noticed that the Ministry of Education’s first New Year meeting has the theme of “Health First”. How will the implementation be better promoted in the next step?

Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng:Thank you for the reporter’s question. This is an issue of concern to the whole society. General Secretary Xi Jinping has always cared about the healthy growth of young people and has repeatedly emphasized the need to firmly establish the "health first" educational concept to promote students' physical and mental health and all-round development. The Ministry of Education resolutely implements it and insists on integrating this concept into the entire process and all aspects of educating people.

Cultivation of socialist builders and successors with comprehensive development of moral, intellectual, physical, artistic and labor is the fundamental goal put forward by the party’s education policy. We insist on giving equal attention to the five aspects of education, and strive to transform the concept of "health first" into action, and strive to transform practical actions into practical results. In the past few years, we have continued to carry out special actions for students’ mental health, aesthetic education infiltration actions, and youth reading actions, and have successively introduced policies and systems for students’ physical fitness and mental health promotion. At the beginning of last year, we piloted "15 minutes between classes" in 21 provinces. After a year of exploration and promotion, this "small incision" reform and "2 hours of physical education every day" were deployed and implemented in all provinces across the country. According to monitoring by relevant national authoritative departments, the overall excellent physical health rate of primary, secondary and primary w88 casino students across the country has continued to improve, and the overall myopia rate among students has achieved "four consecutive declines."

The reporter just mentioned that the first New Year meeting of the Ministry of Education not long ago was based on the theme of "Health First". The purpose is to further focus on cultivating people with moral integrity through "Health First" and release a clear direction of paying more attention to the essence of educating people. Next, we will implement special health education projects from three aspects.

First, if the body is sweaty, the key is to get students moving.Use physical exercise as the most effective means to get students out of the classroom and onto the playground. From the practice of the past few years, various places have actively explored and developed many good practices. For example, Beijing took the lead in the country to implement one physical education class and two hours of comprehensive exercise every day, Jiangsu promoted the "2·15" action plan, and Fujian included the construction, reconstruction and expansion of campus football fields into the list of practical projects for the people by the provincial party committee and the provincial government to encourage students to start running and jumping. Next, we will carry out in-depth activities to strengthen students' physical fitness, strengthen tracking and evaluation through "posting timetables" and other methods, and ensure that "2 hours" and "15 minutes between classes" fall into every w88 casino to benefit every student. Create a physical education class that students love and make them sweat, carry out extensive "three-ball" competitions, let "class super" and "w88 casino super" ignite the campus, so that every student can master at least one sports skill and benefit for life.

Second, the key to having light in your eyes is to strengthen your psychology.Only when there is sunshine in your heart can there be light in your eyes. We will implement a new round of student mental health promotion actions and build a work pattern for educating all employees. The first is to cultivate positive psychological qualities. Practice has shown that actively participating in various physical activities is very conducive to the development of healthy psychology and the improvement of ability and quality. We will carry out extensive art exhibitions, labor practices, outdoor development, youth reading activities, etc., organize game activities that students love to see, and also support the promotion of spring and autumn holidays for primary and secondary schools in places where conditions permit, so as to cultivate students' sunny and confident mentality, the ability to cope with setbacks, and the spirit of unity and cooperation. The second is to create a good educational environment, strengthen teachers’ care for students, equip them with strong mental health teachers, provide professional guidance and consultation, understand the growth process of students, grasp the psychological dynamics of teenagers, provide warm education, and create a safe, comfortable and heart-warming campus environment. The third is to strengthen research and professional support, give full play to the joint role of the National Mental Health Advisory Committee and expert groups in various regions, continue to carry out basic, cutting-edge and international research, apply it to areas such as student mental health education, consulting services, intervention and treatment, and comprehensively and systematically improve the level of student mental health work.

Third, health comes first. The key is to make the effect stand out.Implementing “health first” is not only a major responsibility of the education department, but also a common concern of families and society. We will accelerate the construction of the “education alliance” and promote the effective integration of the main role of schools with family education and social services. In this regard, the government work report emphasizes the collaborative education of schools, families and society. The first is to consolidate the main responsibilities of schools, regard students' physical and mental health as an important factor in w88 casino assessment and evaluation, and include it as a major issue in education supervision. For example, Shandong, Tianjin and other countries have included the myopia rate and physical health rate of primary and secondary w88 casino students as the only indicators in the education field into the comprehensive assessment of high-quality development. The second is to give better play to the role of the family, hold parent-teacher conferences, make good use of parent classrooms, guide parents to establish the "health first" educational concept, and create a harmonious and harmonious parent-child relationship. The third is to build social consensus. We are particularly happy to see that there are many innovations in laws, policies, systems and other aspects in various places. For example, Hunan has promulgated local regulations on drowning prevention and mental health, and Jiangsu and Shandong have promulgated regulations on student physical health promotion, creating a systematic solution for cooperation between government, w88 casino, family and society. We will actively study and promote these experiences, guide the whole society to care and support "health first", and jointly protect the healthy growth of students.

“Health first” is both a concept and a responsibility, and it must be put into action. We will continue to work hard and stick to the end so that all five aspects of education and all-round development can be achieved.

Yangcheng Evening News reporter:As we all know, the leader in building a powerful country in education is higher education. Higher education plays an important supporting and leading role in the national innovation system. I would like to ask the Ministry of Education, how to strengthen the integrated development of educational science and technology talents? Facing the "15th Five-Year Plan", what further considerations and plans are there?

Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng:Thank you for the reporter’s question. You just mentioned that higher education is the leader. I heard the translator tell us that it is leading priority. The English and Chinese explanations are that the role of the leader is similar to the main priorities. As we all know, higher education is the most valuable strategic resource in my country's modernization drive, because it is the main force for basic research, the main position for talent training, and the source of major scientific and technological breakthroughs. It especially carries important missions and responsibilities in supporting self-reliance in science and technology and independent cultivation of talents. Next, I will answer reporters’ questions from four aspects.

First, the capability of my country’s higher education as a national strategic scientific and technological force has been significantly enhanced.my country’s higher education has achieved remarkable results, and its comprehensive strength has been highly recognized by the world. According to the world’s comprehensive comparison data, we are a global leader in several disciplines such as computer science, engineering, environmental science, mathematics, and physics. In the past five years, our country's universities have taken the lead in winning more than 75% of the National Natural Science Awards and Technology Invention Awards, and more than 55% of the Science and Technology Progress Awards. They have taken the lead in launching international major scientific projects such as Deep Time Digital Earth and Ocean Negative Emissions. Major original scientific research achievements such as chemical small molecules inducing human cell reprogramming, quantum computer construction, and the clinical transformation of the first invasive brain-computer interface in China have all come from universities. At the same time, the sustained development of philosophy, social sciences, culture and art has also achieved remarkable results. We continue to strengthen the intensity and breadth of cultivating top talents. The first is to increase the training of talents in basic subjects, layout and construction of 290 training bases for top students in basic subjects, and 14 national high-level talent training centers. By strengthening the "Strong Foundation" plan, we will further deepen the construction of core courses, core teaching staff, core teaching materials, etc. The second is to establish a pilot national academy. Just now, several ministers have talked about the development of artificial intelligence, life and health, and people's livelihood. We focus on national strategies, especially in cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, life sciences, new energy, and quantum technology, to explore new mechanisms and new models for independent training of innovative talents. For example, in the field of integrated circuits, we integrate scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation, and implement the "One Chip for Life" program in talent training, which is a chip design program for each graduate student, so that every student has chip design, manufacturing and other capabilities when they graduate. This is an important foundation for industrial practice and the promotion of innovation. The third is to promote the construction of a national training base for outstanding social science talents and increase efforts in cultivating talents in philosophy and social sciences, especially in economics, finance, law and other fields. The fourth is to implement breakthrough plans in basic disciplines and interdisciplinary disciplines, strengthen organized and interdisciplinary scientific research, and provide long-term and stable support for a group of young talents to carry out original and disruptive scientific and technological innovations, so that they can sit on the bench for ten years and cultivate the backbone of future self-reliance and self-reliance in science and technology. This year, we will also launch the construction of a national interdisciplinary center to further enhance our ability to supply original innovation and cultivate new productive forces through cutting-edge interdisciplinary breakthroughs, and create an engine for future industrial development.

Second, my country’s higher education has strongly supported the country’s economic and social development.Comrade Xiaoping just talked about the issue of employment and made employment of college students a priority. As you all know, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, tens of millions of college graduates entered the society every year in China. On the one hand, we fully cooperated with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Finance and other departments, as well as local governments, to introduce a series of policies that are conducive to employment and industrial economic and social development. At the same time, everyone knows that young people with good higher education are energetic, innovative and creative. This is the rich talent resource advantage that our country needs to maintain the resilience of its economy, and it is also one of China's important advantages. Vocational education provides more than 70% of new high-quality and highly skilled talents for modern industries, effectively supporting my country's comprehensive modern industrial system and huge market demand. In particular, we focus on cultivating new productive forces and vigorously explore new mechanisms to promote the integrated development of technological innovation and industrial innovation. For example, we have actively promoted the training of outstanding engineers, through industry and education, and recruited 26,000 engineering master's and doctoral students in 18 strategically urgent areas of the country, forming a demand-oriented engineering education practice model. We have also built 9 overseas colleges for outstanding engineers, and released the world's first engineering master's and doctoral education certification standards. This model, mechanism and effect have been fully recognized internationally. On the other hand, strengthen the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in universities. In the three major international science and technology innovation centers of the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, we plan to build regional transfer and transformation centers for universities, explore science and technology business schools to cultivate talents, and build a public transformation platform for scientific and technological achievements shared by universities across the country. This is the public service platform we launched in the Greater Bay Area in December last year to create a never-ending technology trading platform. At the same time, we cooperate with local governments to explore cooperation mechanisms with industry and finance to jointly promote and optimize the construction of national university science and technology parks and serve regional economic and social development. We are also building advanced research institutes in the central and western regions. We hope to use the scientific and technological strength of universities to cooperate with enterprises in key industries to cultivate and develop new productive forces according to local conditions.

Third, the comprehensive reform of higher education has made important progress.According to the national regional development needs and the laws of scientific and technological development, we adhere to the mission drive, strengthen the innovation of policy systems and organizational mechanisms, and increase the intensity of reform and exploration of the integration of education, science and technology talents. The first is to promote the reform of colleges and universities by category. We have launched a new round of development of "double first-class" construction standards to support research universities in taking the lead in supporting and serving the national strategy. With the goal of high-quality educational capabilities and excellent service to regional economic and social development, we have launched the construction of high-level application-oriented universities. Some people call it the "double excellence" project. Continue to implement the "new double high" construction of vocational education, continue to promote high-level w88 casino running capabilities and high-quality integration of industry and education to better support regional economic and industrial development. The second is to promote the reform of adapting talent supply and demand. The catalog of disciplines and majors has been revised every ten or five years from the beginning. Now it has been optimized and adjusted to update and release the urgently needed list every year, so that the distribution of points and enrollment in the same year can be achieved. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, 8,600 new undergraduate majors were added, and more than 4,500 master's degree awarding spots were added. Most of the adjusted disciplines and majors are adapted to future development and the overall growth of people. At the same time, last year we explored and launched the "Double Thousand" plan, which is a thousand micro-majors and a thousand vocational ability training courses, such as Such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology, these are market needs, industrial development adapts, and are welcomed by students. Through the "Double Thousand" plan, we increase the number of professional subjects that students can adapt to economic and social development and their own growth. This is not only welcomed by students, but also supported by the industry, and has a tangible effect on employment. The third is to deepen the reform of talent training evaluation. For example, in the training of outstanding engineers, we already have graduate students who do not publish academic papers, but use practical results, patents and practical reports to obtain master's and doctoral degrees, which has historically broken through the "paper-only" restriction on degree awarding. The fourth is to promote artificial intelligence to empower higher education and scientific research. Digitalization is a new opportunity and new track for the comprehensive reform of higher education. We released the China Smart Education White Paper last year and vigorously promoted the construction and application of the "National Smart Education Platform". Now it has covered more than 200 countries and regions, and timely launched the smart version and international version, making some explorations in leading global smart education.

Fourth, education always adheres to the original mission of educating people for the Party and the country, and unswervingly implements the "Project of Building Morals and Talents in the New Era".This has always been our number one project, I put it last for emphasis. In recent years, we have followed the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in the curriculum, teaching materials, and minds, deepened the construction of a large practical education classroom for the great changes in the new era, coordinated curriculum materials, practical education, and teacher team development. We have completed the full coverage of the independent knowledge system of philosophy and social sciences in 29 first-level disciplines, and served as a support for moral education. All localities are actively exploring the construction brand of "big ideological and political courses" to form students' logical thinking and overall value judgment from the inside out. The vast majority of students showed a spirit of love for the party and country, vigorousness, self-confidence and self-improvement. Next, we will implement the "New Era Morality and Talent Development Project" with high quality, and promote the construction of the Party's innovative theoretical main classroom, practical education large classroom, and online education new classroom. We will adhere to the integration of large, medium and small schools, and the collaboration between schools, families, and society to drive the integration of knowledge and practice. The teaching team and social forces will effectively coordinate to continue to shape a new pattern of soul-building education, so that the younger generation of students will have more confidence and strength to devote themselves to the great cause of building a strong country and rejuvenating the nation.

We know that the "15th Five-Year Plan" period is a critical period for basically realizing socialist modernization, laying a solid foundation, and making full efforts. In the next step, we will vigorously promote the transformation of colleges and universities from focusing on subject development to serving the national mission, deeply integrating into the overall development of national modernization, increasing effectiveness through hard work, overcoming difficulties, advancing the construction of an educational power, and providing a solid foundation of educational science and technology talents for Chinese-style modernization!

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