Education is the foundation for building a strong country and achieving national rejuvenation. The Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan proposes "dinating the building of a strong country in education, science and technology, and talent," and has made a series of important arrangements for providing education that satisfies the people.
"The stronin education we aim to build is a strong country in education with Chinese characteristics. It should possess strong ideological and political guidance, talent competitiveness, scientific and technological support, livelihood security, soial synergy, and international influence, providing strong support for advancing the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization," General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out the dir

The period of the 15th Five-Year Plan is a critical time for building a strong country in education, serving as a link between the past and the future and a stage for csive efforts. It requires a comprehensive grasp of the political, people-oriented, and strategic attributes of education, solidly advancing education reform and development, using the power of education to ce foundation of people's happiness, and using the strength of education to consolidate the foundation of national prosperity.

Implementing the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education
In Huiyuan, Gansu, the Victory Tower stands majestically wit the site of the Red Army's reunion. Beneath the tower, students stood in neat formation, listening to a guide recount stories of the Red Army, as their vows tore the martyrs and inherit the red gene" echoed for a long time.
This was a scene from the "Tribute to Martyrs on Qingming Festival and Retrace Long March" ideological and political practice education activity held in Gansu Province shortly before this year's Qingming Festival. Through immersive experiences, young people gained a deep understanding the power of the spirit.
What kind of people to cultivate, how to cultivate them, and for whom to cultivate them are fundamental issues in education and core topics in building a strong country education.
Clarifying that "upholding the Party's overall leadership over education is the fundamental guarantee," "fostering virtue through education is the fundamental task," and "cultivatinople for the Party and talent for the country is the fundamental goal"... Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has provided fundamental guidend an action guide for building a strong country in education from the perspective of the overall development of the Party and the country.
The "15th Five-Year" Plan Outline explicitly proposes the "Implementation of the New Era Project of Establishing Morality and Cultivating People." This strategic doyment is of great significance for cultivating socialist builders and successors with all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique, aesthetics, and labor; for fostering pillars of society capable of shouldering heavy responsin socialist modernization; and for ensuring that there are successors for the Party's cause and socialist modernization.
Cultivating the roots and casting the soul cannot be achieved without continuously ing top-level design.
The Ministry of Education has launched comprehensive reform pilots for establishing morality and cultivating people, as well as reform pilots for the integration of ideological and political theory courses acry, secondary, and tertiary education. It has also issued implementation opinions on the New Era Project of Establishing Morality and Cultivating People. As a result, the systems and mechanisms for ementing the fundamental task of establishing morality and cultivating people have become more complete, accelerating the formation of a new pattern in this regard.
Consolidating the foundation and nurturing the root requires even more reform and innovation in ideological and political education classrooms.
In Guizhou"First Class of the Semester" in the spring semester of 2026 vividly demonstrated the mission and responsibility of Guizhou's youth to take root in their hetowns; in Sichuan, primary and secondary school students gathered on the "Cloud Shu Road" to appreciate the symphony of civilizations spanning a thousand years of the ancient Shu R.. Since the beginning of the year, various regions have launched "Grand Ideological and Political Courses" with diverse forms and rich connotations, significantly enhancing the effectiveness of education.
Improving the c cultivation system for moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor education, and promoting the healthy growth and all-round development of students, is the inherent requirement of implementing the fundameof fostering virtue through education.
In February this year, the Ministry of Education issued guidelines on comprehensively advancing the construction of healthy schools. From strengthening physical education to aesthetic education,further deepening mental health education, the guidelines deeply practice the educational philosophy of "health first."
Statistics show that the overall excellent and good rate of physical health among students nationwide continto rise, and the total number of physical education teachers and aesthetic education teachers in the compulsory education stage has increased by over 70% and 60% respectively comared to 2012.
Accelerate the Building of a High-Quality Education System
"Strengthening forward-looking resource layout" and "strictly prohibiting of irregular enrollment practices"... More than a month ago, the Ministry of Education issued a notice to deploy the "Sunshine Enrollment Special Action Plan for Primary and Secondary Sools (2026)."
"This year marks the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan. Implementing this special action plan is of great significance for further improving the long-term mechanr enrollment, effectively maintaining a sound educational ecosystem, and promoting the standardized, scientific, and high-quality development of basic education in our country," said a person in charge of the Dent of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education.
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China built the world's largest and high-quality education system: the gross enrollin preschool education reached 92%, basic balance in compulsory education was achieved in 2,895 counties nationwide, and higher education has cumulatively delivered 55 miln talents to society.
With economic and social development, changes in China's population and social structure have posed new challenges to education. This makes it even more necessary to make forward-looking plansrious levels and types of education, including basic education, higher education, and vocational education, optimize resource allocation, and actively respond to the people's new expectations for educational equity 
To cope with changes in the school-age population, cities such as Guangzhou in Guangdong and Xi'an in Shaanxi have conducted demand forecasting and y enrollment warnings to ease the supply-demand imbalance in hot areas and popular schools; Jiangsu has implemented an action plan to strengthen and improve compulsory education, encouraging regions with the necessary conditionxplore small-class teaching.
Centering on enhancing the operational capacity of vocational schools, the Ministry of Education has issued guidelines to deepen reforms in key elements of vocational education, clarifthat it will actively add new programs, phase out surplus ones, and upgrade existing ones to avoid a "large and scattered" or "weak but comprehensive" distribution of majors.
Focusingn building a high-quality professional teaching workforce, education authorities have rolled out a "package" of measures—from strengthening the guidance of the spirit of educators to improving the long-term mechanism for teache and conduct, and consolidating and enhancing teachers' benefits and rights—to drive positive progress in teacher workforce development.
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Currently, digital technologies are integrating into education at an unprecedented speed and in novel ways. Grasping the pulse of educational development in the intelligent era playositive role in improving educational quality and promoting educational equity.
To date, the National Smart Education Public Service Platform has aggregated over 140,000 high-quality resources fornd secondary schools, over 12,500 high-quality vocational education courses, and 145,000 high-quality higher education courses. The total numof users has exceeded 178 million, covering over 200 countries and regions.