context: The National Smart Education Platform marked its fourth anniversary as the Ministry of Education transitions from 14th to 15th 5-year plan strategic deployment. The PRC positions education digitalisation as critical infrastructure supporting five major education nation-building tasks: implementing moral education, integrating education-technology-talent development, improving public education services, advancing teacher professional development and establishing globally influential centres. AI integration represents the strategic priority for the next phase.
MoE (Ministry of Education) convened the National Education Digitalisation Strategy Action 2026 deployment meeting, systematically reviewing 14th 5-year plan achievements and deploying 15th 5-year plan priorities.
Huai Jinpeng 怀进鹏 Minister of Education attended and delivered remarks. The meeting emphasised using AI as a key variable, taking AI+ education as the starting point to integrate AI into all elements, processes and scenarios of education, striving to create a new framework for National Education Digitalisation Strategy Action 2.0.
During the 14th 5-year plan, MoE launched the National Education Digitalisation Strategy Action, providing digital support for implementing moral education, advancing education-technology-talent integration, improving public services, promoting teacher development and building globally influential centres.
AI now brings systemic impacts on education's underlying logic, presents urgent demands for innovative talent cultivation and technology supply, creates opportunities for high-quality population development and raises challenges regarding values guidance and ethical safeguards.
Huai emphasised six priorities for the 15th 5-year plan
- deepen 'AI for School Education' by upgrading school education centres, supporting personalised learning and cultivating compound talent for AI-created positions
- deploy 'AI for Lifelong Education' by building lifelong learning centres connecting school, industry and social education, serving graduate employment and learning society construction
- advance 'AI for Technology Innovation' by establishing technology innovation centres gathering resources and serving commercialisation
- launch 'AI for International Exchange' through Chinese education centres expanding thePRC education's global influence
- upgrade 'AI for Teacher Development' centres assisting professional teacher growth
- deepen 'AI for Education Governance' by enhancing governance centres and public satisfaction
Huai required establishing and practicing correct performance perspectives, strengthening expectation management and promoting education digitalisation implementation with persistent spirit
- practical actions
- with top leaders personally directing efforts to the end, breaking departmental barriers, coordinating forces and precisely allocating resources
- detailed efforts
- using pilot entry points to solve major problems
- expand innovation more broadly
- from focusing on school education to constructing lifelong education systems serving all citizens, from supporting teaching to proactively serving national technology innovation strategy
- smoother machenism
- promoting work transformation from experience accumulation to standardised operation
- firm security
- safeguarding data security, strengthening personal information protection and ensuring AI+ education proceeds along healthy, orderly and controllable tracks