context: Huai Jinpeng 怀进鹏 Minister of Education spoke about 2025’s education focus at the first Ministers' Corridor group interview from the Two Sessions on 5 March. Invigorating the PRC through scitech and talent cultivation continue to be at the forefront of the 2025 Government Work Report, especially after the publishing of the Outline for building the PRC into a leading country in education in January.
Huai Jinpeng 怀进鹏 MoE (Ministry of Education) Minister stated that this year would see better acceleration of talent cultivation, including
- strengthen the strong foundation plan and continuing to increase the cultivation of talents in fundamental disciplines
- promote training in emerging and interdisciplinary fields, further leveraging the patterns of technological transformation and industrial reform to increase talent cultivation efforts in areas such as
- AI
- biotechnology
- new energy
- new materials
For higher education, MoE will
- continue to optimise existing disciplines
- moderately strengthening new disciplines
- steadily and solidly advance undergraduate expansion at ‘double first-class’ universities
- vigorously enhance vocational education
Huai believes DeepSeek and robotics represent significant opportunities for educational reform and development. He noted the PRC will release an AI education white paper this year. Huai believes that the surge of AI development in the PRC demonstrates the effectiveness of the PRC's scitech innovation and talent cultivation.
Every major scitech revolution and industrial transformation has presented particularly important demands on society, especially on education.
In terms of county-level high schools (which covers 60 percent of students) MoE will launch a national county high school revitalisation action plan in 2025
- making county schools a key breakthrough point toward high-quality and balanced education
- focusing on accelerating layout, improving teacher structure and leveraging the important role of county high schools in attracting and gathering talent
- enabling county high schools to better serve rural education students and establish the foundation for the entire education system
MoE will increase efforts to promote high-quality balanced educational development by establishing
- basic standards for high-quality balanced schools
- good boarding schools in certain regions
Current technological changes and social structural shifts present a rare opportunity for high-quality educational development. MoE will
- increase efforts to prioritise quality and balance in their education work
- significantly improve the education quality for children of migrant workers
Huai also reported that more than 20 provinces and cities have begun implementing 15-minute breaks between classes, laying a good foundation for the future through physical and mental health.