BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- As millions of teachers across China celebrated Teachers' Day on Thursday, they received a familiar message of greetings from President Xi Jinping.
In a congratulatory message released a day earlier, Xi commended teachers nationwide for dedicating themselves to education, imparting knowledge and nurturing young minds, highlighting their significant contributions to the country's development.
He called on teachers to enhance their professional competence and capabilities, and foster a new generation of young people to shoulder the mission of realizing national rejuvenation.
Xi also called for greater respect for educators, stronger support for education, and concerted efforts to make China a leading country in education.
As an inspiring move, the central authorities on Thursday honored 25 teachers from across the country for their outstanding work.
RESPECT FOR TEACHERS
Grounded in the legacies of Confucius and Mencius, reverence for teachers has deep roots in Chinese culture and remains an important value in Chinese society today.
Xi himself has long held the teaching profession in high regard. He once invoked a well-known Chinese saying to capture the profession's significance: "A stick of chalk and a modest podium shape the fate of a nation."
In Xi's view, good educators are expected to possess ideals and convictions, moral integrity, knowledge and benevolence.
His bond with teachers was forged during his school years and has endured ever since.
On the eve of Teachers' Day in 2016, Xi returned to his alma mater, Beijing Bayi School. Seeing his former teachers again, he slowed his pace and held their hands firmly. When addressed as "leader," he demurred: "Here, there are no leaders. Everyone is a student."
Among the teachers was Chen Qiuying, Xi's Chinese teacher and a guide to the world of poetry during his teenage years. For decades thereafter, they remained in touch.
"He would often bring me books over the years," Chen recalled. "Some were his doctoral dissertation or his own works, while others introduced the places where he had recently taken up a new post. Sometimes, he would even send me a few bulbs of Fujian narcissus in the depths of winter."
Xi's respect for teachers goes beyond ceremonial recognition. He has repeatedly called for greater support for teachers, particularly those working in rural areas, by improving their pay, working conditions and social standing.
With his support, China issued a policy document dedicated to rural teachers and took actions to ensure that the average income of primary and secondary school teachers nationwide was on par with or higher than that of local civil servants.
MAKING TEACHERS AND EDUCATION A PRIORITY
From his grassroots posts to the nation's top leadership, Xi has consistently made teachers and education a governance priority.
He has visited schools and campuses to learn about teachers' work and living conditions, discussed education issues with national legislators and political advisors, and supported paired-assistance programs designed to improve education quality in less-developed regions.
For a vast and populous country facing uneven distribution of educational resources, Xi has stressed the need to further expand access to quality basic education and promote educational fairness, emphasizing education's role in promoting greater social equity.
In June 2024, Xi visited an ethnic middle school in Qinghai, a less-developed province in northwest China, where he encouraged teachers to help children grow and thrive.
Funded and supported by Shanghai, the school opened in 2019 to meet the pressing need for quality secondary education among children from pastoral communities on the plateau.
Zhou Quan, a Shanghai teacher who taught at the school through the paired-assistance program, was delighted to learn that many of his students there gained admission to leading universities upon graduation.
"Helping them build confidence, broaden their horizons and achieve their academic goals has been the most rewarding part of my career," said the chemistry teacher.
As AI reshapes education, Xi has emphasized the importance of advancing digital education to make quality educational resources more accessible to students, regardless of where they live.
Efforts to expand access to education have also benefited students with disabilities. In recent years, about 30,000 students with disabilities have entered higher education each year.
Xi has envisioned vocational education in China shifting gears to help more children fulfill their potential. The country now boasts the world's largest vocational education system, with more than 10 million annual graduates.
A little-known fact is that Xi also served as president of a vocational school in Fuzhou for six years in the 1990s, during his tenure as Party chief of the coastal city. He played an active role in the school's development, now known as Minjiang University, championing causes such as enrolling an armless student -- a pioneering move in Fujian Province at the time.
TOWARD A GLOBAL LEADER IN EDUCATION
China has set sights on becoming a global leader in education by 2035 -- an endeavor fueling its pursuit of modernization and national rejuvenation.
The country boasts the world's largest education system, with roughly 440,000 schools at all levels and of all types, 280 million students, and 18.7 million teachers.
China has made significant progress toward that goal. According to Education Minister Huai Jinpeng, the country's overall level of education modernization now ranks among the upper-middle tier globally. In basic education, coverage and key indicators had surpassed the average levels of upper-middle-income countries, with preschool and compulsory education reaching the average levels of high-income countries.
On the higher education front, 55 million graduates entered the workforce and broader society over the five years leading up to 2025. Meanwhile, vocational education supplied more than 70 percent of the newly added highly skilled workers for modern industries, helping support the country's comprehensive modern industrial system.
Xi regards strengthening the teaching workforce as the most important fundamental work for building China into a leading country in education.
To this end, China plans to launch a national initiative on teacher development, accompanied by integrated reforms in teacher preparation, professional development, management and support in the coming years.
The emphasis on teachers also reflects Xi's broader vision of education -- cultivating the talent needed to drive scientific and technological progress and strengthen the country's capacity for innovation.
In a reply letter in June 2024, he encouraged Andrew Chi-Chih Yao, a Turing Award laureate and professor at Tsinghua University, to explore new approaches to nurturing innovative talent, fostering interdisciplinary work and advancing frontier research.
"Today's students are the major driving force that will realize our great Chinese dream: the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," Xi once remarked. "Teachers are dream builders, undertaking their mission to forge a 'dream team.'" ■
SOURCE/AUTHOR : XIN HUA NEWS/HUAXIA
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