Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
Hello, welcome to Roundtable, where we serve up piping hot debates on the issues that sizzle in China and beyond.
I'm Niu Henglin. Education in China has come a long way.
Once upon a time, students copied their exercise books by hand, and now they carry AI -powered tablets to the classrooms.
But despite all this progress, there's always room for improvement.
How do we balance tradition and innovation?
How do we make education accessible and effective for all?
Today, as educators from all around the country share their insights during China's two sessions, we are trying to break it down as well with the help of our expert guests.
So grab your metaphorical skill bag and let's get started.
As China's two sessions unfold, policymakers, educators and experts are gathered to discuss the future of education, among other topics.
From major reforms to small but crucial changes, what's being discussed?
And what does it mean for students, teachers and the society?
To answer these big questions, today I've got two awesome guests.
Let's welcome Professor Zhou Mingming, Associate Dean in Faculty of Education at University of Macau, Hello, Professor.
Hi, everyone. Great to have you back.
Previously, we've had Professor Zhou Mingming in another education -related topic, and she is being the expert answering all the questions.
So I think you're quite the perfect guest for today's discussion.
Very happy to have you on the show.
Thank you for the invitation.
And also, our very own Yushan, who's been covering this year's two sessions.
Welcome, Yushan. Thank you, Hong Lin.
Have you been talking to some interesting people in the education sector these days?
Oh, wow, like so many of them.
I really appreciate this chance that I get to really speak to these people who are from the grassroots level.
But in the meantime, they represent the folks around them and they actually have this person to person connection with not only their students, but also other fellow grassroots teachers around them.
And so, yeah, I look forward to sharing a bit more about their stories later on.
Great. Because every year during the two sessions period of time, actually education has always been a major topic with policymakers and educators debating how to improve learning across the country.
And here's kind of or part of the reasons.
China's literacy rate has risen from 65 percent in the 1980s to over 97 percent today.
It is a remarkable achievement, but with new challenges in rural education, with new development and new developing strategies in vocational training, and of course, with the environment like today with the global competitiveness being one of the focuses in the education sector, actually, we want to talk about what comes next.
But before getting into what comes next, let's do a little of a reality check.
Let's see what are some key milestones in the development of China's education system over the past few years.
Speaking of the milestones in the development of Chinese education system, I have mentioned about this double reduction policy, which was issued in the year 2021.
The Chinese government has proposed such a strategy with the aim to lessen the weight of excessive homework and off -campus tutoring for mainly primary and secondary students.
And this policy has laid a quite hard restriction on the decentralization and the capitalized operation of the education system.
So it is a big milestone for Chinese education system in the past few years.
And also, the educational industry in China has also received a growth out, especially for those privately owned organizations and tutoring training institutions focusing on partnering and secondary school students.
And during this period of time, one of the significant changes in the Chinese education system was the decentralization of educational management.
By this, I mean the government has sort of shifted the responsibility for education from the central government to local authorities.
I believe this gives the local authorities quite a bit of autonomy and flexibility in managing their local education systems and mechanisms.
And this would allow for greater diversity and possibly experimentation in education, because they are able to cater the needs.
of the local schools and students.
So this would be able to make them do a back -end job.
I think those are some really important points.
And previously, when I was doing research about today's show, I checked out the 10 most important news for 2024 in the education sector.
And one of the news was actually saying that policies were enacted to protect students' break time, including listing the minus of students 10 minute breaks in between classes as a violation under regulatory guidelines, meaning that you cannot take that away from students.
You cannot say, let's use this 10 minutes to do a little bit of listening exercise instead of having you go out and break a little bit.
You cannot do that anymore.
And I think that is part of the strategies that you mentioned.
And it is being more and more stressed to focus on the overall development of students instead of only the academic performances of students.
So apparently, I do agree with you, this is one of a very important milestone when it comes to the past few years.
And actually, I think one interesting thing about China's development, not only development in education sector, for those of you who are not that familiar with how we develop here in this country, is that we have five -year plans.
That is kind of a system that is every five years, we would have an overall goal in each and every sectors in the development area in the country.
We set goals, we have a blueprint of how we get there, a roadmap, if you say.
And also, we check all the little goals in the five years and see whether or not we're there.
So for the past five years, what are some other major achievements Or what are some other major change of direction or innovation strategies you've noticed?
I think, not speaking really back to the past five years, but more like a recent one to two years observation from my side, there's been so many different, you know, adding and erasing of higher education majors that's happening continuously in Chinese higher education systems as well.
And that aim is to guide the development of a high quality education system over not only the past few years, but most importantly, the next few years in order to enhance the general educational quality.
And that spans across all different aspects, including the higher education and also vocational school development as well as.
So that aim is to guide the development of a high quality education system.
And in 2024 alone, China added 1 ,673 undergraduate programs that's urgently needed for national strategies.
And also in the meantime, we removed 1 ,670 that do not align with economic and social development.
And in the meantime, there are also majors added for encouraging regional development, such as the soft matter science and engineering major.
and another one I find quite interesting called Intelligent Maritime Equipment Measure that's added in South China University of Technology in South China's Guangdong province.
So this is all of an endeavor in order to support China's strategic industries and also the development of high -tech industries in the Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, Greater Bay Area as well.
So all of this is, you know, showing evidence that we are trying to, you know, boost the educational system regionally or nationwide in order to better for the economy and the general development of our society as well.
Well, yeah, for more than 10 consecutive years, the country's financial investment indication has accounted for not less than 4 % of GDP.
And all of the country's 2 ,895 county -level administrative units have achieved a basic balance in compulsory education with the initial realization of integrated urban and rural development.
And I think these figures speak for themselves.
When it comes to the development of education sector, we have put in a lot of effort.
But education sector sounds like a really big word.
It has a lot of different areas, different sub -themes, for sure.
We are talking about child care in the preschool sector.
That's one very important factor.
We think about compulsory education in the first several grades.
And also then there's higher education.
We talk about communication and also cooperation in, especially with overseas and global institutions when it comes to higher education.
And besides this, there's also vocational education.
There's also the kind of cultural element that you want kids to know a little bit about, but they do not fall into any of those we've already mentioned.
So maybe we can be a little bit more focused in the following discussion, which is why I'm asking specifically, how has China successfully expanded access to education, particularly in the rural area?
Because when it comes to accessibility, when it comes to giving people the kind of fair opportunities to have access to education, we do want to look more into the less developed areas and in China, especially in rural areas.
Yeah, we know that the focus on rural education, when we talk about it in the modern Chinese context, that actually began in the early 20th century with systematic research on rural education emerging in around the 1920s and 1930s.
And over time, it has now become an integral part of the rural revitalization framework.
And especially in recent years, the government has been making substantial investments and subsidies given to rural schools, enabling a bigger or wider coverage of public boarding schools in many remote mountainous areas as well.
And I was so honored to be able to speak to one of such teachers from the rural school who is from central China's Hunan province in the city of Changde.
And she teaches in a small village school where this teacher, let's call her Miss Ma.
So Ma, she has to teach English and music, dancing and various other subjects all on her own.
And according to her, she's been working in this field for 10 years.
So in the past decade, she's been witnessing a lot of changes around her in that very small school that she's been, you know, rooting at.
So she's seen how China has been prioritizing rural education with increasing fund.
And one example she mentioned, which I felt so shocked when I first heard it was that 10 years ago, her students used to just play around on cinder tracks.
I'm not sure if you guys had heard this term before.
but it's more like a dusty road where kids play around and they didn't really have the idea of PE class or physical education class back then, but it's just some playtime facility for the kids back in 10 years ago.
But nowadays, it's all spacious and rubber tracks that's been upgraded in around past two to three years.
So for them, for the kids there and for the teachers there, This is one of the major upgrades for their school equipments and facility as well.
And another thing is that all of those rural teachers, they used to joke about how they can wield a chalk on the blackboard and win the heart of all students back in the days.
But nowadays, each and every one of their classroom is now equipped with, they call it the smart whiteboard.
So it's more or less like what it's like in, say, primary school or secondary schools in cities nowadays.
There's like screens and also computer connected to the blackboard and, you know, all the more digitalized equipments that's also been equipped, equipments that's also been, you know, upgraded to their classrooms as well.
So all of these are details that I heard from a teaching staff of a rural school who's been, you know, staying there for the past 10 years and noticing how things have been changing.
And also she mentioned how the teaching staff is increased and enhanced over the years as well.
So now she doesn't have to teach nearly all subjects all on her own.
And they have more specific teachers, like one teacher just teaching math or one teacher just for music class as well.
So, yeah, all of such are the particular impressive examples that I heard from Ms. Ma, who is also an MPC deputy for this year's two sessions as well.
Yeah, it's quite true that we have seen more and more young people have logged to those less devout regions in China to start their own careers in those villages or even grassroots communities.
This actually makes this group of young people a new workforce in the rural, I would say, vitalization process.
Actually, I want to mention a very good move by the government back in the year 2021, China has already started to recruit over 80 ,000 college graduates as teachers in those rural primary and secondary schools.
So actually this program was expected to enhance the teaching capacity of some weak subjects as Yishan mentioned just now in rural schools, not just in math and Chinese, but also in arts, pe, foreign languages, and even information technology.
Yes, and I think it's all connected.
If we think about it 10 years ago, 20 years ago, you think about a rural school, it's hard to imagine that they're all hooked up with electricity and the internet.
But it's because of the development of the country.
It's because now each and every village is on the internet, wireless or wireful.
I guess it's not a word, but you know what I mean.
And with that infrastructure in place, we would be able to, we are able to give the students the kind of facilities.
And now we move on to how to encourage more and better teachers in these places, how to give them access to teaching resources in the sense that maybe they do not need to have a physical teacher standing in the classroom teaching them.
They can start with these kind of infrastructure, they can have online courses, they can enjoy the kind of classes that great teachers in maybe mega cities in Beijing and Shanghai, with the help of internet.
So that's all moving process.
But since we are talking about different aspects of education, I think another very interesting and important aspect is that if I'm a really good student, I am from the rural area, and I've completed my middle school, high school, I get into a great college.
And now I want to know how do China's higher education institutions rank globally?
Are they doing well?
If I'm entering one of the great universities in China, is it okay for me to say, ah, I'm safe, I would be competitive globally as well?
Well, whenever I talk about this, I became very excited.
Because if you see the most recent world university rankings, it shows clearly that China's best institutions are inching closer than ever to enter in even the top 10.
And China now has 13 institutions in the top 200 worldwide.
And even think about 2020, there were only seven.
So each of them actually improved their ranking a lot in this worldwide assessment of higher education institutions.
But I think actually the question is never, will Chinese universities crack the top 10 in the list, but rather a question of when.
So we are very confident and optimistic when seeing the days coming very soon.
And I would say the big improvements in Chinese universities' global ranking can be associated with, for example, our increased familiarity with the ranking metrics and the government's quite generous funding to develop in the education sector and also the sector's commitment to internationalization and also all kinds of educational reforms and research innovation.
So the country's huge investment in raising low quality of higher education does support this shift towards a more innovation -driven economy.
Oh, good time to be a student here in China.
I wish I'm 20 years younger.
Then I'll be able to, well, I'm not really sure of that.
But if I work hard enough, I might be able to get into one of the best universities here in China.
And also, I think as of 2024, China topped the list with 225 out of 1000 universities in the 2023 academic ranking of World University.
So yes, Professor Zhou talked about the within the top 200.
And if you're not that ambitious and you just, you know, do not want or everybody wants to, but do not have the ability to get into the very top out of the top.
Still, there are 200, more than 200 out of the top 1 ,000 around the world.
That's still quite nice.
And people are different.
For some people, academic world is the ultimate goal, is the dream.
But for some others, they want to get their hands dirty in some real world projects.
They want to build maybe the next super AI, which can be one of the topics in higher education for sure.
But it can also fall into the category of vocational education.
So how did the rise of China's vocational education system contribute to the economic growth, particularly during the periods of industrialization?
Are we doing well in the vocational sector?
Well, previously, when we talk about vocational education, We think about, well, at least from my personal view, I was educated in a way that I believe if I cannot get to a high school that's good enough or fits my dream or say educational journey I would like for myself, or if I cannot get to an ideal university, then I'll turn my attention to vocational school and see if I can grab a skill.
And, you know, it's the second best choice.
Yeah, it's the second best choice indeed.
But nowadays, we see how the educational authorities here in China, they're trying to redirect some of the groups of students in secondary schools and in high schools as well before they enter the Zhongkao and the Gaokao.
So the high school and the college entrance examinations.
These group of students, once they made up their mind, they can already choose to join very professional vocational schools at an earlier age so that they can have an earlier career path.
if not a better career path at an early age.
So in general, we see China's vocational education system, it already has played a pivotal role in the country's economic growth, especially during the periods of, like you mentioned, Honglin, the rapid industrialization.
It has substantially contributed to, most importantly, employment, and provides talents for manufacturing sectors, the industrialization sectors that are the basics for today's economy.
And by aligning educational programs with the evolving needs of the economy, I think our country has now effectively cultivated a skilled workforce that meets the demand of its industrial sectors.
So over the years, according to my research, the government has been consistently prioritizing vocational education in our development strategies.
So ever since 2012, reforms have been implemented to modernize the vocational education system.
And also a 2018 survey revealed in an article from the World Bank Group indicated that more than 90 % of Chinese technical and vocational education and training graduates, they are able to find gainful employment within six months of graduation.
So that's quite impressive, even on the global scale as well.
And also this year, I had the honor of speaking to such a teacher that comes from that works in the vocational education system.
Let's call him Mr. Yang now.
So Mr. Yang, he is from South China's Guangdong province, and he works in a local vocational school.
And he's been working there for seven years and guys guess how old he is he's been working for seven years as a teacher 35 as a matter of fact he is almost around my age if not younger than me he is we say post 95 i think he was born in 1997 or 1998 so around the gen z's age wow has already been working as a vocational school teacher for seven years, ever since 2017.
So according to Mr. Yang, this very young teacher and very talented person, he said the school he's working for has been in close contact with their local state -owned businesses and private -run businesses in Guangdong province.
And what they do is, the leaders in the school, they will have meetings and walk into the factories or manufacturing centers of such companies and enterprises and actually see what types of works or rather what types of workers are needed and how many workers are needed for this year.
And according to such plans, all the different vocational schools locally, they'll start to make further plans for their future graduates like who can be promoted to which role or who can be assigned to which company.
so in that way it's more of a practical and very down -to -earth in method to ensure employment for their vocational school graduates so for me I feel like if you know we had the honor of having such say guarantee of a job kind of mechanism upon our graduation I would have you know given up feeling so anxious years before you know we all have been through that stage of oh my gosh I graduate with a, let's say, bachelor's degree?
What can I do? Because nowadays, there are so many people that shares the same experience, educational experience and have the same degree of education as I do.
So what can I choose?
And nowadays, we see how our vocational school system is there trying to secure a job for you.
So that's quite impressive after I had this chat with Mr. Yang.
Yes, and I think we've covered the past and present.
So now I think it's time to talk about the ongoing two sessions.
Because during the two sessions, education leaders are definitely discussing ways to innovate and improve schools across China.
But behind the policy talks are real people like the rural teacher Yushan has talked to, like the vocational education sector expert she has invited and interviewed.
And of course, someone like Professor Zhou Mingming, who's been working in education sector for so long time, you've been teaching students, you've been teaching teachers, you've been teaching students who are going to be teachers, you know, that's, that is actually the brakes of the huge structure we have in the education sector.
So I was wondering for this year's two sessions, there must be many interesting suggestions and proposals and interesting issues being discussed.
For you, Professor, what caught your eyes the most?
Which topic do you think is the most interesting?
Without a doubt, it's going to be technological innovation, which is a key focus during these years' two sessions, especially the AI industry, which is very likely to take a center stage during this discussion.
But actually, in fact, AI has already emerged as one of the hottest topics in many of these years' two sessions at the level of promises.
So beyond infrastructure, China's AI initiatives tend to focus on empowering key industries, such as agriculture, manufacturing, health care, and education.
So I'm very much looking forward to hearing more from the conferences and discussions in terms of how to empower our school teachers and school leaders in integrating AI into their daily classroom teaching and school management.
Because nowadays, people talk about it, but in terms of how to really use it to meet my purpose, to meet the needs of my students is another thing that requires a lot of preparation, instruction, practice, and education.
I'm actually curious, how much technical improvement or how much high tech are you integrating in your everyday teaching?
Because actually, back in 2003, the internet connectivity in China has achieved 100 % across all levels.
We talked about that during our discussion about the education access in rural areas.
And also over third, fourth of schools have implemented wireless network coverage, and 99 .5 % of schools are equipped with multimedia classrooms.
Yushan has also mentioned in rural areas, instead of the dusty traditional blackboard, we are now looking at screen kind of whiteboard that are much cleaner and much more intelligent.
So for you, as someone who's working in such a great university, how are you integrating these kind of technologies in your daily teaching and study?
Well, if we talk about higher education, then the scholars and researchers, when they teach students with the aim of integrating AI into the daily teaching, well, most of the time, the technology was used as a facilitation tool.
For example, they could provide real -time feedback for students' responses to the professor's questions.
So by doing this, the professors would immediately know about the understanding level of the students and whether they should move on or they should come a little bit more to further discuss about the topics and the discussion.
But if we talk about primary and secondary school education, the pictures could be different.
I want to share a few examples that Min Lin I read from the news.
For example, there is a quite famous school in Tianjin, which is one of the pioneers in the city to incorporate AI into their classroom teaching.
And before each class, they have this in -class AI assistant who can review the key points from the previous day and assess students' English reading.
And also PE teachers in that school use robots to provide real -time feedback and assistance in refining students, say, middle distance running techniques.
So again, teachers could apply those technologies very creatively.
So the key is still not on the technology, but on the people who use the technology.
I totally agree with you.
That is definitely the point.
AI is here to help us, not to replace us.
So how about you, Yushan?
What do you think is a very interesting topic for you this year?
I mean, my observation is a bit different from Professor Zhou's.
It's more on the students' side.
So I've been interviewing quite a few of National People's Congress deputies, but also members from the CPPC as well.
And based on my, say, area of observation, is of a slightly different direction.
It's more on, say, on the students part, because after speaking with several MPC deputies and CPPCC members, I realized that nowadays, there are more and more of such grassroots representatives of the local people of all around China, more and more of them are starting to voice for, say, a more holistic and long term development of their students of various age, whether it's primary school or secondary school, or even in higher education in universities and yeah, for their long -term development as a whole and self -fulfilled person.
They talk about the meaning of education beyond just within the classrooms and, you know, as well as the content that that's being taught, but rather on how to educate more healthy students or more healthy kids ever since they're younger.
Take Ms. Ma, the rural teacher, as an example.
One of her suggestions, major suggestions this year is to suggest to build, say, a psychological or rather a mental health archive for each and every students in the Chinese primary and secondary schools.
Because nowadays, we see a lot of nationwide survey and data showing that some said 17 .5 % of our children and our youth nowadays experience mental disorders with indications that these issues are emerging at increasingly younger ages.
That's also what Ms. Ma told me as well.
She used to thought, you know, in rural areas, the kids there are, they tend to be more naive and simple because they are a bit further away from temptations from online, social media, and the, you know, the internet era.
But starting from recent years, she starts to notice her students being, you know, addicted with their phones and start to, you know, resist their parents' teaching, especially when their parents try to take away their phones, stuff like that.
So yeah, nowadays, there's been, according to her, a lack of continuous attention on the students' mental health, comparing with their academic achievements.
So for her and for many other MPC deputies that I've, you know, read about and spoken to, they care about how to, you know, establish this more holistic system for not only school education, but also family to school to community cooperation education system that's, you know, covering the primary and middle school nationwide, that aims to promote the healthier and happier development for their students?
It's definitely very important.
Actually, recently, a new paper has been published.
It is called The Outline of the Plan for the Construction of a Stronger Education State, 2024 to 2035.
It's based on the modernization of China's education 2035.
The paper puts forward more specific and in -depth implementation strategies, And that is giving top priority to caring for the physical and mental health of students.
And we are talking about the physical side, which is what we have already discussed a little bit before, that is to make sure that we do not misuse the 10 minute breaks between classes, allowing kids to go outside having enough outdoor time.
And when it comes to the mental side, I think it needs to be done more carefully and more specifically like in rural areas?
What are the main challenges in the more relatively more developed places where internet is just really close to get?
It's just a way a finger click away, which is even harder to quote unquote, for parents to take away.
What should we do? So all these aspects, what about for higher education for university students?
Should we put a lot of care on them too?
Or are they mature enough to take care of themselves?
Well, people tend to think they are adults, they should be able to manage their own life more flexibly and capably.
But in fact, unfortunately, this is not the case, they have their own troubles and have things to struggle with.
And in our university, we have a counseling center, which is frequently visited by a lot of students, not just from Macau, but also from mainland or those international students.
So we are faced with similar problems.
But I have to say this is actually posing a quite serious public health threat to the entire country because those problems among children and adolescents or even emerging adults can lead to future problems in their lives relating to work, family, and individual safety, But there is one thing, one point I want to add, is that while we have seen quite a lot of regulations and laws in recent years regarding the mental health problems in Chinese children and adolescents, they are heading in the right direction.
but if you read deeply, they are more geared towards providing services to those students who are already suffering from mental health issues instead of directly raising awareness and preventing such issues from arising in the first place.
So in education, we always believe that prevention is better than intervention.
So if we could do something to prevent it from happening, that is something we need to think about in the first step.
Give them access to professional help if they need it.
So better safe than sorry, if we put it really, really simple.
And I have to share one thing that I am particularly interested in when it comes to the education sector in this year's two sessions.
That is, people are talking about the integration of education and enterprises, Yushan has touched upon it.
And I noticed this news that 2024 September, actually, the Ministry of Education in Jiangsu province officially launched the National University Regional Technology Transfer Center.
And this marks the beginning of a new era in university research commercialization, establishing a regional hub -centered system with National University Science Parks as key notes, which means that the research results coming out very freshly from the labs of the universities are coming into play in the industry development.
We see more and more industry -driven approach in the development of universities plus the actual companies.
And I do think that is one very interesting topic that definitely will be discussed during this year's two sessions.
and we've already touched a bit upon this issue that is the next question i want to ask that is what are the key challenges we still face or we might want to address particularly in terms of quality and also access to of china's education system because like professor joe has said it's better to think about it's better to prevent than intervene when it comes to a problem so So since we are discussing the future development direction of education sector, what do you think are some key issues, are some key challenges that we still face that we need to pay attention to?
Well, just now we touched upon the discussion about the vocational education in China.
And I think the biggest or one of the biggest challenges facing vocational education system in China is the social perception of this vocational education.
So this social perception needs to be changed and even to be improved because it's generally viewed as something inferior to general education.
But yeah, this is not really unique to China, but also in some other countries, academic higher education is always considered to be more prestigious or valuable than vocational pathways.
and the traditional Confucian view of education also put a lot of focus primarily on academic stuff not really on something practical that's something we can apply and in China's case a lot of students would choose to go to a vocational education because they are not excelling academically so people would tend to think because you are not academically strong then you have no chance to go into those good universities which are more academic, then it seems like technical or vocational education is their primary option.
But this all comes down to this misconception of vocational education.
But this poor reputation in China actually contributes to talent shortages in technical vocations and professions.
And this is what our country is in great need at this moment.
So a lot of students try to avoid pursuing vocational education because of these social norms or expectations, but if we can introduce these degrees in those academic universities, so -called, So, you are not really going to some vocational college, but even in those research or academic -oriented universities, they could also open up some programs offering these practical or professionally related degrees.
So, in that sense, they could address such a critical issue and improve our parents' and students' perceptions of this vocational education.
So yeah, they've been trying to figure out ways to try to make up to this shortage of talents as well.
And I believe our country has been, you know, working hard to try to make up to the gap between rural and urban education as well.
So I read about a news last year that's quite encouraging.
So in 2024, China was to recruit 37 ,000 college graduates to teach in rural areas.
And this recruitment is under a special education program launched by the government back in 2006.
So this program in general aims to help bridge the educational gap between rural and urban areas by, you know, just recruiting thousands of teachers with college degrees to work in rural areas and teach what they were taught to teach.
That's something that our country has been working on, and particularly in economically disadvantaged regions in central and western China.
So one thing that I noticed that's very interesting is that this recruitment back in 2024 also prioritized subjects that's short of qualified teachers, especially in the rural areas.
And that include physical education, English, science, arts, and also psychology, as we mentioned.
Yes, that's totally true.
when it comes to anything.
No matter what kind of area are we talking about, the core issue is always the issue with talent, with people.
Now, by the end of 2023, the total number of full -time educators across all educational levels in China reached around 18 .9 million.
That is already an increase of 19 times compared to 1949 if we take back time really, really far.
And also, if we break down the teachers by education level, preschool education, we see over 3 million teachers.
Compulsor education, we see almost 11 million teachers.
High school education, 2 .9 million teachers.
And higher education, that's 2 .07 million teachers.
For any of you who are not living in China, you would think those numbers are huge, huge numbers already.
and the short of teachers in different sectors in different areas is a issue faced by not only China, but a lot of different countries, a lot of countries around the world as well.
So how can we improve the numbers of teachers?
How can we improve the conditions of teachers?
How can we give them better help, better support so that they can work not only in the areas they want to work in, but also teaching the subject they want and also doing academic research while they're teaching these are all very important issue and i was wondering uh professor joe any suggestions to not solve maybe but to improve the situation that we just discussed well actually if we see the gap um between different areas and the uneven distribution of educational resources across china But one thing, one key thing I would say is about the building up a strong teaching key to sustain and keep
strengthening the teaching professionality.
Because even though in traditional cases of classrooms, if you have a great teacher who can make commitment to teaching with a caring heart to students, then the students will also receive a lot of benefits from being educated.
so even we are now living in this high -tech world a lot of people are pinning their hope on developing all kinds of technology to improve education my point of view is always back to the people so it's all about teachers and students and the leaders in school and parents corporation so with the technology we can do a better job but when your promises here or the assumption here is that everybody is doing the job in a professional way.
So we have to make sure we build up the capacity of teachers in this case.
So if they are working in those disadvantaged areas, then we have to make sure they receive sufficient care and benefits so they do not have any other financial burdens or any other worries so they can make full commitment to what they're doing.
So it's all for the sake of the children and adolescents.
I think that's the main responsibility of teachers or, let's say, educators in general.
And one thing I can think of is to have really good role models.
That is one way. I'm not entirely joking, but the reason I'm mentioning this is because last year actually marks the 40th Teacher's Day here in China.
And the Ministry of Education organized a recognition event honoring 2 ,375 outstanding educators across five categories.
And also we have special awards to one role model of the Times, 12 National Assembly educators, 10 Most Beautiful Teachers, and 1 Most Beautiful Teacher group.
So these groups of people and these educators are definitely getting the honor because they've been doing something right.
and they are not only contributing to the education sector to their students, but they're also engaging in helping people here in this country know where to go when it comes to the development of education.
I think who Yushan have interviewed are also these kind of people.
They teach, they work in these different sectors, and then when it comes to the two sessions, these important meetings, they also come out and give their suggestions and take their very important firsthand insights from where they teach, from the relatively less developed areas to the center of the country and to help policymakers make better decisions.
I was actually curious, for example, for you, Professor Zhou, because two sessions happen every year?
We discuss, we plan out a roadmap, think about where to go, and we roll out some papers with some directives or with some suggestions or with simply some articles.
Does it really help for you as an educator?
Does it really help you to better do your job?
Does it create a better environment for you?
Or do you think these kind of political gatherings matter?
Well, I would say absolutely.
They do not really give us very specific action plans.
Those government guidelines, even though they do not specify a very detailed action plan, but at least they guide all educators in the right direction.
So we know where we are heading towards.
So that is important because every teacher has his or her own idea of how to be a good teacher.
But then in terms of the, let's say, overall development of students, and especially in the ever -changing society and the world, then what are the things that have the top priority?
And that information would definitely come from the governments or national policies or regulations.
And then, because they have a quite broad view of all the issues that has been happening across the country.
So for individual teachers, we do not have this access.
So we rely on this information so to get a better understanding or idea of what is going on right now in the whole world.
So from there, we can further design any specific plans so we can better interact and teach our teachers so that they can meet the needs of the developing society and the country.
Let's say because now you're not an MPC member just yet.
You might be someday.
I don't know. But let's say you are.
Is there a suggestion you want to raise for this year?
Well, I do. I do have some personal suggestions.
One suggestion would be about this.
I think Youshen just mentioned and we discussed a little bit.
It's about this mental issue of the young group.
I think the government has already been aware of these issues for quite a long time.
But then the question comes down to why it's still happening.
So now if you think about the life standard, it's much higher than before.
And we always say or hear people saying, now you are living a black life.
Then what else do you need?
But then that is the critical question.
Their psychological needs need to be met.
But then this may be something not really can be taught in the classroom, but through daily conversations and actions.
And so the country has been working quite hard to issue all those policies and regulations and laws trying to protect our kids from suffering from those mental or physiological psychological issues.
But the thing is the overall environment nowadays in China especially in Indonesia is still quite harsh for those primary ministerial school students.
They have to go through this very difficult and highly highly competitive route to get into a higher education.
So that is something that we may need to sit down and what to think about.
So this is the current situation but what else can we do while keeping the quality of education and the purpose of selecting the talented young people, but what about the other ones?
So, those ones, they are going to make contributions to the society as well.
So, they are nothing inferior to those who are admitted by the good universities.
So, it is about the social norms and expectations and how we can provide opportunities and access for those who help young people so they can find their own career and pathways to realize their own dreams in their life.
I think that's something I personally very care about.
Education is not only about selecting the talent, but also about having everyone living the life, the best life that they can.
From past achievements to present challenges and future ambitions, China's education sector remains a hot topic at the two sessions and beyond.
The journey of reform is ongoing and the ideas being discussed today could shape the classrooms of tomorrow.
The key question is, how do we turn these discussions into real, lasting change?
And Roundtable is always here to observe and report.
Thanks again to Professor Zhou Mingming, Associate Dean in Faculty of Education at University of Macau.
And keep up the good work, Yuxian.
I'm looking forward to listening to more firsthand fascinating stories you bring about the 2025 two sessions.
Thank you both. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Hong Lin.
We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's topic as well.
Leave us a comment wherever you listen to your podcast or send us an email to roundtablepodcast at qq .com.
Until next time, keep the conversations going and the ideas flowing.
Thanks for listening.
Bye -bye.
