The Ministry of Education and four other state agencies have co-released an Action Plan for Revitalizing Teacher Education (2018-2022). According to the Plan, high-level specialized teacher training colleges offering teacher training majors will be established over the next five years, creating a comprehensive teacher education and training system and laying solid foundations for the sustainable development of China’s teacher education in the long term. By 2022, moral training of teachers will be reinforced, while efforts will be made to improve the content and form of teacher education and training, the overall quality of teacher performance, professionalism and innovative capacity, with a view to constituting a rich pool of talent to support better quality and fairer education.

Targeted at revitalizing teacher education, the Plan identifies ten major actions: reinforcing moral training of teachers, increasing the proportion of teachers with higher degrees, promoting professional competence among rural teachers, improving the quality of candidates for teacher training colleges, innovating through Internet+ teacher education, developing teacher educational reform pilot zones, building a high-level teacher education base, optimizing trainer resources for teacher training, expanding teacher education disciplines and majors, and strengthening quality assurance systems for teacher education.