Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng made an inspection trip to the cities of Hotan, Urumqi, and Aral in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) from May 10–13. He visited a number of middle schools, vocational colleges and universities, where he held discussions with faculty members.
Huai emphasized the fundamental role of education in maintaining long-term social stability in Xinjiang. He stressed the need to implement the 2024–2035 Master Plan on Building China into a Leading Country in Education and its accompanying Three-Year Action Plan, along with deepening comprehensive educational reform by leveraging the Pairing Assistance Mechanism, so as to achieve high-quality development of education in the region.
Huai highlighted several major tasks for Xinjiang’s education sector in the next stage.
First, efforts need to be made to enhance moral education and promote the use of standard Chinese, so as to raise the awareness of national unity.
Second, higher education should be strengthened by pushing forward the development of the Xinjiang Advanced Research Institute, optimizing the distribution of higher education institutions in the region, exploring new AI-powered research paradigms, and facilitating the commercialization of research outcomes.
Third, public education needs to be improved through a variety of measures, e.g., enhancing resource allocation for basic education while taking demographic changes into account, promoting balanced and high-quality K–12 education, and boosting digital transformation of education.
Fourth, the integration of education and industry should be enhanced to build a modern vocational education system adapted to Xinjiang’s unique conditions.
Fifth, building on its unique location, Xinjiang should also increase educational cooperation with countries along the Belt and Road.
Sixth, robust measures should be adopted to facilitate the employment of college graduates. These can include career coaching, creating more job opportunities, and providing assistance to students in need.
Officials from the XUAR Government and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps attended the inspection-related activities.
