Chen Baosheng meets education officials and visits schools in XUAR

On October 16 and 17, Minister of Education Chen Baosheng visited Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and met with Chen Quanguo, Party Secretary of XUAR. They exchanged views on XUAR’s educational reforms and future development.

During his stay in XUAR, Chen Baosheng visited a number of schools at different levels, including Urumqi Hongqi Kindergarten, Urumqi No.20 Primary School, Urumqi No.66 High School, Xinjiang Industry Technical College and Xinjiang Normal University. A range of topics were discussed, including the teaching of standard Chinese language, traditional culture learning, balanced development of compulsory education, collaboration between vocational education institutions and industry, teacher training, and provision of national aid for XUAR’s education.

Chen Baosheng and Vice Minister of Education Sun Rao attended a symposium on XUAR education, which was hosted by Li Pengxin, Deputy Party Secretary of XUAR. On the symposium, Chen Baosheng listened to a report on XUAR’s work progress on education since the Third Central Symposium on Work related to Xinjiang held in September this year. Chen also listened to speeches given by representatives from XUAR’s education institutions.

Chen pointed out that recent years had seen remarkable improvement in XUAR’s education. He outlined five major measures that would shape the next step: (1) Strengthening the Party’s leadership in shaping all aspects of education in XUAR; (2) Reinforcing students’ sense of ethnic unity through education; (3) Raising standards in the teaching and use of Mandarin Chinese; (4) Stepping up work ahead of the “14th Five-Year Plan” for education; (5) Bolstering the education system in order to guarantee the development of quality education; (6) deepening and developing cultural integration in XUAR.

Li Pengxin said XUAR’s education sector would consistently follow the Party’s leadership and take concrete actions to deepen educational reforms, including promoting teachers’ professional development, promoting balanced development of education in both local communities and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), strengthening the role of education in economic development, and providing quality education to people.