Episode Details

President Xi Jinping has urged rural teachers to enhance their teaching skills and nurture more capable young people with sound moral grounding, intellectual ability, physical vigor, aesthetic sensibility and work skills needed to join and carry on the socialist cause.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, sent his greetings to teachers and educators across the country ahead of the 41st Teachers' Day, which falls on Wednesday.

In a reply letter to eight rural teachers who participated in the special-post teacher recruitment program, Xi said that many teachers involved in the program have actively devoted themselves to rural education. Rooted in their posts, they have dedicated their efforts to teaching with diligence and selfless commitment, demonstrating the profound sense of mission and responsibility of educators, he said.

Xi emphasized that teachers are the foundation of education. He expressed the hope that educators will remain true to their original aspiration, continuously improve their teaching capabilities, and guide students with care and affection to ensure their healthy growth.

Premier Li Qiang also made an instruction on the program. Li said that educators in the country should fully implement the fundamental task of fostering virtue and holistic development through education and teach in places where the motherland and the people need them the most, contributing more to building a leading country in education.

Launched in 2006, the special-post teacher recruitment program is a central government-funded initiative aimed at recruiting college graduates to teach in rural primary and middle schools across China's central and western regions. Since its implementation, the program has employed a total of 1.18 million teachers, covering more than 30,000 rural schools in over 1,000 counties across 22 provincial-level regions.

In their letter to Xi, eight representatives of the program reported on their experience working at the forefront of rural education, and reiterated their determination to stay committed to their mission and continue teaching in rural areas.

China has adopted several other initiatives to promote rural education.

In 2021, the "Outstanding Teachers Program" was launched to cultivate 10,000 teachers annually to serve high schools in the once-impoverished counties, as well as border counties, in the central and western regions.

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