University students and teachers said they are deeply motivated by the recent remarks made by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on building a strong nation in education, which is the fundamental guide for the country's high-quality educational development.
They said they are determined to make their own contributions to building a great, modern socialist country in all respects and speeding up modernization of the education sector.
Presiding over a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Monday, Xi said that China has established the largest education system in the world and joined the ranks of upper-middle level countries in terms of the overall level of modernization in education, noting that the country ranks the 23rd in a global education index, up 26 spots from 2012.
He said the purpose of building a leading country in education is to cultivate successive generations of talented individuals capable of shouldering the significant tasks and responsibilities in the process of socialist modernization.
Qiu Yong, secretary of the CPC Tsinghua University Committee and an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, gave a lecture and put forward suggestions during the group study session.
On Tuesday, the university held a meeting to reflect on Xi's remarks. Qiu said in the meeting that the remarks serve as the road map for building a strong country in education. Xi's remarks are an important milestone in China's education development and have deeply inspired and motivated educators, he said.
The 20th CPC National Congress has set the target of building a strong country in education by 2035 and, with only 12 years to go, the tasks are heavy and require great efforts, Qiu said.
Efforts should be made to build world-class universities with Chinese characteristics, and nurture talented individuals with all-around moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic development to inherit and promote the socialist cause, he said.
More attention should be paid to nurture China's top-notch and innovative talent in basic disciplines to achieve breakthroughs on core technologies in key fields and produce innovative results for national development, Qiu added.
Xu Mei, Party secretary of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said the university will work hard to integrate traditional and digital disciplines, and nurture more talented and innovative students of the digital economy.
Focusing on core technologies, such as chip technology and 6G telecommunication, the university will strive to improve its ability to serve national strategic capabilities and build a strong country in education, technology and talent, she said.
Zhang Donggang, Party secretary of Renmin University of China, said that as the first modern university founded by the CPC, the institution will continue to follow the Party's lead, stick to its fundamental purpose of nurturing talent for the Party and the nation, and become a front-runner in building a world-class university with Chinese characteristics.
Huang Baoyin, Party secretary of University of International Business and Economics, said China needs to accelerate the building of world-class universities and disciplines to serve high-quality development.
Moreover, it should make good use of its top-notch education resources to become an attractive education center for international students, he said.
Zhang Ying, a postgraduate student at Beijing Normal University, said with free, compulsory basic education for all and financial aid for underprivileged students, the country has laid a solid foundation in promoting equality in education.
A large number of graduates from the university have devoted themselves to promoting education equality, Zhang said, citing the example of Huang Wenxiu, who sacrificed her life while working as a village official in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
Young students in the new era will work harder and make their own contributions to building a strong country in education, she added.
Kong Xiangying, an undergraduate student at Renmin University of China, said that college students are the key to building a strong country in education and should make more contributions to achieve that goal. "We should work hard to acquire professional knowledge, cultivate innovative and practical skills and learn more about how the society works through social study trips."
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