Education is the foundation for building a strong nation and achieving national rejuvenation. Our Party has always attached great importance to the development of education. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, we have adhered to the principle of prioritizing education as a national and Party strategy, fully implemented the Party's education policy, made major decisions to deeply implement the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education and to accelerate the modernization of education, established the goal of building a strong education nation by 2035, upheld and strengthened the Party's overall leadership over education, continuously promoted reforms in the education system and mechanisms, and promoted historic achievements and transformative changes in the education sector in the new era. Students' all-round development in morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor has become more significant, the concept of "five-pronged education" has become deeply rooted in people's hearts, the construction of ideological and political courses in schools has been comprehensively strengthened, quality education has been steadily promoted, and batch after batch of young people who listen to and follow the Party have grown up healthily; people's sense of fulfillment in education has become more substantial, the world's largest education system has been built, the level of education popularization has achieved a historic leap, the gross enrollment rate of higher education has exceeded 60%, the basic balance of compulsory education in counties has been fully achieved, student assistance covers all stages of schooling, and a cumulative total of 1.4 billion people have benefited; education has provided stronger support for economic and social development, the average years of education for the new workforce has reached 14.2 years, the population with a university education has exceeded 240 million, universities have made significant contributions in talent cultivation, basic research, and major scientific and technological breakthroughs, and vocational education has provided more than 70% of the newly added frontline employees for modern manufacturing, strategic emerging industries, and modern service industries; comprehensive education reforms have deepened, the education evaluation system has become increasingly perfect, "double reduction" has promoted profound changes in the basic education ecosystem, a testing and admission model of classified examinations, comprehensive evaluation, and diversified admissions has basically taken shape, effectively promoting student growth, national talent selection, and social equity; China's international influence in education has become more prominent, and the first global Category I center of the UNESCO outside Europe and America has been established in China. These achievements are obvious to all, and the construction of a strong education nation has taken solid steps.

Currently, the world is undergoing accelerating changes unseen in a century, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is deepening, and education is increasingly becoming a key factor in enhancing a nation's core competitiveness and winning strategic initiative. China's high-quality development is advancing steadily, the construction of a modern industrial system is accelerating, and population development is showing new trends, which have placed higher demands on the quantity and professional structure of talent. The people have high expectations for education equity and quality, and their desire to receive a better education is becoming stronger. Building a strong education nation remains a long and arduous task.

The strong education nation we aim to build is a strong education nation with Chinese characteristics, and should possess strong ideological and political leadership, talent competitiveness, technological support, livelihood security, social synergy, and international influence, providing strong support for comprehensively advancing the construction of a strong nation and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese-style modernization. To build such a strong education nation, we must comprehensively build a system of ideological and political education that strengthens the foundation and forges the soul, a fair and high-quality basic education system, a self-reliant and excellent higher education system, a vocational education system integrating production and education, a ubiquitous and accessible lifelong education system, a technology support system driven by innovation, a high-quality teacher team system, and an open and mutually beneficial international cooperation system, striving for strength through quality and governance, and achieving a systematic leap from large to strong.

Building a strong education nation is a complex systems engineering project that requires us to firmly focus on the fundamental task of cultivating morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor, aiming to cultivate socialist builders and successors with all-round development, adhering to the socialist orientation of running schools, comprehensively grasping the political, people-oriented, and strategic attributes of education, adhering to and applying the concept of systems thinking, and correctly handling several major relationships.

First, the relationship between supporting national strategies and meeting people's livelihood needs. We must place the cultivation of urgently needed talents for major national strategies in a more prominent position, strive to cultivate outstanding and innovative talents, and promote the achievement of high-level technological self-reliance and self-strengthening. Focusing on solving the unbalanced and inadequate problems in education development, we will continuously meet the people's needs for higher-quality and more diverse education.

Second, the relationship between knowledge learning and all-round development. We must comprehensively improve the quality of education and teaching, strengthen the cultivation of core literacy, and consolidate students' knowledge foundation. We must improve the comprehensive cultivation system of morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor, prevent and correct deviations such as "score supremacy," and promote students' physical and mental health and all-round development.

Third, the relationship between cultivating talent and meeting social needs. Cultivating talent is the basic function of education, and whether it can meet the needs of economic and social development is an important standard for measuring the effectiveness of talent cultivation. We must improve the mechanism for matching talent cultivation with the needs of economic and social development, adapt to the requirements of the times, dynamically adjust disciplines and majors, optimize the allocation of educational resources, improve the student internship and practice system, and strive to ensure that every talent can make full use of their abilities and find their place.

Fourth, the relationship between standardized order and stimulating vitality. We must improve the school management system, enhance the level of governance through law and management, effectively prevent and resolve school safety risks, and consolidate the ideological and political security defense line of universities. We must deepen comprehensive education reforms, use reforms to increase motivation and vitality, allow teachers to devote themselves to education and boldly explore, and allow students to be energetic and pursue their dreams.

Fifth, the relationship between being rooted in China and learning from international experience. Running education rooted in China is determined by China's history, culture, and national conditions, and is an important experience of our Party in developing education. We must uphold cultural confidence, unswervingly follow the path of socialist education development with Chinese characteristics, and ensure that the people we cultivate are always loyal to the Party, the country, the people, and socialism. Learning from advanced international experience is an important way to build a strong education nation. We must grasp the common characteristics and laws of the world's strong education nations, learn from others' strengths, and effectively utilize world-class educational resources and innovative elements to better serve the development of China's education.

The task of building a strong education nation as scheduled is arduous and time-sensitive. We must adopt a strategic vision of cultivating people for a hundred years, a fighting spirit of a hundred boats vying for the lead, work together with one heart and mind, forge ahead with determination, and steadily advance towards the set goals.

First, unswervingly implement the fundamental task of cultivating morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor. We must continuously strengthen and improve ideological and political education in schools in the new era, educate and guide young students to strengthen their belief in Marxism, socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, establish great aspirations to serve the country and strengthen the country, and become fighters who shoulder heavy responsibilities and strive for progress. We must persistently use the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics to cultivate people's souls, and implement the new era project of cultivating morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor. We must adhere to the simultaneous advancement of ideological and political course construction and the arming of the Party's innovative theories, build a curriculum and textbook system with the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics as its core content, and deeply promote the integrated construction of ideological and political education in primary and secondary schools and universities. We must strengthen the chemical, physical, and chemical research and interpretation of the Party's innovative theoretical system, deeply reveal the principles, theories, and philosophies contained therein, use the Party's innovative theories to guide the innovation of knowledge, theories, and methods in philosophy and social sciences, build an independent knowledge system of Chinese philosophy and social sciences based on the iconic concepts and original theories of various disciplines, and apply and implement them in teaching practice. We must adhere to the synergy between classroom and extracurricular activities, the integration of school and extracurricular activities, and the integration of online and offline activities, pay attention to using successful cases of the great transformation in the new era, give full play to the educational function of red resources, create distinctive brands of online ideological and political education, and continuously expand the space and positions of practical education and online education. We must increase the efforts to promote the national common language and script and promote the strengthening of the common consciousness of the Chinese nation.

Second, strengthen education's support for science and technology and talent. We must continue to promote a virtuous cycle of education, science, technology, and talent, comprehensively implementing the strategies of rejuvenating the country through science and education, strengthening the country through talent, and driving development through innovation, and promoting education development, scientific and technological innovation, and talent cultivation in an integrated manner. Guided by scientific and technological development and national strategic needs, we should focus on improving innovation capabilities, improve the mechanisms for adjusting the discipline settings and talent cultivation models of universities, exceptionally deploy urgently needed disciplines and majors, and strengthen the construction of basic disciplines, emerging disciplines, and interdisciplinary disciplines, as well as the cultivation of outstanding talents. We should strengthen the role of high-level research universities as the main force in national basic research and the source of major scientific and technological breakthroughs, improve the organizational level of basic research, implement breakthrough plans for basic disciplines and interdisciplinary disciplines, establish an effective mechanism for mutual support between scientific and technological innovation and talent cultivation, driving high-quality development of disciplines, refine major scientific and technological issues from national strategic needs, and continuously produce original and disruptive scientific and technological innovation achievements. We should vigorously promote the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements in universities, strengthen school-enterprise scientific research cooperation, enhance synergy, build platforms, and remove bottlenecks, so that more scientific and technological achievements can be quickly transformed into real productive forces.

We should optimize the layout of higher education, focus on building universities and advantageous disciplines with Chinese characteristics and world-class standards, continuously improve the ability to independently cultivate and attract high-level talents, and cultivate and expand the national strategic talent force. We should explore new models for cultivating outstanding national innovative talents, achieving early identification and early cultivation, and strengthening the cultivation of engineering masters and doctoral students. Through stable support and long-term evaluation, we should promote the growth and development of young scientific and technological talents. In response to the diversified needs of talents, we should classify and promote the reform and development of universities, clarify the development positioning of various universities, and guide universities to give full play to their advantages and develop their unique characteristics in different fields and different tracks. We should accelerate the construction of a vocational education system that integrates vocational education and higher education and integrates industry and education, optimize the policy environment, and vigorously cultivate national master craftsmen, skilled workers, and high-skilled talents.

Third, improve the quality and level of public education services. Adhering to the people-centered approach, we should continuously improve the inclusiveness, accessibility, and convenience of public education services, so that the achievements of education reform and development can benefit all people more equitably. We should optimize the allocation of regional educational resources, establish a mechanism for the supply of basic public education services that is coordinated with population changes, promote the high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education, strengthen the standardization construction of compulsory education schools, and gradually narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, regions, schools, and groups. We should strengthen care and love for left-behind children and children with disabilities, improve the conditions and management level of boarding schools, run necessary small-scale rural schools, and build special education schools. We should promote the popularization and inclusiveness of preschool education and the diversified development of secondary schools, and explore the gradual expansion of free education. We should continue to consolidate the achievements of "double reduction," comprehensively improve classroom teaching levels, and improve the quality of after-school services. We should vigorously strengthen the construction of infrastructure for preschool education and special education.

We should deeply implement the national digital education strategy, strengthen and make good use of the national smart education public service platform, explore effective ways to empower large-scale personalized teaching and innovative teaching through digital technology, expand the coverage of high-quality education resources, and focus on using artificial intelligence to promote educational reform. We should improve the level of lifelong learning public services, improve the lifelong learning system, and build a learning society where everyone can learn, everywhere can learn, and anytime can learn.

Fourth, cultivate a high-level teacher team for the new era. We should implement the action plan for cultivating and strengthening teachers with the spirit of educators, strengthen the construction of teachers' morality and style, promote the integration of the spirit of educators into the entire process of teacher training, and run through classroom teaching, scientific research, and social practice. We should continuously improve the quality of teacher training, encourage high-level universities to conduct teacher education, and improve the level of teacher education. We should comprehensively optimize teacher management and resource allocation, dynamically adjust the teacher-student ratio, the proportion of teacher positions, etc., to solve the structural, phased, and regional shortages of teachers.

Respecting teachers and valuing education is a fine tradition of the Chinese nation. We should improve the political status, social status, and professional status of teachers, strengthen the guarantee of teachers' treatment, implement and improve policies for living allowances for rural teachers, and promote the reform of the salary system in universities. We should uphold the professional dignity and legitimate rights and interests of teachers, reduce the burden of non-educational and teaching tasks on teachers, and do a good job in the retirement work of teachers. We should further increase the publicity and commendation of excellent teachers, so that teachers can enjoy high social prestige and become one of the most respected professions in society.

Fifth, build a major education center with global influence. We should deepen the promotion of education opening up, coordinate "bringing in" and "going out," continuously enhance the international influence, competitiveness, and voice of education, and better serve and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. We should improve the ability of higher education to run schools overseas, improve the international cooperation mechanism of vocational education integrating industry and education and school-enterprise collaboration, and encourage high-level foreign science and engineering universities to cooperate in running schools in China. We should expand international academic exchanges and educational and scientific research cooperation. We should expand exchanges between Chinese and foreign young people. We should deepen cooperation with international organizations and multilateral mechanisms, actively participate in global education governance, and contribute more Chinese strength to promoting the development of global education.

Building a strong education country is the common responsibility of the entire Party and the entire society in the new era and on the new journey. We must uphold and strengthen the Party's overall leadership over education, and continuously improve the education leadership system in which the Party committee exercises unified leadership, the Party and government jointly take charge, and various departments assume their respective responsibilities. The Central Leading Group for Education Work should strengthen overall coordination, overall promotion, and supervision and implementation. Party committees and governments at all levels should adhere to placing education in a priority position in the strategic development, and organize and implement the Outline of the Plan for Building a Strong Education Country. Schools, families, and society should work together in the same direction and coordinate with each other to strive to form a strong synergy for building a strong education country.

Comrades, building a strong education country is a cherished wish of the Chinese nation since modern times, and it is a leading task, solid foundation, and strategic support for achieving Chinese-style modernization, comprehensively promoting the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation. We must be confident, forge ahead courageously, be innovative, and work hard to strive for the realization of the grand goal of building a strong education country!