Govt policy moves in the past week

Program to train millions of teachers

China plans to train millions of "backbone teachers" by 2035 while modernizing its teaching personnel system and capacity for the governance of teachers, an official statement said on Jan 31.

The statement was issued by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, aiming to further reform of the teacher training system in the new era.

China will create a sound system on the cultivation and training of teachers, raise teachers' salaries, and make the teaching profession more attractive in the next five years, according to the statement.

It was made clear in the statement that teachers' comprehensive quality, professional levels and their abilities to innovate will see a remarkable improvement by 2035. It also said that efforts will be made to raise their professional ethics and competence.

China had 15.78 million professional teachers in 2016, according to the Ministry of Education.

Basic science research moves to frontline

The government announced on Jan 31 that it will increase its support for basic science, aiming to lead the world in science and innovation in about 30 years.

The State Council issued a guideline on Jan 31 saying that the government will improve planning for basic research, build more high-quality laboratories, train young talent, boost international exchanges, and increase funding from more sources.

The guideline said that China will build the country into a major global center of science and an innovation leader by the middle of this century. It also vows to make a number of key groundbreaking scientific achievements and train a number of world-leading scientists. It pointed out that basic science is the branch of fundamental research in science that generates ideas, concepts and theories to form the basis to develop technologies or techniques.

Progress in basic science research is key in building a scientifically powerful country in the world, the guideline said.

On international cooperation, the government will organize more international collaboration projects in key research, open national research and development programs to foreign participants, and implement science and innovation action plans under the Belt and Road Initiative, the guideline said. It has also identified 20 key tasks for the country's researchers to improve basic science research.

Quality certification system to get boost

The State Council released a guideline on Jan 26 to improve the quality certification system and quality management.

The guideline requires that a compulsory and voluntary certification should be combined to boost efforts in all walks of life for a stronger and improved quality management. International advanced quality management standards will be adopted, the guideline said, and companies should be encouraged to enhance quality management using these standards, which will be introduced throughout in industry and social governance.

Governments at all levels are required to employ the quality management system to transform their management styles with better administration and credibility.

Meanwhile, the quality of new technologies, products and business models should be supervised in an inclusive but prudent way in order to foster new economic drivers and bolster industrial transformation.