China transforms education through introduction of AI courses

China

China transforms education through introduction of AI courses

2025-03-02 13:40 Last Updated At：17:27

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly prevalent in primary and secondary school classrooms across China, providing a modern approach to education while fostering scientific thinking and innovative skills among students.

In 2024, China's Ministry of Education issued a major policy promoting AI education in primary and secondary school classrooms. The goal is to achieve full coverage of AI educational courses by 2030.

The requirements are very clear. Primary school students will focus on experiencing AI, while high school students will develop skills that can be applied to AI projects.

The importance of AI education comes as no surprise, and cultivating interest is the first step. From robots to programing courses on AI, experts say a future-oriented education revolution is now unfolding.

At a school in Chengdu, the capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province, when Generation Z encounters an AI humanoid robot, the future of education is redefined. These primary and high school students are full of curiosity about AI and humanoid robots.

"We can now see the future very clearly. For example, 10 or 20 years from now, just like these primary and high school students, they will definitely face the world of artificial intelligence after they start working. The future determines they must learn artificial intelligence from now on," said Feng Zhenyu, CEO of Sichuan Embodied Intelligent Robot Technology.

How to use AI programming to build small robots has become a compulsory course in some primary schools.

"We are earnestly promoting the strategic action of digital education and carrying out a series of application scenarios such as moral education, teaching, sports, aesthetic and scientific education enabled by AI," said Tang Min, deputy director of the Chengdu Education Bureau.

Wang Zhiyong, Communist Party secretary at the Experimental Middle School of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, said he believes China is focused on promoting scientific education, introducing advanced concepts and educational methods from universities into basic education, and better cultivating innovative talents.

"We have opened an elective course called Mathematical Modeling and AI. The course is mainly taught by university teachers. The foundation of artificial intelligence is mathematics. We will introduce the basic projects of the university into the course. We encourage our students to participate in the national mathematical modeling contest for college students, the American mathematical modeling contest for college students, the informatics contest, the robotics contest and so on," Wang said.

Experts say strengthening mathematical knowledge in basic education and future industrial applications, while combining mathematics with AI, will help students face the challenges of the AI era.

China's express delivery sector posts double-digit growth in first 11 months

China's express delivery sector continued to post significant growth in the first 11 months of 2025, handling over 180 billion parcels to record a nearly 15 percent year-on-year increase, official data showed on Tuesday.

According to the State Post Bureau, the country's China's broader postal industry, which includes express delivery services, saw a total of 196.75 billion parcels from January through November, marking a 12.9 percent rise from the same period in 2024.

The postal industry's total business revenue exceeded 1.63 trillion yuan (over 230 billion U.S. dollars), up 6.7 percent year on year, the data showed.

Specifically, the overall express delivery revenue reached nearly 1.36 trillion yuan, a 7.1 percent increase compared to the previous year.

Same-city express deliveries amounted to 14.47 billion parcels, a 2.2 percent year-on-year increase, while cross-region deliveries surged by 16.3 percent to 162.44 billion parcels.

The total volume of express deliveries to overseas countries and China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions reached 3.83 billion parcels, a year-on-year increase of 11.3 percent.

In November alone, China's postal industry handled 19.49 billion parcels, up 3.8 percent year on year. Among these, more than 18 billion parcels were handled in express delivery sector, up 5 percent year on year.

In November, the postal industry's business revenue, excluding the direct business revenue of Postal Savings Bank, reached 162.68 billion yuan (over 23 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year decrease of 2.0 percent.

Specifically, express delivery revenue reached 137.65 billion yuan (around 19.5 billion U.S. dollars), showing a year-on-year decrease of 3.7 percent.