China aims to build an AI literacy system

China has unveiled an action plan to build a comprehensive artificial intelligence literacy system spanning all levels of schooling and lifelong learning, as part of broader efforts to integrate AI into the nation's education landscape.

The AI + Education Action Plan, jointly issued by five central government departments led by the Ministry of Education, aims to accelerate the popularization of AI education, reshape teaching and learning models, and build a future-oriented education system, according to a news conference held by the ministry on Friday.

"We will build a general AI literacy system for all stages of education and for the whole of society," Zhou Dawang, director of the ministry's Department of Science, Technology and Informatization, said, highlighting the plan's core objective of ensuring equal access to AI learning opportunities for all citizens.

For primary and secondary schools, the plan calls for integrating AI education into local curricula nationwide, encouraging interdisciplinary AI teaching, and incorporating AI into after-school services and study tours. It also calls for strengthening AI education demonstration schools and supporting rural and remote schools in delivering AI courses through national platforms.

In higher education, universities are required to make AI a basic public course and develop subject-specific textbooks. The plan urges universities to design interdisciplinary AI programs, optimize talent cultivation plans for traditional disciplines, and establish new majors aligned with AI-driven industrial upgrades.

For vocational education, the plan promotes integrating AI into traditional industry-related programs to train highly skilled talent capable of adapting to industrial transformation.

In lifelong learning, the plan pledges high-quality learning resources for all groups, including micro-courses and micro-credentials, to help learners update skills and improve employment prospects.

The plan also sets out requirements for educators. A national teacher AI literacy standard will be developed, followed by a tiered, role-based training and assessment system. AI knowledge will be included in teacher qualification exams and certification processes.

Jin Li, president of Fudan University, said the institution has introduced more than 100 AI-related courses, from general foundations to specialized subjects, taken by more than 13,000 students. It has also launched 41 "X + AI" dual-degree programs, he said.

Jin added that Fudan has piloted China's first "PhD in a specific discipline plus master's in AI" dual-degree program. The first cohort of 10 doctoral students who chose the dual degree all came from journalism and communications fields, he said.

Li Yi, director of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, said the capital has developed local curriculum guidelines for primary and secondary AI education.

"Every primary and secondary school student in Beijing takes at least eight class hours of AI courses per academic year," Li said, adding that an "AI education lecturer team" has been formed, bringing experts from universities, research institutes and high-tech companies into schools.

By the end of 2025, the adoption rate of AI across different levels of schools in Beijing had reached 87.7 percent, he said.

Yao Xiaoying, principal of a primary school in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, said that since 2021, all 1,508 students at her school have had at least one AI lesson per month, achieving full coverage.

"We teach children how to use large language models to solve problems, and more importantly, how to think critically — to question whether AI's answers are correct and verify information from multiple sources," she said. "In an age where intelligence permeates everything, we want children to retain what makes them human: the ability to think, question, create and collaborate with others."

zoushuo@chinadaily.com.cn