The most important education stories last year

On Dec 29, the Ministry of Education released the top 10 education news stories from last year.

1. The National Vocational Education Conference was held in Beijing on April 12 and 13. It stressed the importance of accelerating construction of a modern vocational education system to nurture more related talent for the country's modernization.

2. President Xi Jinping visited Tsinghua University in Beijing on April 19, ahead of its 110th anniversary. He emphasized the need to build world-class universities with Chinese characteristics to serve national rejuvenation. He also urged Tsinghua to strengthen innovation and cultivate more outstanding, talented people to serve national development.

3. On April 22, the Communist Party of China Central Committee issued a set of revised regulations on work rules for the Party's primary-level organizations in universities. The regulations called for enhanced efforts to integrate Party building in universities and for greater development of the country's higher education system.

4. On April 29, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the top legislative body, adopted the revised Education Law. The legislation introduced labor education into the country's basic education policies.

5. On May 21, the "double reduction" policy was adopted at a meeting of the Central Committee for Deepening Overall Reform. On July 24, the guideline was issued by the general offices of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, China's Cabinet, aiming to reduce the burdens of homework and after-school tuition on primary and middle school students.

6. At the ceremony marking the CPC's centenary, representatives of the Chinese Young Pioneers and the Chinese Communist Youth League saluted the CPC and expressed their commitment to the Party's cause in a poem. "Rest assured, CPC, we are ready to build a powerful China," they repeated four times at the end of the ode.

7. Ahead of China's Teachers' Day, Xi called on teachers nationwide to provide good guidance for students. He made the remarks in a letter to representatives of model teaching units named after late geophysicist Huang Danian, a professor at Jilin University.

8. Seven provincial-level regions, including Heilongjiang, Gansu and Jilin, introduced plans to reform the national college entrance exam, or gaokao. Twenty-one such regions have launched plans for exam reform, aiming to give students more choices in the crucial test.

9. The National Textbook Work Conference decided to further integrate Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era into the nation's textbooks for students at all levels.

10. On Nov 23, the NPC Standing Committee adopted the Law on Family Education Promotion.

The law, which came into effect on Jan 1, is the first on family education and it elevated related education from a family matter to a State affair.