A report from GLOBAL TIMES ONLINE:

Jining city in east China's Shandong province is ramping up efforts to build 
its strength in education, according to a press conference recently held by the 
Information Office of Jining Municipal People's Government.

Jining plans to build, renovate and extend 200 government-funded or private 
affordable kindergartens and 150 regular elementary and middle schools during 
China's 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), in a bid to create 50,000 new 
kindergarten slots and 150,000 new slots in elementary and middle schools, an 
official said at the press conference, which released information about 
Jining's plan for the development of its education system during the 14th 
Five-Year Plan period.

The city will also build a batch of high schools with characteristic programs 
during the period, he added.  

According to the plan, by 2025, Jining will see its gross enrollment rate of 
preschool education exceed 99 percent; the coverage rate of government-funded 
or private affordable kindergartens hit 95 percent; the proportion of children 
in public kindergartens reach 75 percent; the completion rate of nine-year 
compulsory education stand at 99.9 percent; the gross enrollment rate of high 
school education surpass 99 percent; all special education schools in the city 
meet Shandong Province's standards for such schools; and the average schooling 
years of working-age population in the city reach 10.9 years.

The plan regards the achievements in cultivating virtuous children as the 
fundamental standard for evaluating all the work of schools, noted Gao Guangli, 
head of the education bureau of Jining.

The document stresses the development of a high-quality education system that 
highlights joint efforts in, whole-journey cultivation for and all-round 
approach to the education of students, and fosters citizens with an all-round 
moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic grounding, in addition to a 
hard-working spirit, Gao said.

Source: GLOBAL TIMES ONLINE