On 10 April 2026, China’s Ministry of Education jointly with four other government bodies unveiled the “AI+ Education” Action Plan (also referred to as the AI Empowering Education Action Plan) to transform classrooms by 2030. The plan requires AI knowledge to be included in teacher qualification exams and certification processes, and calls for the development of a national teacher AI literacy standard followed by a tiered, role-based training and assessment system. It also calls for integrating AI education into local curricula nationwide, encouraging interdisciplinary AI teaching, and incorporating AI into after-school services and study tours. Beijing had previously ordered every primary and secondary school to give students at least eight hours of AI lessons per year starting 1 September 2025, making AI literacy compulsory from age six. The new action plan expands these earlier commitments into an inter-ministerial framework and formally links teacher certification to AI competency. By 2030, the government aims to largely establish a vertically and horizontally connected AI education system, with AI to be integral to textbooks, exams and classrooms by 2035.
Who it affects: All teachers in China’s public primary and secondary education system subject to qualification exams; teacher training institutions; education bureaus at provincial and municipal levels; students at all levels of compulsory education.
What is notably missing: The national teacher AI literacy standard is still “being developed” rather than in force; no timeline is published for when the standard and exam content will be finalised. Funding details for retraining incumbent teachers to meet the certification bar are not specified. The plan does not set enforcement consequences for schools or provinces that fail to integrate AI by the 2030 or 2035 deadlines, relying on the existing education inspection framework. Rural and under-resourced regions continue to face implementation risks already flagged in earlier research.