China’s Ministry of Education, together with four co-issuing bodies, issued the “AI-Empowering Education Action Plan 2030” on 10 April 2026. The directive is binding on all provinces, including Jiangsu, and requires each provincial education authority to issue implementation regulations.
The plan mandates AI integration across every educational level from the 2026–27 academic year, with AI literacy embedded in curriculum at primary, secondary, vocational, and higher education stages. Ethics and responsible AI use are named as required components. Teacher qualification examinations are to include AI literacy requirements.
What this means for Jiangsu: Jiangsu is among China’s most AI-active provinces. The January 2026 Jiangsu “AI+” Action Plan (pre-dating the national directive) had already issued a province-specific K-12 AI Curriculum Guidance Outline (《江苏省中小学人工智能教育指导意见》), dedicated computing and model vouchers for school AI adoption, and an 8,100-school provincial digital education platform. The April 2026 national directive applies binding legal force to these provincial measures and requires further formal implementation regulations.
What is notably missing: Employer training obligations and worker rights provisions are not covered by the education directive. The provincial AI education infrastructure is well-developed but employer-side and pre-redundancy obligations remain absent.