BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- China's State Council has issued the outline plan for the development of the education sector during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), stressing efforts to build a strong, globally competitive educational system to underpin the country's modernization drive.

Children play a ring-toss game during a school fair at a primary school in Dali, southwest China's Yunnan Province, June 1, 2026. (Photo: Xinhua)

According to the plan, which was made public on Monday, relevant arrangements will focus on adjusting education services to align with shifts in the structure of school-age populations and supporting the country's major strategies and the modernization of the industrial system.

The plan said that by 2030, China will have essentially completed the construction of a high-quality education system, establishing a society featuring lifelong learning among residents and greatly enhancing the influence, competitiveness, and voice of its education sector on the global stage.

The document laid out 23 key tasks in five aspects: fostering virtue through education, strengthening education's supporting role for the development of science and technology and human resources, improving the quality of education as a kind of public service, building a higher-caliber teaching workforce, and expanding high-standard opening up of the education sector.

The plan also put forward reform tasks, including those related to the education evaluation system and the sector's digital and intelligent development.

It further stressed the importance of the Communist Party of China's overall leadership in education work.