On the afternoon of October 11, participants of the51st Seminar for Local Education Bureau Directorsalong with representatives from the National Training Programme, visited the Ministry of Education (MOE )for a symposium, which was chaired andaddressedbyWang Jiayi, Member of MOE CPC Leadership Group, Vice Minister, and National Chief Inspector.Officials from MOE’sDepartmentsofTeacher Education, DevelopmentofPlanning, Finance, National Textbook, Basic Education, Supervision of After-School Tutoring Institutions, Office of National Education Inspection as well as Hou Huijun,Party Secretary and Executive Vice President of NAEA, were also in attendance.

8 heads of local education authorities includingGuyuanEducation and Sports Bureau ofNingxia Hui Autonomous Region, Education Bureau of Qianxinan Prefecture of Guizhou Province, Langfang Education Bureau of Hebei Province, Nanjing Education Bureau of Jiangsu Province, Luoyang Education Bureau of Henan Province, Work Committee of the Education Commission of Yuzhong District of Chongqing,Education Bureau of the Administrative Officeof Daxing'anling Prefecture of Heilongjiang Province, and Aba Prefecture Education Bureau of Sichuan Province, exchanged ideas on topics such as promoting high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education, allocating educational resources, enhancing competence of educators, and high-quality educational development in ethnic regions.

In his closing remarks, Wang Jiayi acknowledged the innovative ideas exchanged at the symposium and highlighted pivotal role of education at local levels,especially inregional education equity, vocational education development, and economic and social progress.He emphasized the need to improve education with scientific approaches, develop core skills of students, optimize resources distribution in cities, focus on priorities of different educational stages for better learning outcomes, support character development, advance education with information technology, and ensure school safety.Finally,Wang outlined key directives on research efforts towards deepeninghigh-qualitydevelopment of basic education.