Primary and secondary students in Beijing will begin to learn about artificial intelligence (AI) as China continues its quest to dominate the sector. According to a statement from the Beijing Municipal Commission, schools in the Chinese capital will begin to offer at least eight hours of AI classes per academic year.
In the statement, the classes are set to begin this fall, which is expected to start on September 1. The statement also added that schools can choose how they want to run the courses, suggesting an integration with the existing curriculum or as a standalone course.
China has reiterated its ambition to become an innovator in the AI industry. The country enjoyed the global spotlight when it was propelled to the top of the industry earlier this year when Chinese startup DeepSeek rolled out its latest model. The model, according to experts, superseded other AI models in terms of reasoning and capabilities. DeepSeek is open-source and was created with a fraction of the costs compared to other LLMs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
The latest update is coming after Beijing urged schools to integrate artificial intelligence education into the teaching curriculum of kids that are six years old and above. Beijing mentioned that the initiative could go a long way to help the country in building domestic talent as the rivalry between China and the United States continues to heat up.
Beijing schools to teach AI courses in schools
The decision to incorporate AI in the education sector comes after a pledge made by the National People’s Congress to support the extensive application of large-scale AI models. According to the plan, the government intends to help tech firms issue debt onshore, pushing the proceeds into innovation, mergers, and acquisition. According to the People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng, the country also wants to increase the 500 billion yuan in the tech-lending program to 1 trillion yuan ($138 billion).
Chinese Students. Taken by Andrej Iliev. The Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng stated that the tech revolution in the AI industry will offer the education sector massive opportunities. He added that the country is set to release its whitepaper on AI education before the end of the year. According to the statement released by the Municipal Education Commission, the country has formulated the “Beijing Work Plan for Promoting Artificial Intelligence Education in Primary and Secondary Schools (2025-2027)” for implementation.
According to the document, schools are mandated to come up with an AI education curriculum that cuts across every level of duration. They are also expected to build a normalized system that will teach students at the level of AI education. In addition, an expert committee will be established to ensure adequate follow-up guidance. This will include organizing experts from universities, research institutes, and companies to carry out research and apply these technologies to primary and secondary schools.
In a previous post, the Ministry of Education has mentioned that it wants to begin teaching young students about AI, as it intends to integrate it into their curriculum and make it the norm by 2030. Aside from primary and secondary schools, Universities have also launched AI courses based on the DeepSeek model. The move reiterates the aim of Chinese authorities to boost technological innovations in schools across the country.
According to reports, Shenzhen and Zhejiang universities already confirmed they were launching courses based on DeepSeek, with Jiao Tong University, noting that it is using DeepSeek to upgrade its AI learning tools for its courses at the time. The campus office of Renmin University also confirmed that they had already started using DeepSeek in applications in multiple fields, including teaching and research.
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