Seven-Ministry Guidelines on Strengthening K-12 Science and Technology Education (2025) — 关于加强中小学科技教育的意见

Summary

"Opinions on Strengthening Science and Technology Education in Primary and Secondary Schools" (关于加强中小学科技教育的意见, 教基〔2025〕7号) was jointly issued on 23 October 2025 by seven bodies: the Ministry of Education, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and China Association for Science and Technology. It implements the education-power-plan-2024-2035 with a STEM-focused (科学、技术、工程、数学) framework. Key provisions: a staged pedagogy ladder (playful experience in early primary → hands-on inquiry → interdisciplinary project learning around "solving real problems" in junior high → engineering practice in senior high); a "three-in-one" curriculum ecosystem (national + local + school-based) covering frontier fields including AI and quantum information; project-, problem-, and task-driven teaching methods; "tech-literacy digital portraits" for evaluation; construction and renovation of science-and-technology labs and off-campus practice bases; a tech-education channel on the national smart-education platform; teacher development via Guopei-plan weighting, master's programs in tech education at "double first-class" universities, and an "academic + industry" dual-mentor system; and the "小小工程师" (Little Engineers) and "百城千馆" (hundred cities, thousand venues) initiatives. Article 13 directs funding priority to central-western, rural, border, and ethnic regions and national rural-revitalization key counties.

Guiding Principles

STEM Integration — the entire document operationalizes interdisciplinary, project-based STEM learning with real-world problem solving as the organizing principle.
Youth Empowerment — students are positioned as makers and engineers (小小工程师 plan, family science toolboxes,探究实践"领航行动").
Rural Revitalization — implementation funding is explicitly prioritized for rural, border, ethnic, and rural-revitalization key counties, directly enabling programs like zhangjiajie-rural-teacher-3d-printing.

Learning Outcomes & Transferable Skills

As a policy, it defines the outcome space rather than teaching directly: cross-disciplinary literacy,科技创新能力, 工程实践能力 (engineering practice ability), and scientific thinking, tracked via process-oriented evaluation and digital portfolios. Vault programs in coding, electronics, making, and data work inside Chinese K-12 should map their objectives to this document's staged ladder when seeking adoption or funding.

How to Replicate or Build On It

Read the full text on the MOE site (primary source below).
Align program design with the four-stage pedagogy ladder ( Sections 二–三) to fit school adoption requirements.
Leverage the resource provisions (Section 五): school lab construction, off-campus bases, and the national smart-education platform's tech-education channel.
For teacher-capacity components, cite Section 六 (Guopei weighting, dual-mentor system); see zhangjiajie-rural-teacher-3d-printing as a live example.
Curriculum anchors: tsinghua-it-textbook-aquaponics and hk-steam-iot-aquaponics-materials.

Considerations & Constraints

Cost: Free to access; school implementation is state-funded, with explicit support channels for weak regions.
Skill Level: unknown — administrative/policy audience.
Space/Climate: Not applicable.
Tools Required: None to read.
Ongoing Maintenance: unknown — goals set for 2030 (system basically established) and 2035 (ecosystem fully built); dynamic monitoring via AI/big data is mandated.
Access Barriers: Chinese-language only; no official English translation identified. The MOE page is freely accessible.

Prerequisites

education-power-plan-2024-2035 (parent policy it explicitly implements). Related: china-rural-revitalization-policy.

Primary Source

Full text on the Ministry of Education portal, 教基〔2025〕7号, verified live 2026-09-12: http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A06/jcys_jyzb/202511/t20251111_1419878.html