China AI Education is now compulsory for all primary and secondary students in Hangzhou, a city in China’s Zhejiang province, as local authorities start a structured rollout this term. Schools must provide a minimum of ten hours of AI lessons per academic year and may deliver the content as a short intensive module or by integrating topics into existing subjects.
The new programme is directed so as to develop skills every year. During the initial two years of primary school students will become familiar with common smart devices and discover some general rules of safe and private usage. In Years 3 and 4 students will work with simple artificial intelligence tools to gather and synthesize text image and sound in short term projects. The Year 5 and 6 lessons present some of the fundamental concepts of decision trees, basic neural network concepts, and simple algorithms.
Middle school students will be guided to complete a more complete AI workflow including data preparation model training and testing. High school students will complete project based assignments and create mini intelligent systems.
According to officials, the plan also trains teachers and establishes competency standards in order to enable schools to provide practical lessons and ensure student privacy. Local education bureaux have published advice to enable schools to localise the content and to integrate AI lessons with other STEM fields. The objective is to develop a continuous talent stream in industry and research.
The Hangzhou initiative is part of a larger national initiative to integrate AI into education and teaching practice. Beijing has established plans to implement AI tools in the classroom and to transform the skills of teachers in other parts of the country.
The major approach focuses on both technical dexterity and moral utilization to ensure that pupils understand how to evaluate and utilize AI in their daily existence.