Beijing makes AI education compulsory in public schools (global.chinadaily.com.cn)

Beijing has mandated comprehensive AI education across public primary and secondary schools, becoming the first provincial-level region in China to do so. Starting this semester, more than 1,400 schools will deliver at least eight class hours of AI instruction at every grade level, guided by two new policy documents that define positioning, content and instructional pathways. Pilot schools such as Haidian Experimental Primary and Guangqumen Middle have rolled out multistage, project-based programs: Grades 1–6 receive progressively deeper exposure (from basic awareness to smart-hardware projects), information-technology classes integrate AI from grade three onward, and after-school clubs and competitions extend learning for advanced students. For the AI/ML community, this is a major signal that large-scale, early-stage AI literacy and hands-on tooling will become normalized—creating a broader future talent pipeline and raising baseline familiarity with AI systems. Classroom practice emphasizes block-based programming, iFlytek robots with image recognition, and even large language models that generate executable code from Chinese instructions, blending software and embedded-hardware skills. The emphasis on project-based, human–machine collaboration training (rather than producing specialists) suggests pedagogy will prioritize usable tool literacy and interdisciplinary problem solving—implications that affect future workforce composition, research recruitment, and how educators and policymakers design scalable, equitable AI curricula.