Baseline standards set for school facilities, staffing

A revised set of baseline requirements has been issued for the basic operating conditions of primary and secondary schools, in a move aimed at advancing balanced and high-quality compulsory education, ensuring more standardized development of schools.

The requirements, released by the General Office of the Ministry of Education and three other departments on May 22, are designed to better meet teaching needs and support the physical and mental well-being of students.

The document lays out 20 baseline requirements in five areas: school building construction, safety and security facilities, living facilities, teaching equipment and staffing. These requirements represent the minimum standards that ordinary primary and secondary schools across the country must meet, while small-scale schools and teaching sites may apply them in light of local conditions.

The document gives particular emphasis to facilities and staffing for mental health, aesthetic and physical education, providing stronger support for students' all-round development.

Priorities laid out for quality growth of digital economy

The National Data Administration has issued its 2026 work priorities for the development of the digital economy, setting out eight key tasks to promote high-quality growth in the sector.

The document calls for deeper market-based reform in the allocation of data resources, including faster efforts to establish a unified national data property rights registration system and improving the pricing mechanisms for authorized public data operations.

It also emphasizes stronger digital infrastructure, with plans to accelerate the building of an integrated national computing power network and better coordination of data, networks, computing capacity and energy resources.

To support artificial intelligence development, the administration will advance special actions covering stronger foundations, expanded capacity, application empowerment, quality improvement, management services, value creation and data labeling.

The document also calls for cultivating competitive digital industry clusters and innovative digital economy enterprises, while deepening the integration of the digital and real economies, particularly in manufacturing and key industries.

Plan issued to advance ecological compensation

The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance have issued an implementation plan to advance integrated ecological compensation.

Integrated ecological compensation is an effective means of coordinating ecological compensation policies to strengthen the protection of key areas and important ecosystems, and better motivate those engaged in ecological protection.

The plan calls for increasing the targeting and coordination of ecological compensation policies, expanding market-based compensation channels, better leveraging fiscal funds to guide such compensation, and boosting ecological protection in critical areas.

The plan also aims to build a government-led compensation framework with social participation and market mechanisms, and help turn ecological strengths into economic benefits.

The plan outlines measures for the protection and development of major water source areas, the green development of key ecological function zones, integrated compensation for important ecosystems, and the improvement of mechanisms that benefit multiple parties.