A city in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang will introduce a mandatory artificial intelligence course for primary and secondary schools in an effort to train pupils in the rapidly growing technology.
Hangzhou, hometown of AI company DeepSeek, will introduce general AI education in schools starting from the new semester, with a minimum of 10 class hours per academic year, state media Global Times reported.
The local education bureau released a pair of documents outlining curriculum plans and AI competency standards for teachers and announced guidelines, which the authorities said were intended to shape AI education and cultivate future talent.
Primary and secondary schools will use a mix of teaching formats so students can be taught the AI course intensively in a certain week or AI content can be integrated into subjects such as information technology and science.
Schools will have the flexibility to incorporate AI projects into local curriculum, while basic AI learning activities can be arranged during afterschool programmes.
In first and second grades, students will be taught to recognise applications of artificial intelligence and made to engage with AI devices to navigate the role of AI in daily life, according to the education bureau. Classes will stress the importance of responsible and ethical use of AI with a focus on protecting privacy.
Schools will teach third and fourth-grade students the use of AI tools to gather text, images and audio resources for their schoolwork and daily tasks.
With guidance, the pupils will design and produce simple projects that demonstrate their understanding of AI applications.
In middle school, students will cover AI extensively, from data preparation to model training. They will also learn the core principles behind algorithms, including reasoning and brute-force search.
In high school, students will undertake project-based initiatives to develop skills in designing AI systems.
This experience will strengthen their ability to apply AI effectively in everyday life, Global Times quoted the bureau as saying.
Hangzhou was catapulted into the global spotlight after DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup rivalling ChatGPT, took the world by storm earlier this year.
Home to nearly 8 million people, the tech-forward city is fast emerging as a major innovation hub with a thriving startup scene, private investment, and a steady talent stream.
A cluster of tech firms, dubbed by the local media as the "Six Dragons of Hangzhou", is redefining the city's innovation landscape. Besides DeepSeek, Robotics companies Unitree and Deep Robotics produce machines built for search-and-rescue missions, infrastructure inspections, and even televised dance routines.
Game developer GameScience, design software firm Manycore Technology, and BrainCo, which is working to fuse human cognition with computing, complete the group.
Hangzhou is also home to Alibaba Group Holding, the behemoth that does everything from online shopping to logistics and cloud computing.
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