Over a Thousand Principals Discuss High School Education in the AI Era: Must Abandon the Traditional Mindset of "Responding to All Changes by Remaining Unchanged"

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Beijing News (Reporter Feng Qi) As the AI talent structure undergoes accelerated transformation, what new requirements does this place on high school education? On September 16, the Annual Conference of Ordinary High School Principals (2026) opened, focusing on and exploring the diversified and distinctive development of ordinary high schools and innovation in education models. Experts attending the conference believe that in the face of the wave of change brought by artificial intelligence, high school principals must abandon the traditional mindset of "responding to all changes by remaining unchanged" and seize the entirely new opportunities brought by AI.

"The 15th Five-Year Plan sets a clear direction for the reform and development of high school education in the new era, and the reform of high school education has a long way to go." Gu Mingyuan, honorary president of the Chinese Society of Education, proposed in his address that high school principals should continue to deepen the reform of education methods, practice the concept of "learning by doing," and focus on cultivating students' innovative thinking. At the same time, they should advance the modular construction of high school curricula, support students in choosing courses according to their aptitudes, connect the training pathways between high school education and higher education, and fully unleash the development potential of young people.

Zhu Dongbin, deputy director of the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education, explained in his keynote report the new positioning of high school education against the backdrop of changes in the school-age population and the transformation of digital and intelligent technologies. He pointed out that in the AI era, high school principals must firmly grasp the overall tone of steadily and prudently advancing the application of artificial intelligence, abide by the principles of "actively embracing, putting people first, guiding good use, and seeking benefits while avoiding harms," and strive to build a fair and high-quality basic education system.

Zheng Quanshui, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, founding president of Shenzhen X-Institute, and founding chief professor of the Tsinghua University Qian Xuesen Mechanics Class, said that in the AI era, social needs have shifted from "solving existing problems" to "proactively raising new questions." Education should focus on the internal driving force of innovation, stimulate young people's interests, curiosity, and sense of mission, and cultivate "X-type talents" who are good at raising questions and assessing directions.

The new wave of intelligence is reshaping the way humanity acquires knowledge and driving systemic changes in education. Zhu Songchun, president of the Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence, said that the rapid development of artificial intelligence is promoting the equalization of "intelligence," and the focus of education should shift to the cultivation of "moral power" centered on value judgment, social cognition, and the pursuit of meaning. In the era of human-machine symbiosis, education must aim at "generalist talents and moral power," and focus on shaping innovative, strategic, and interdisciplinary talents who can define problems and lead directions.

Liu Tieyan, president of the Beijing Zhongguancun Academy, believes that AI-native education, relying on self-evolving knowledge graphs, content-generating agents, and real project-driven mechanisms, is driving education from "pre-organized" to "real-time organized," better adapting to learners' personalized learning needs and the pace of industrial iteration.

Shi Zhongying, dean of the School of Education at Tsinghua University, emphasized that in the face of real risks brought by the spread of AI, such as cognitive inertia, academic integrity crises, and emotional echo chambers, high school principals must face up to the potential challenges AI poses to the personality development of high school students and integrate personality education into the entire process of the "five educations."

In the high-level dialogue session, experts attending the conference believed that in the face of the wave of change brought by artificial intelligence, high school principals must abandon the traditional mindset of "responding to all changes by remaining unchanged," seize the entirely new opportunities brought by AI, use technology to achieve large-scale teaching tailored to students' aptitudes, and happily nurture talented people; present students' thinking processes, and promote the transformation of "AI + education" from technology-led to subject teaching and students' creative learning scenarios.

This annual conference was guided by the Chinese Society of Education and the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, hosted by the High School Education Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Education, organized by Tsinghua University High School and Beijing National Day School, and co-organized by Tsinghua University and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. A total of more than 1,700 experts and scholars in the field of education, party secretaries, principals, and key teachers of ordinary high schools attended the conference, pooling wisdom and joint efforts for the high-quality development of high school education in the AI era.

Editor: Miao Chenxia

Proofreader: Yang Li

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