Chinese Premier stresses education equality

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang poses for a group picture with teachers at No. 20 High School of Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province, Sept. 9, 2013. Li stressed raising education quality in underdeveloped regions while visiting teachers in Dalian on Monday ahead of Teachers' Day on Sept. 10. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang communicates with teachers at No. 20 High School of Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province, Sept. 9, 2013. Li stressed raising education quality in underdeveloped regions while visiting teachers in Dalian on Monday ahead of Teachers' Day on Sept. 10. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stressed raising education quality in underdeveloped regions while visiting teachers in Dalian on Monday ahead of Teachers' Day on Sept. 10.

Li visited Dalian No. 20 High School, a school that has pioneered the enrollment of students from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Schools in China's prosperous towns host Xinjiang students in order to give them better education opportunities.

While talking with teachers at the school, Li extended festive greetings to all teachers in China and called teaching the most venerable profession.

Li also encouraged more people to teach in less developed regions in West China, and advocated more opportunities for teachers from western regions to receive training in the east so that education quality in the west improves and poverty-afflicted students see hope in pursuing education.

Li said education equality is the key to narrowing gaps between urban and rural areas and among different regions, and urged favoring remote, rural and poverty-stricken areas when distributing educational resources.

Teachers are the most valuable education resources, Li said, adding that greater education equality depends on more teachers serving underdeveloped regions.