On September 26, 2025, coinciding with the arrival of China's first statutory "National Science Popularization Month," the "Youth Science Literacy Enhancement Program Summary and Outlook Meeting and Scientists Meet-and-Greet" was held at the China Science and Technology Building. The event was jointly hosted by the China Next Generation Education Foundation and Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd.
Distinguished attendees included Gu Xiulian, former Vice Chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress, Director of the China Care for the Next Generation Work Committee, and founding President of the China Next Generation Education Foundation; Jin Yong, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; Wang Weiguo, President of the China Next Generation Education Foundation; Huang Baoxin, Deputy Party Secretary and Deputy General Manager of Ping An Group; Tao Qing, Director of the Working Committee for Caring for the Next Generation of Yunnan Provincial Department of Education; and representatives from over 20 technology enterprises and public welfare organizations, as well as teachers and students from beneficiary schools across seven provinces including Inner Mongolia, Henan, Guizhou, and Yunnan.
The meeting comprehensively summarized the achievements of the Youth Science Literacy Enhancement Program over its six-year implementation and launched the 2025-2026 project phase. During the meeting, the "Youth Science Literacy Enhancement Program Expert Panel" appointment ceremony was held. Gu Xiulian presented appointment letters to the first batch of expert representatives, including Academician Jin Yong from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Senior Researcher Tang Ming from the Purple East Taichu Large Model Center of the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Researcher Wang Su from the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, and Professor Liu Dong from Tongji University. In the future, the expert panel will focus on project curriculum development and activity design, providing professional guidance for precise targeting and professional oversight of youth scientific literacy cultivation.
**Standing on National Strategy, "Youth Science Literacy Enhancement Program" Benefits Over 310,000 Students**
Wang Weiguo pointed out in his speech that under the high attention, caring guidance, and personal promotion of Vice Chairwoman Gu Xiulian, and with professional empowerment from academicians and experts, the China Next Generation Education Foundation has partnered with Ping An Group, adhering to the principle of inclusiveness, implementing a solid public welfare platform, focusing on relatively underdeveloped regions and ethnic minority areas, delivering high-quality science education resources to the places that need them most, thus delivering an outstanding "educational public welfare report card."
Looking to the future, the project will be based on developing new quality productive forces, strengthening the cultivation of core scientific literacy, exploring new models of science education public welfare covering all personnel, all processes, all aspects, and all educational stages, implementing a "four ones" strategy, strengthening collaborative cooperation with scientific research institutions and technology enterprises, promoting students to have broader horizons, more open thinking, more open concepts, and more professional expertise, allowing them to shine with youthful vigor and achieve outstanding lives in the torrent of national construction and national rejuvenation.
Huang Baoxin emphasized in his address that Ping An has always kept the original intention of "serving the country through finance and giving back to society" deeply ingrained, consistently transforming its "finance + technology" advantages into practical measures for serving the country and warming society, making Ping An's strength a warm current driving the development of science popularization and science education. He looks forward to more technology enterprises and scientific research institutes joining the project implementation, working with Ping An to build an open, shared, mutually beneficial science education public welfare ecosystem, gathering more forces to "fuel" rural children.
Academician Jin Yong emphasized in his address that "the foundation of technological innovation lies in education, and science popularization education is an important bridge connecting scientific research and youth, a key link in cultivating the 'soil' for technological innovation, promoting balanced urban-rural science and education resources, and improving national scientific literacy."
Tao Qing highly affirmed the project's effectiveness in her speech, stating that "over the past six years, the Youth Science Literacy Enhancement Program has steadily advanced in Yunnan, not only donating science education materials to schools but also supporting the Yunnan Provincial Education System Working Committee for Caring for the Next Generation in conducting diverse science and technology activities, from receiving charitable donations to organizing point-to-point, face-to-face, online and offline combined science and technology teacher training, helping the scientific literacy of teachers and students across Yunnan Province to be greatly improved."
As one of the initiating units of the "Youth Science Literacy Enhancement Program" public welfare project, Ping An has continuously built and maintained 119 Hope Primary Schools since donating the first Ping An Hope Primary School in 1994, gradually forming Ping An's education public welfare "five major projects" including: campus hardware maintenance, curriculum training, scholarships and grants, teaching support actions, and summer camps. More than 1,000 Ping An employees and external caring individuals apply to participate in Ping An's public welfare teaching support actions annually, with online remote science and technology courses covering over 30 million person-times.
Currently, the Youth Science Literacy Enhancement Program has been implemented for six years, achieving significant phased results and winning widespread praise. The project has covered 1,058 rural primary schools in all 27 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, benefiting over 310,000 students and more than 20,000 rural teachers; carefully created "Science Ignites Dreams・Technology Enterprise Open Day" science experience activities, organizing over 3,000 youth to visit technology enterprises such as China Mobile, BYD, and AIDA Cruises to closely experience the charm of cutting-edge technology; trained over 30,000 education workers through online and offline combined methods, effectively improving the teaching capabilities of rural science teachers and building a "science education team that cannot be taken away"; initially constructed a collaborative education mechanism among government, charitable organizations, enterprises, schools, and social organizations, bridging the gap between scientific knowledge and application scenarios.
**Gathering Diverse Forces, "Technology Enterprise Open Day" Fully Upgraded**
With the implementation of the latest revised content of the "Law of the People's Republic of China on Science and Technology Popularization" and the in-depth implementation of "Opinions on Strengthening Science Education Work in Primary and Secondary Schools in the New Era" and "Guidelines for General Artificial Intelligence Education in Primary and Secondary Schools," "deepening science education methods, promoting diverse social participation, and building quality science education platforms" has become a new topic for project deepening.
At the meeting, the Youth Science Literacy Enhancement Program 2025-2026 project was launched, which will inject new momentum into youth science education through four actions: building "one science popularization instructor team," implementing "a batch of offline public welfare science popularization activities," producing "a series of real-scenario public welfare science popularization video courses," and developing "a set of science popularization resource packages based on real scenarios," providing an exploration path for science education that combines "knowledge and practice."
After the summary and outlook meeting, an interactive scientists meet-and-greet was held as scheduled. Academician Jin Yong from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Researcher Tang Ming from the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Researcher Liu Qian from Beijing Planetarium (astronomy science popularization writer) engaged in face-to-face exchanges with student representatives in a lively atmosphere. Students actively asked questions, from "how to cultivate scientific thinking" to "what life scenarios will AI change in the future," to "how many unsolved mysteries does the universe have," with questions full of childlike wonder and curiosity.
Academician Jin Yong combined his own scientific research experience to explain the importance of innovation through "small stories from the laboratory"; Researcher Tang Ming analyzed AI application examples in education and healthcare, looking forward to new technological breakthroughs; Researcher Liu Qian used plain language to "unveil the universe's veil," taking everyone to "understand the starry sky." The scientists' answers not only conveyed knowledge but also ignited the children's scientific enthusiasm. Participating students expressed: "This exchange made me more interested in science, and I want to become a scientist in the future!" The meet-and-greet concluded successfully in a harmonious and enthusiastic atmosphere.
On the day of the event, experts, scholars, educators, and technology enterprise representatives were also invited to convene a research and exchange meeting for the Youth Science Literacy Enhancement Program, exploring new development paths around the "new normal of science-education integration" and gathering educational synergy through multi-party exchanges. Companies including Alibaba, Tencent, ZTE, and Gotion High-tech shared their practical experiences in public welfare science popularization. JD.com, Lenovo, Hainan Commercial Development, Peking University Healthcare, Yili, and LONGi Green Energy discussed building diverse collaborative mechanisms for youth science popularization.
Participants believed that technology enterprises, as the main bodies of technological innovation and industrial development, possess cutting-edge technological resources and application scenarios, and can play a greater role in science popularization and science education in the future. By opening scientific research facilities, transforming innovative technologies, and developing high-quality science popularization courses, enterprises can not only transform cutting-edge technology into educational content that youth can perceive and understand, but also provide continuous resource support for scientific literacy cultivation, thereby constructing diversified and sustainable support and guarantee mechanisms for science popularization and science education, further promoting cross-border integration and resource sharing, helping youth science education reach new heights.
Ping An stated that this meeting is both a comprehensive summary of the project's phased work and a key opportunity to gather multi-party consensus, integrate quality resources, and deepen collaborative cooperation. Standing at a new starting point, the Youth Science Literacy Enhancement Program will actively respond to national strategies and advance work in four aspects: first, using technology enterprises as carriers to develop cutting-edge science popularization content, build practical platforms, and cultivate scientific thinking; second, integrating diverse public welfare forces to provide support for disadvantaged areas in terms of equipment, technology, and talent; third, promoting industry-academia-research collaboration to construct collaborative education models among schools, scientific research institutions, and enterprises; fourth, using digital means to promote educational equity, narrow resource gaps, and ensure inclusive sharing.