Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, sent greetings to teachers and educators across the country ahead of Teachers' Day, which falls on Wednesday.

In a letter to eight rural teachers, Xi urged them to improve their teaching skills and cultivate more capable young people with the firm moral values, intellectual ability, physical vitality, aesthetic sense and work skills needed to join and carry forward the socialist cause.

The letter was sent in response to eight representatives from the Special Teaching Places Program, a central government-funded initiative that has sent some 1.18 million college graduates to teach in rural areas in central and western China since 2006. The program has covered over 30,000 schools in more than 1,000 counties in 22 provincial regions.

In the two decades since its introduction, teachers in the program have demonstrated the dedication and sense of responsibility that are typical of the people's teachers, Xi noted in the letter.

He urged them to continue to uphold their original mission in education and guide children to healthy growth.

In an instruction to the program, Premier Li Qiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, urged teachers and educators to work where the motherland and the people need them most and contribute more to building a strong education system.

CMG