Jiang attended the celebration along with other senior Chinese leaders Zhu Rongji, Li Ruihuan, Hu Jintao, Wei Jianxing and Li Lanqing.

At the beginning of his speech, Jiang expressed his warm congratulations to all the faculty, students, and schoolfellows of the university on the occasion of the centenary. He also congratulated all Chinese teachers and education professionals with regard to the upcoming September 10 National Teachers' Day.

He praised the achievements of the university, noting that it has cultivated large numbers of outstanding teachers and talents over the past 100 years and made great contributions to the cause of the nation.

Jiang stressed that innovations in education should be carried out in order to meet new challenges.

"We should further explore education laws within the context of the current circumstances, update our understanding of education and form ideas on education and talent in accordance with China's social and economic development in the 21st century," Jiang said.

He said in promoting the cause of education, China should make the best possible use of modern technology and actively borrow from advanced management and administrative experience in the world.

He stressed that in today's world, competition between different countries all boils down to the competition between talents and creativity of different nations. Education is the basis for talent cultivation and for strengthening creativity.

He said China would continue its unswerving implementation of the strategy of revitalizing the nation through science and education and asked Chinese teachers to continue to work hard to train more high-quality people for China's social and economic development.

More than 6,000 people attended the celebration for the university, which is known as a pioneer of China's teacher-training colleges and universities. Participants included a number of senior government officials, university presidents from China and abroad and faculty and students from this 100-year old university.

(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2002)