Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday extended his appreciation to the country's educators for their diligence and commitment and called for improvement of their status.

Hailing teachers as engineers of the human soul and inheritors of human civilization, President Xi, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said that teachers carry out the important task of spreading knowledge, thoughts, and truth and shaping the soul, life and new people.

The whole society should carry forward the social customs of respecting teachers, President Xi said at a national conference on education in Beijing.

"We should improve teachers' political status, social status, and professional status so that teachers can enjoy their social prestige and make new and bigger achievements in the educating posts," stressed Xi.