II. The main goals and tasks of educational development during the 11th Five-Year Plan

On the fifth Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCCPC), it is proposed that the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education and the strategy of strengthening the country by human resources will be unswervingly carried out.  It is also proposed that education will be placed on a priority status in the nation’s modernization process.  Also on this session, China’s educational reform and development during the 11th 5-Year Plan has been clearly clarified.  The Outline for educational development in China during the 11th 5-Year Plan is being drafted and our preliminary ideas are as following.

First, under the theoretical guidance of Deng Xiao-ping Theory and Three Represents’, with quality-oriented education as a main theme, we will try to cultivate builders and successors who are fully developed morally, intellectually, physically and aesthetically for our socialistic mission. Secondly, with popularization, development and improvement as main tasks, which means to universalize and consolidate compulsory education, vigorously develop vocational education and improve the quality of higher education, we will promote the all-round, coordinated and sustainable development of educational undertakings.  Thirdly, with the reform of educational system and mechanism as a main force, we will enhance the dynamics of education and continue to provide educational services which can satisfy the public so as to usher China’s educational reform and development into a new stage

The main objectives of educational development for the 11th 5-year Plan are as the following.  We will completely popularize the nine-year compulsory education across China and cover 100% of the relevant age groups.  We will achieve more development in pre-school education and special education, increase the enrollment rate of senior secondary education to nearly 80%, and fulfill an equivalence in the enrollment of the secondary vocational education and general secondary education.  Furthermore, the gross enrollment rate of higher education is expected to reach 25% and vocational training, further education and adult education of various forms will witness more development.  The establishment of a learning society will enter into a new era.

For the above mentioned purposes, we will try our best in the following aspects.

1. We will fully implement the educational policy of the CPC and the nation, and substantially promote quality education

We will continue a student-centered policy to cultivate constructors and successors with full development morally, intellectually, physically and aesthetically for our socialistic cause.  We will also strengthen the moral education for pupils and college students and to explore the most effective methods to make moral education more purposeful, efficient, attractive and appealing.  We will take a correct attitude towards education, and promote the reforms on basic education curriculum, training patterns, teaching contents and teaching methods in order to enhance the quality of education.  Additionally, we will adopt measures to reduce the overloaded burden of the students by correcting the wrong attitude which only emphasizes on the attendance rates of graduates to the next stage education.  Meanwhile, we will strengthen and improve physical and aesthetical education by encouraging and organizing students to take part in all kinds of productions, social activities, volunteer programmes and rich on-campus activities.  We will improve the abilities of teachers to implement quality-oriented education. Moreover, we will reform and improve the examine evaluation system to establish a reasonable evaluation system which is in accordance with the demand of quality-oriented education.  In addition, we will actively explore the reform of enrollment system, and strictly implement the policy concerning primary schools entrance (which means that pupils can be exempt from entrance exam, but they must choose schools in vicinity of their home) during the period of compulsory education.  We will strengthen the combination of school education, family education and social education in order to call on the whole society to strive together to form a favourable environment for quality-oriented education.

2. We will try to fulfill the tasks of universalizing compulsory education, developing vocational education and improving the quality of higher education so as to promote a balanced and sustainable development of education in China.

First, we will universalize and consolidate nine-year compulsory education. In line with the strategy of developing a new socialist countryside and improving the quality of the whole public, education in rural areas, as the priority of all priorities, will be attached great importance.  The project of "two basics" (which means to basically universalize 9-Year compulsory education and to basically eradicate illiteracy among the middle and young aged groups) in western area has been actively promoted so that the objectives of this project will be achieved by 2007.  We will deepen and improve the reform on the funding guarantee system for rural compulsory education and establish a long-term financial guarantee system for it.  In 2006, we will exempt all the tuitions and miscellaneous fees involved in compulsory education in the rural area of western China.  In 2007, this policy will be expanded to the central and eastern parts of China.  We will further enhance the universalization and quality of compulsory education, strengthen the establishment of teaching cohorts, improve teaching condition in rural schools and establish long-distance education network all over the rural areas, so that all the schools will meet the primary standards on schooling.  We will strive to promote a balanced and harmonious development of compulsory education, intensify our efforts to improve poor-conditioned schools in cities and countryside, and to guarantee that each school offering compulsory education will be a good school.  Besides, we also will pay more attention to the education of disadvantaged groups and further solve the problems concerning the access to compulsory education of children of migrant peasants and those left at countryside. 

Secondly, we will strive to develop the vocational education. We will further establish the employment-oriented and service-oriented concept to radically change of thought, model and development of vocational education in order to meet the urgent demand for qualified labors and skillful workers in the process of establishing a well-off society. Vocational schools should base their education on the needs of our society, market and social production and then take diversified training patterns. Vocational education will mainly focus on vocational and practical skills. At the same time, professional ethic education with commitment, honesty and accountability as the core will be also emphasized.  We will improve the capacity of vocational education of contributing to the social and economic development.  For this, we will implement the “National Training Programme on Skillful Workers”、“Training Programme for Labor Force Transfer from Rural Areas to Urban Areas”、“Training Programme for Application Skills in Rural Areas” and “Training Programme on Further Education and Re-employment Training for Adults”.  In terms of the infrastructure of vocational education, we will try to improve the capacity building by implementing the “Programme for Building Vocational Education Training Bases”、“Programme for Developing Vocational Education Centers in Counties”、“Programme for Developing Exemplary Schools in Vocational Education”and “Programme for Improving The Quality of Teachers in Vocational Schools”.  With all of these programmes, we will build 2000 vocational education application centers, 1000 vocational education centers in countries, 1000 exemplary secondary vocational schools and 100 exemplary senior vocational schools.  In addition, we will further expand the scale of vocational education and promote a balanced development of vocational education and regular education.

Thirdly, we will take concrete measures to improve the quality of higher education. We will continue “211 Project” and “985 Scheme”, emphasize on technology innovation, cultivate talents with creativity and completely improve our capacity of self-innovation so that top universities in China will become an important force for the establishment of an innovative nation.  We will implement the programs on quality improvement and design a quality evaluation system.  We also will deepen the reform of technological and operational systems to explore a positive system which integrates production, learning and research together.  Additionally, we originality and integrative innovation will be prioritized to improve the abilities of applied research and of transforming technological results into industrial production.  Moreover, we will continue the research of Marxism for the development and the prosperity of humanity and social science in HEIs. 

3. We will intensify our efforts to teaching cohort building and to comprehensively improve the quality of teachers

In this area, our efforts are mainly as follows.  We will strengthen the establishment of a teaching cohort for primary and secondary schools, with an emphasis on rural areas.  We will also strengthen the aiding partnership between teachers from cities and countryside while encouraging more university graduates to teach in rural areas.  Effective training will be offered to teachers to help them substantially improve their capacity and a new teacher training system with more openness and flexibility will be created as well.  In addition, we will reform the criteria of professional access and the payment system of teachers, introduce a new mechanism for the employment of all teachers and improve the incentive mechanism and self-obligation mechanism for teachers.  We will prioritise the ethics of teachers when developing the teaching cohort.  Furthermore, we will enhance the training of qualified bilingual teachers (Chinese and the ethnic language) for the ethnic minorities and of teachers with two qualifications (qualification in both theory and practice) for vocational schools.  With new mechanisms and methods, the teaching cohort for vocational education at various levels will be greatly boosted.  In higher education, we will implement the strategy of “developing the institution through human resources”, producing a group of academic masters with international excellence.  In addition, we will also produce a large group of middle-aged and young leading academics and a number of groups which can undertake national key tasks and participate in international competitions.

4. We will Deepen educational reform and expand international cooperation

The reform on management system will be further deepened.  We will consolidate and improve the newly established management mechanism for compulsory education in rural areas, vocational education and higher education.  In accordance with relevant laws and regulations, schools are given the authority for self-administration.  Relations among government, schools and society will be smoothed out and a modern school system will finally take shape.  We will promote the reform of running schools so as to develop non-state education and explore new models for educational development, which will then lead to a variety in educational development process.  We will also continue to deepen the reform on internal management system and the personnel mechanism of schools.

Educational legislation is another part of our efforts.  Four existing laws are under amendment, namely Law on Compulsory Education, Education Law, Law on Higher Education, Law on Teachers, while five new laws are under drafting, namely Law on Academic Degrees, Law on Examinations, Law on Schools, Law on Lifelong Learning, and the  Law on Educational Input.

International cooperation and exchanges in education have been further strengthened.  Teaching Chinese as a foreign language in other countries has been accelerated with more “Confucius Institutes” to be established. Meanwhile, steps are being taken to improve relevant regulations and to establish a system for the evaluation of quality of overseas educational services

5. We will improve the management capacity for a healthy educational development

We will promote the stipulation of regulations concerning school management with the principles of “rigorous observation of school regulations and development of relevant norms and standards”.  We will establish new mechanism for school management, which guarantees effective regulation, management, supervision and thrifty.  In addition, we will enhance the capacity building of leading officials and intensify our efforts in corruption prevention by creating a punishment and prevention system which equally emphasizing education, system building and supervision.  We will further improve educational auditing, regulate financial management of all educational institutions, especially universities, and ensure the safety of the funds.  We also will correct various bad practices for the healthy development of education.

6. We will try to solve the problems of the common concern of the public and promote the openness, fairness and equity in education

We will continue the socialist and non-profit nature of education and to try our best to deal with the issues of common interests and ensure that all the people will have an equal access to education.  We will further improve the policies and systems for providing financial support to poor students and to increase our aiding efforts so that poor students will complete their courses and studies.  An aiding system for high school students, particularly for those in vocational schools will be established.   We will also improve the facilitation mechanism for poor students in HEIs with student loans as the main intervention, so that no students will drop out of school because of economic difficulties.  We will continue the ‘Sunshine Programme’ in university recruitment to ensure the whole recruitment process will be open, fair and justifiable.  Moreover, we will try every endeavour for the employability of university graduates and encourage them to take the jobs at the grass-root level.  We will also improve the warning system on safety and the counter-plan for emergencies and catastrophes.  Health care and epidemic prevention will also be developed to guarantee the safety, stability and peace of all schools.  Finally, we will take effective measures against unreasonable charges in the field of education.