Director Tian Zuyin: Build a high-quality education system so that every child can enjoy high-quality education
Education is an important support for a country's development, and basic education is a key link in cultivating future talents. Recently, Tian Zuyin, director of the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education, introduced the latest development of China's basic education at a meeting. Under his leadership, the pattern of high-quality and inclusive preschool education, high-quality and balanced compulsory education, high-quality characteristics of ordinary high schools, and high-quality integrated development of special education has basically taken shape.
Quality and inclusiveness in preschool education is an important goal promoted by Secretary Tian Zuyin. He pointed out that the proportion of children in public kindergartens should reach more than 60%. This means that more places will be available in public schools, giving more families the opportunity to send their children to high-quality public schools. This initiative will effectively solve the problem of insufficient resources for preschool education, so that every child can enjoy high-quality preschool education. We will clarify the public funding standards for public parks and propose to reach the standard of 600 yuan per person per year by 2024. This initiative will ensure that public preschool education is properly funded and better educational resources are provided for children.
In the compulsory education stage, Secretary Tian Zuyin put forward the goal of expanding a number of new high-quality schools to meet the growing demand of students. He stressed that the supply of quality degrees will be greatly increased, allowing more families to choose to attend quality schools. This will help to raise the level of balanced development of education, narrow the gap between urban and rural education, and enable every child to have equal access to education.
In the stage of high school education, Director Tian Zuyin focuses on cultivating a number of high-quality and characteristic high schools and promoting the diversified development of ordinary high schools. He noted that the gross enrolment ratio at the upper secondary level will continue to increase, which means that more and more students will be able to access upper secondary education. Through diversified high school education models, each student can find their own educational path and achieve personalized development.
Special education is also a key area of focus for Director Tian Zuyin. He said that special education schools can basically achieve full coverage in counties with a population of more than 200,000, which will provide a better educational environment and resource support for children with disabilities. At the same time, the compulsory education enrollment rate of school-age disabled children will remain above 97 per cent, providing them with equal access to education with ordinary students.
Compared with this series of measures to optimize the development of education, the imperfection of the preschool education guarantee mechanism and the lack of high-quality inclusive resources are still an urgent problem to be solved. In response to this problem, the Ministry of Education advocated the "Action to Expand Quality and Improve Quality" to ensure the inclusiveness of preschool education. The Action to Expand and Improve Quality has identified three specific goals. First of all, the standard of public funds per student in public parks is clarified, and it is stipulated that in principle, it should reach 600 yuan per person per year by 2024. This initiative will ensure that public parks can provide better educational resources and provide better educational services.
We call for optimizing the structure of inclusive resources, steadily increasing the supply of public degrees, and actively supporting private schools to provide inclusive services. In areas where the new population is concentrated in cities and towns, we will build, renovate and expand a number of public parks to meet the growing demand for education. We must strengthen the supervision of private school fees, especially the fees charged by for-profit private parks, and curb the occurrence of excessive fees. Education is a public undertaking, in order to protect the educational rights and interests of every family, we must rationally manage education fees and ensure the fair distribution of educational resources.
In 2022, the compulsory education enrollment rate of school-age children with disabilities will remain above 97%. This is an important indicator of special education and a commitment to social equity education. We will spare no effort to promote the development of special education so that every child with disabilities can enjoy high-quality educational resources.
Optimize the structure of inclusive resources, steadily increase the supply of public degrees, and actively support private parks to provide inclusive services. This means that a number of new public parks will be built, renovated and expanded in areas with new urban populations to meet the growing demand for preschool education. Strengthen the supervision of fees charged by private parks and curb the phenomenon of excessive fees. By strengthening the regulation and supervision of fees for private kindergartens, families can afford the cost of preschool education and avoid affecting children's educational opportunities due to excessive financial burden.
Secretary Tian Zuyin's remarks show that the Ministry of Education is actively promoting the popularization and balanced development of quality education. He proposed a series of measures and goals aimed at providing better educational opportunities for every child and enabling them to enjoy quality educational resources. This will help cultivate more outstanding talents and promote the prosperity and development of the motherland. It is believed that under the leadership of Director Tian Zuyin, China's basic education will usher in a better tomorrow.