I.The Implementation of the 8th 5-Year Plan for Educational Development During the period of the 8th 5-Year Plan, especially since the implementation of the "Outline of Educational Reform and Development in China", remarkable achievements have been made in China's educational development.

The 9-Year Compulsory Education is universalized gradually as planned.
In 1995, the total enrollment of primary schools was 132 million with an enrollment rate of 98.5% among children of schooling age.This rate, as referred in the following text, is calculated in accordance with the schooling system and the starting age for primary education in different regions.The total enrollment of junior secondary schools including junior secondary vocational schools reached 47.275 million with a gross enrollment rate of 78.4%, representing an increase of 11.8% compared with that of 1990.97.6% of the teachers in primary schools had reached the quality standard and in junior secondary schools this rate was 74.9%, representing an increase of 23.7% and 18% respectively compared with that of 1990.The rate of endangered school buildings in primary and junior secondary schools was reduced to 1.8% and 1.7% respectively.
Secondary vocational education has been further developed and the single structure of senior secondary education has also been remarkably improved.
In 1995, the total enrollment of regular secondary vocational schools in China, including secondary specialized schools, technician schools and vocational high schools, amounted to 9.393 million.Compared to the enrollment of 1990, it represents an increase of 55.3%, indicating an average growth rate of 9.2%.The enrollment of regular high schools was 7.132 million, a reduction by 41,000 compared with the enrollment in 1990.The ratio of students enrolled in vocational schools among all the students in senior secondary education had increased from 45.7% in 1990 to 56.8% in 1995, representing an increase of 11.1%.
Higher education has enjoyed rapid development with an improvement in schooling efficiency.
In 1995, there were altogether 2210 higher education institutions (HEIs) in China, among which 1054 were regular HEIs and 1156 adult HEIs.The total enrollment of students in bachelor degree programmes and sub-degree programmes in 1995 reached 5.474 million, representing an increase by 46.9% compared with that in 1990, an annual increase rate of 8.0%.Among every population group of 100,000 people, 457 were students studying in HEIs and the gross enrollment rate among the age group of 18-21 was as high as 6.5%.From 1990 to 1995, the average enrollment of every HEI has been expanded from 1919 to 2759 and the ration between students and teachers has been increased from 5.2:1 to 7.3:1.If postgraduate students, international students, students for advanced studies, students in evening classes and correspondence classes are also calculated as the students in bachelor degree programme or sub-degree programme in accordance with the standard set by the government, the ration between students and teachers in regular HEIs has been increased from 6.6:1 to 8.9:1.
Efforts in science and technology are intensified and the quality of postgraduate education is further strengthened.
During the 8th 5-Year Plan, the efforts in scientific and technological research in HEIs have been further strengthened with a remarkable increase of input to it and a smooth transferring of outcomes.A group of achievements has received national, ministerial and provincial awards and the transformation has led to tremendous economic benefits.During this period, the State continued to invest in HEIs to establish 101 national key laboratories and 58 disciplinary laboratories.With the concentration on some HEIs, a group of advanced research bases and education bases are being shaped. In addition, postgraduate education has also enjoyed rapid developments with further improvement in the degree system.By the end of 1995, there have been 219 HEIs which are authorized to award Ph.D degrees and 471 to award master degrees.Ph.D programmes had been increased to 4000 and master programmes had also been increased to 7400.The total enrollment of postgraduate students had reached 145,000, an increase by 55.7% compared with that in 1990, indicating an average annual growth rate of 9.3%.
Great outcomes have been witnessed in illiteracy eradication, in-service training and adult education.
During the 8th 5-Year Plan, at least 4 million illiterates has become literate each year and the illiteracy rate among young and middle-aged group has reduced from 9.3% to less than 7%.In-service training and further education have also been developed proactively.In-service vocational and technical training has been offered at the scale of 140 million men-times.For peasants, the cultural training and training on applied technologies had been provided at the scale of more than 300 million men-times.A system for adult education with multi levels and various forms had gradually taken shape in China.
Reform on educational system has also received progress.

Basic education in China is mainly the responsibility of local governments.The system for providing and managing basic education at various levels has been improved, mobilizing the initiatives of local governments as well as the public, which then accelerates the universalization of compulsory education in China.The comprehensive reform on education in rural and urban areas has been undertaken widely and the teaching, research and social application have been integrated in higher education, establishing a closer linkage between education and economy, science and technology.Progresses have also been made in the reform of management system and education provision system of HEIs.The joint education provision mechanism between central and local governments has been built up among a group of HEIs, changing previous disadvantages of fragmentation, self-closure and single service, which have existed for a long time in the past.With the development of cooperatively-run schools and schools run by social sectors, a new system for education provision in which government acts as the main body with social sectors participating proactively has taken shape.Another progress could be identified in the recruitment and employment reform for the students from HEIs, secondary vocational schools and tertiary vocational institutions.In terms of funding for education, a multi-channel funding system with the government as the main body has been shaped. Moreover, the internal reform within education institutions is further proceeded, resulting in the increased capacity in providing education and adapting to the social needs.International cooperation and exchanges in the field of education has been expanded while the legal establishment for education has been remarkably development.Valuable experience has been accumulated for the management and adjustment at macro level.

It is safe to assume that the overall situation for educational development is satisfactory in China.However, it should be recognized that there is still discrepancy between China and mid-developed countries, and the current educational development still cannot fully meet the needs of the social, economic, scientific and technological development.Many problems and difficulties still exist in real practice.The main problems and difficulties include the overall lower educational level of the public, comparatively higher ratio of illiteracy and semi-illiteracy among the whole population and the huge number in real term.The reform on educational system still cannot adapt effectively to the needs of socialistic market economy and the coming 21st century.In basic education, the problems of solely pursuing high continuation rate and of too heavy burdens on students have not been fully tackled with.The system for running vocational education by all social sectors has not been established yet.In higher education, the deployment of HEIs and the structure of higher education are still not rational enough which have caused overlapping and over-fragmentation in disciplines.The overall efficiency of higher education provision needs to be improved in the future.Additionally, the input into education is still insufficient.While the payment and welfare package of the teachers still remain uncompetitive, it is difficult for the teachers to be devoted to delivering education, which then will have a negative impact on the improvement of teaching and education quality.

II.The Fundamental Guiding Philosophy for Educational Development in the Next 15 Years.

In the next 15 years, the basic guiding philosophy is to prioritize educational development with strategic importance in accordance with the development plan for national economic and social progresses, to further proceed the reform on educational system, to optimize the structure of education, to improve education quality and efficiency so that educational development will adapt to the social and economic development.

Education will be prioritized with strategic importance for further development to build up a cohesive relationship among education, economy and society.
The following 15 years will be a key period for us to establish our socialistic market economy, to fulfill the second strategic objective for overall modernization and to proceed towards the third strategic objective.To implement the strategy of Developing China through Science, Technology and Education to accelerate the economic and social progress, the key lies in the improvement of the educational level and the overall quality of the whole population in China, the effective development of human resources and the production of a large number of specialized talents.During the 9th 5-Year Plan, in accordance with the Law on Education, the Outline for Educational Reform and Development in China, and the spirit of the 5th Plenary Session of the 14th National Congress, proactive measures must be taken to prioritize education for further development with strategic importance and to increase input into education.All the measures should be continued till 2010 so that a cohesive development between economy and society will be finally materialized.
Led by 'Three Orientations', Education should adapt to the future needs.
Education is an undertaking which needs to adapt to the future needs, therefore it is necessary to adhere to the principle of 'Three Orientations', which means education should be oriented towards modernization, the whole world and the future.All the development policies and objectives should be finalized according to the principle, so that the systematic structure, development scale and development speed of education will meet the needs of future social progress.In addition, guided by the 'Three Orientation' principle, the reforms on education system, curriculum system, teaching contents and teaching methodologies should be carried out in depth, so that the quality improvement of the public and the specialized talents will adapt to the needs for future development.
The reform on educational system needs to be deepened to accelerate educational development.
During the transmission process in which the planned economy is being changed to socialistic market economy and the economic growth mode is changed from mass production to intensive one, the initiative of local governments, the society, teachers, and students would not be fully mobilized until the reform on educational system is deepened.Target at the problems of the planned economy, which include the over management of government on education, the Outline for Educational Reform and Development promulgated by the Sate Council and the Central Committee of CPC has identified clearly the direction and methodologies for the reform on education provision system, management system, educational investment system, the recruitment, fees-charging and student employment for HEIs and secondary specialized schools, and the internal management within schools.It should be one of the most important and urgent tasks for us to implement the Outline to deepen educational reform and establish a new one that will be adaptive to the socialistic market economy.
The relationship between scale and speed and between quality and efficiency should be dealt with properly and more attention should be attached to the improvement of quality and efficiency.
The coordinated relationship between scale and speed and between quality and efficiency should be dealt with properly to consistently implement the policy of integrating scale, speed and quality.Without scale, there will be no speed and without quality, efficiency will not be materialized either.To expand the scale is a kind of development and to improve quality and efficiency also demonstrates development.Facing the trend of neglecting quality and efficiency while emphasizing quantity and speed, it is necessary for us to prioritize the issue of improving quality and efficiency, so that the development mode of education should be changed from scale expansion and speed acceleration to quality and efficiency improvement.This principle should be implemented while deciding the development strategies and speed and the deployment of educational resources should also be decided by the integration of plan and market adjustment.
To always adhere to the socialistic direction so that the Party's educational policy will be implemented.
The profound task of education is to improve the quality of our nation, to produce the successors with overall development in intelligence, morale and physics for the socialistic undertakings.Schools of various types and at all levels should implement the Party's educational policies with socialistic direction, and educate the students with Maxism, Leninism and Mao Zedong Thoughts and the theory of establishing socialism with Chinese characteristics.Education should be integrated with production and social application together, so that the students will have passion for and be integrated with labor forces in industry and agriculture.Finally the rational value of the world and the value of serving for the people whole-heartedly will be established among the students.The moral education should be further strengthened in accordance with the features of different stages and ages.Education on the state, patriotism, collectivism, socialism, national unity and civilized behaviors needs to be strengthened, so that the students can growth into talents with culture, discipline and idealism.

III.The Objectives for Educational Development
During the 9th 5-year Plan, the overall objectives for the educational development are to implement the Outline for Educational Reform and Development, to fulfill the tasks for reform and development set by the 5th Plenary Session of the 14th National Congress with the priority on the universalization of 9-Year Compulsory education and illiteracy eradication among young and middle-aged groups, to proactively develop vocational and adult education, to develop higher education properly, to optimize the educational structure, to improve education quality and efficiency, and to establish a socialistic education system framework with Chinese characteristics and oriented towards the 21st century.More detailed performance targets for education at different levels and of various forms will be introduced.

The 9-Year Compulsory Education should be basically universalized and the illiteracy among young and middle-aged groups should be basically eradicated.
It is expected that the students studying in primary schools will reach 135 million, 3 million more than that of 1995, indicating an annual increase rate of 0.5%.The students studying in junior secondary schools will reach 55 million, 7.7 million more than that of 1995, indicating an annual increase rate of 3.1% and an enrollment rate as high as 85%.According to the standard of 9-Year Compulsory Education set up by provincial governments, the 9-Year Compulsory Education should be universalized in the area where 85% of the population inhabits.In the area where 10% of the population inhabits, 5-6 years primary education should be universalized and 3-4 years primary education should be universalized where 5% of the population inhabits. The drop-out rates for primary and junior secondary students are to reduced to less than 1% and 3% respectively, so that the discrepancies of enrollment rate between boys and girls, between rural areas and urban areas, between developed zones and poverty-stricken zones, between ethnic minority inhabiting zones and other regions will be decreased.More access to education should be provided to disabled children and young students.The gross enrollment rate of kindergartens for children of 3-5 ages should reach at least 45%, and problems of kindergarten access should be solved in big or middle-sized cities.In rural areas, 60% of the schooling children should receive one-year pre-school education in kindergartens or pre-school classes.
During the 9th 5-Year Plan, one of the priorities is to eradicate the illiteracy among the people of 15 years and above.Each year, at least 4 million illiterates should become literate and the maintenance rate after eradication should reach 95%.The illiteracy rate among young and middle-aged group is to be reduced to less than 5%.
Vocational education is to be developed proactively and the scale of regular senior education should be expanded properly.
It is expected that the students enrolled in senior secondary education will reach 21.25 million with an annual growth rate of 5.2%.With the proper expansion of higher education, the enrollment of regular senior secondary education will reach 8.5 million, 138,000 more than that of 1995, representing an annual increase rate of 3.6%.In vocational education, the priority will be placed on the post-junior secondary stage and a three-level system to streamline students after primary, junior secondary and senior secondary education will be established.The senior vocational education of various forms will altogether enroll 12.75 million students, 3.357million more than that of 1995.The annual increase rate in this category will reach 6.3 %.The proportion of students studying in senior secondary vocational schools among all the students in senior secondary education will increase to 60%.
The scale of higher education will be expanded properly with the optimization of its structure and the improvement of its quality and efficiency.
The total enrollment of HEIs will increase to 6.5 million, one million more than that of 1995.Among every group of 100,000 population, the number of students in HE will be increased to 500 and 85% of the people aged 18-21 will be enrolled in HE. Among the students in HEIs, 6.3 million will be undergraduate students and sub-degree students and the annual growth rate will reach 2.8%.Postgraduate students will increase to 200,000 with an annual growth rate of 6.6%.Students enrolled in regular HEIs will reach 3.5 million with an annual growth rate of 3.8% and those in adult HEIs will reach 2.8 million with an annual growth rate of 1.7%.
In terms of the level and structure of HEIs, the emphasis will be placed on tertiary short courses of 2-3 years, especially the tertiary vocational programmes and regular sub-degree programmes targeted at rural areas, small and medium sized enterprises, enterprises in townships, and the third industry in townships and counties.The total enrollment of this type of education is expected to reach 4.5 million.In disciplinary structure, the focus is on applied science, newly developed disciplines and the cutting-edge disciplines.Demands on human resources from national key industries, education and state defense will be met with preference.The implementation of 211 Project will be carried out to concentrate resources on 100 key HEIs and disciplines.
In accordance with the features of HEIs, the researches in natural science, humanity and social science will be developed proactively.Inter-institutional cooperation will be promoted and scholars will be organized together for research breakthroughs so that some important issues will be solved for economic and social development. Development in science and technology will be strengthened and high-tech enterprises will be established with purpose to promote knowledge transferring and contribute to social development in various forms.Postgraduate students and undergraduate students from senior grades will be organized to participate into researches to accelerate the knowledge transfer from scientific research outcomes to teaching practice and to contribute to the quality improvement of HEIs in various forms.
Vocational Education will be strengthened.
While efforts are devoted to degree education, non-degree education should also be developed with commitment.The development of cultural and vocational training centers at country level and townships level will be strengthened and secondary vocational schools should open to the society and offer various training programmes. Adult education should focus on in-service training and further education for adults. During the 9th 5-Year Plan, vocational and further education should witness remarkable progress through the development of vocational training institutions, vocational schools at various levels, adult schools, and distance education via television, broadcasting and correspondence.By the end of this century, 50% of the graduates in rural areas who have completed junior secondary education but do not continue their education further should receive various training.In urban areas, this ration should reach 70%.
The main objectives for educational development by 2010 include the universalization of 9-Year Compulsory Education, illiteracy eradication among young and middle-aged groups and more developments for vocational and adult education.The level of access to higher education should reach that of middle developed countries and the education provision conditions for schools at various levels and of various forms should be greatly improved with a remarkable improvement of education quality and efficiency.The performance targets include that the illiteracy among young and middle-aged groups should be reduced to less than 1% and 90% of the adult should become literate.The outcomes of illiteracy eradication should be consolidated through cultural and technical education and training.The number of students in primary schools should remain 130 million and in junior secondary schools will reach 63 million with the enrollment rate of 95%.The 9-Year Compulsory Education should be universalized in the area where 95% of the population inhabits.55% of the children aged 3-5 should have access to kindergartens or such classes.In senior secondary education, the total student number should increase to3.5 million and that in secondary vocational schools should reach 21million. In higher education, the enrollment is expected to reach 9.5 million and among every 100,000 people, 700 should receive higher education.The gross enrollment rate of higher education should increase to 11%.For postgraduate education, the training scale should increase to 300,000 to 350,000 with more than 10,000 graduates from master and doctor programmes each year.Various pre-service and in-service training as well as further education will be further developed.A modern education system for life long learning will be finally established in which degree education and non-degree education are attached equal importance, education at different levels could be continued smoothly and vocational and regular education will be integrated.

IV.The Objectives and Steps for Reform on Education System
In the following 15 years, the tasks for the reform on educational system is to deepen all reforms in the field of education in accordance with the Outline for Educational Reform and Development to establish an education system and operation mechanism which adapt to the socialistic market economy and political system.

For the reform on education provision system, during the 9th 5-Year Plan, efforts in legislature on education provision by social sectors will be intensified with the focus on secondary education, especially the vocational education at various levels so as to develop proactively non-public schools of various forms.When environment permits, the existing public schools could also be changed into schools run by governments but facilitated by social sectors, or schools run by social sectors but facilitated by governments.By the year 2010, a new system in which government remains as the main body for education provision with participation of all social sectors will finally be established in China.Public and non-public schools will both enjoy development,

For the reform on HEIs management system, during the 9th 5-Year Plan, the 'Joint Establishment' and 'Joint Education Provision' will become the main format for HE provision, so as to expand the funding channels and service groups and to reduce and change the single administrative relationship for HEIs.Macro management and integration of various parts by the provincial government will be further strengthened. When proper, the merge among HEIs will be promoted.Some HEIs which are now administered by central governments, have high capacity in disciplinary application and meet the needs of local development, would be then administered by provincial governments instead.By 2010, only few typical key HEIs and some HEIs with strong professional background which are not convenient for local governments to manage will be administered directly by central government.For many other HEIs, their administration will change to local governments or rely local governments as the main administrative body.The personnel reform and distribution system within HEIs will be further developed.Logistics within HEIs will be outsourced so that the vigor of HEIs will be remarkably increased and the efficiency of HEIs will be greatly improved in the future.

For the comprehensive educational reform in rural and urban areas, it is expected that a coordination team will be established led by local governments and participated by planning department, financing and tax department, science and technology department, education department, labor department and personnel department so that an overall planning for the development of economy, science, technology and education can be set up.The integration among agriculture, science and education and the integration of basic education, vocational education and adult education and the development of Liaoyuan Programme, Xinhuo Project, and Harvest Scheme will be promoted in the future.Pilots on community education based on the local development needs and the features of different education should be proceeded to further drive the comprehensive educational reform in urban areas and to explore modern enterprise education system and the new management system for education in urban areas.

For the reform on operation mechanism, under the precondition that the national policies will remain unified, education will be planned by regions and directed by types in accordance with the unevenness in regional development.The function of governments should be changed from the direct administration to HEIs to provide macro management by legislature, planning, funding, information provision, policy guidance and necessary administrative measures.The legal person status of schools should be clearly identified and implemented so that schools can have the authority to provide education to meet the social needs.By 2010, a mature educational legal system and the consultation system, information system and evaluation system for policy-making should be established so that finally an new operation mechanism in which schools will develop by themselves with self-restraint will be finally built up.

For the reform on student recruitment, fees-charging and graduates employment, during the 9th 5-Year Plan, the two tracks of government-fund student and self-fund students in HEIs and secondary specialized schools should be integrated so all the students should pay fees for education.At the same time, scholarships, student loans, part-time jobs provision, and the remission of tuitions and stipends for poor students should be further improved.With the development of reforms on personnel system and recruitment system, the reform on graduate employment will be further promoted. In the current stage and near future, the employment system will mainly involve meetings between employers and students with both sides having the freedom for final choice.By 2010, a new employment system in which all the graduates will take job-hunting by themselves with the national policy guidance.For those students recruited with clear orientation and those who enjoy earmarked scholarships or oriented scholarships, their employment will be directed in accordance with the previously agreed orientation or contracts.

As for the reform on teaching, efforts should be continued to change the old teaching philosophy, reform the teaching materials and methodologies so that the problem of education in schools not reflecting economic and social progress will be solved.The curriculum will be adjusted according to the needs of modernization and the teaching content will be updated by the latest developments in science, technology and culture. Training on basic knowledge, theories and skills will be further emphasized.In the field of HE, the service profile for disciplines will be expanded and the teaching and training for application and internship will also be strengthened, so that teaching, research and social application can be integrated and the students' capacity in analyzing and solving problems will be improved.For primary students, the reform on accessing to nearby schools will be continued.The reform on graduation examination for junior school students, senior school students and reform on National Entrance Examination for HE will all be continued so that the heavy burden on students will be reduced and the students will grow up into a new generation with overall development in intelligence, morale and physics.

V.Policies and Measures.

More efforts will be devoted to materialize the 'Priority Among Priorities' of basically universalizing 9-Year Compulsory Education and basically eradicating illiteracy among young and middle-aged groups (hereinafter referred to as 'Two basics'), to ensure that the relevant tasks will be fulfilled in time.
In order to guarantee that the tasks for basically universalizing 9-Year Compulsory Education and basically eradicating illiteracy among young and middle-aged groups will be fulfilled in time, it is necessary for us to properly deal with the relationship among three elements that are pointed out by the 5th Plenary Session of the 14th National Congress.The three elements are to regard compulsory education as the priority, to proactively develop vocational and adult education and to develop higher education properly.The inputs into 'Two basics" should be ensured so as to materialize its status of 'Priority among Priorities'.According to the level of economic development and the bases of educational development, the whole nation is divided into three zones, i.e.the eastern coastal zones, normal middle China zones and western poor zones.Different directions will be provided to the three zones.All the provinces, municipalities directly under the State Council and the autonomous regions should comply with their own realities to implement and fulfill the tasks of 'Two basics' through provincial, county-level and township-level planning with the country level planning as the main body.The universalization of compulsory education and the illiteracy eradication should be connected together and be developed step by step from universalizing 6 years education to finally universalizing 9 years education.The efforts in this area should be evaluated by this order as well. The National Scheme for Compulsory Education in Poor Areas will be implemented to intensify the supports to the universalization of compulsory education in poor areas and ethnic minority areas.For poor areas, it should be aware that the responsibility of universalizing compulsory education relies mainly on local governments.While depending mainly on themselves, local governments in poor areas will receive the support from central governments, international organizations and individuals and other developed provinces to mobilize the initiative of the local people to accelerate the universalization of compulsory education and illiteracy eradication to reduce the discrepancies between developed areas and under-developed areas. Reform on teaching will be promoted to adjust teaching contents, upgrade teaching methodologies and help students ill disciplined and not performed well academically.Effective measures need to be taken to solve the problems of solely pursuing high continuation rate and of heavy burdens for students.More efforts will be devoted to those schools with poor performance to reduce the discrepancy between key schools and non-key schools.In the areas where conditions permit, the starting age for primary education should be transmitted to six years old and in areas where primary and secondary education are integrated together into eight years, the schooling years should be gradually changed to nine years.
Vocational education should be developed proactively to stabilize the level of secondary vocational schools
Under the overall planning of the government, vocational education should be provided by professional associations, enterprises, non-profit organizations and social resources jointly.The responsibilities and the status of the parties involved will be identified clearly by legislature.To match the skill criteria set up for different posts by personnel departments and professional bodies, a new system in which all the employees will receive training before taking the post will be implemented. Vocational certificate and degree certificates will be attached equal importance. Vocational education should be oriented to the social needs and increase its adaptive capacity.More researches in the meaning and features of higher vocational education should be carried out in the future.Based on existing HEIs, teaching reform for higher vocational education should be implemented to improve the adaptive capacity and develop higher vocational education.In order to ensure that the secondary vocational school can build up their own advantages and improve their quality based on their administrative relationships, the educational level and the service profile, the level of secondary vocational schools should be stabilized so that the level of the schools will match the level of the talents they produce.
The deployment of HEIs will be adjusted to improve efficiency.
There have been many HEIs in China.As long as the existing scale of HE is expanded properly, the objective of enrolling 6.3 million students in HE by the end of this century will be fulfilled successfully.For this purpose, during the 9th 5-Year Plan, the upgrading of secondary specialized schools and tertiary colleagues will be strictly managed.So will be the establishment of new schools.Based on overall planning, the deployment adjustment of HEIs will be carried out step by step.The efficiency of HE will be improved through inter-institutional cooperation and joint education provision. It is expected that by the end of this century, the deployment of HEIs within a province should be more rational and the ration between students and teachers will be further reduced and the average enrollment scale of HEIs, their ratio between students and teachers and the ratio between teaching staff and non-teaching staff should be all improved.
An effective macro adjustment system for higher education is to be established.
During the generation and development of socialistic market economy, a macro management system that is adaptive to educational system reform must be built up to improve and strengthen the macro management in the field of education.Through interventions such as overall planning, policies and strategies, information guidance, inspection, evaluation and funding, an effective macro adjustment mechanism is to be established to prevent the unbalance of educational system and avoid up and downs. The nature of planning in macro-level, strategic orientation and policy guidance and the nature of the planning objectives in estimation and direction should be emphasized, so that the organizations and the educational institutions at grass-root level can carry out their business in accordance with their own situation guided by the national policies.With the accumulation of experience and the development of macro adjustment mechanism, the authority in education provision of the provincial governments and the educational institutions will be expanded gradually.During the 8th 5-Year Plan, higher education enjoyed rapid development but the input into higher education was insufficient, which had led to a tight condition for education provision. During early stage of the 9th 5-Year Plan, the development speed should be properly managed and in the later stage higher education should be properly developed according to the input and environment.
The development of teaching cohort needs to be strengthened.
The quality and quantity of teaching cohort is determinative to educational development.During the 9th 5-Year Plan, in accordance with the degree requirement set up by 'Law on Education' and 'Law on Teachers', the proportion of teachers in primary and secondary schools who have reached the degree requirement needs to be further increased.In the next century, the ration of backbone teachers also needs to be improved through recruiting new teachers with high degrees.Teacher training at various level needs to be emphasized and the percentage of graduates from teacher training institutions needs to be increased.Graduates from non-teacher training institutions are encouraged to teach in secondary schools and to serve as teachers for specialized courses of vocational schools.The teachers' certificate system will be implemented carefully to improve the evaluation, employment and promotion mechanism for teachers and to optimize the structure of teaching cohort.The professional quality of the teachers needs to be further improved to encourage their loyalty to education.An environment in which teachers love the students and are respected by their students will be generated.During the 9th 5-Year Plan, the remuneration of teachers will be further improved and the problems of delaying the payment and of health care of the teachers should be solved in real term.The issue of Minban teachers will be solved through closure, transmission, recruitment, fire and retirement.Housing construction for teachers will be proactively promoted so that the average house area of teachers will meet or exceed that of local people.
The condition of education provision should be improved gradually as planned.
In the near future, financial resources should be concentrated to improve the schooling conditions step by step so as to lay a solid material foundation for the quality improvement of the whole nation.In basic education, after the realization of 'one without and two withs', more efforts should be devoted to the development of standard construction of schools to solve the problem of shortage of teaching tools, experimental equipments and books.The translation and publication of teaching materials for ethnic minority education should be ensured.In HEIs and secondary vocational schools, the construction of laboratory bases, internship places and libraries needs to be strengthened with supplement of necessary equipments, books, journals and other materials so that experimental teaching should be carried out in accordance with the teaching plan and teaching syllabus.Inter-institutional cooperation needs to be developed to share resources and increase the efficiency of using all kinds of equipments and infrastructures.Governments at all levels and relevant parties should provide preferential policies for the publication of textbooks and teaching and learning assistant books, and for the development, production and supply of teaching equipments.
Input into education needs to be ensured and the investment efficiency needs to be improved.
In order to meet the needs of educational development, by the end of this century, the educational expenditure within fiscal budget is expected to cover 4% of GDP.By 2010, this figure needs to be further increased to the level of middle-developed countries.This is the basic precondition to fulfill the objectives of educational development in China.Starting from the implementation of the strategy of Rejuvenating China through Education, Science and Technology, government at all levels should make the regulations and interventions for fund-raising for educational development to further increase the input into education.It should be ensured that within budgets of various levels, the educational budget should be higher than regular fiscal increase and the average educational input of students studying in schools and the average public fund on them will be both increased gradually.A new educational funding system in which the governmental funds will remain as the main body and supplemented by educational taxes, charging tuition fees for non-compulsory education, developing school-run enterprises, encouraging social donations, and establishing educational foundations, will be finally built up to realize a faster and remarkable increase into educational input.The funding methodologies in education will be reformed to optimize the resource deployment, so the funding direction will echo the strategic development of education to avoid structural waste.The philosophy of depending on ourselves and working hard should be disseminated while the financial system within educational sector needs to be improved further to strengthen auditing and supervision of educational finance.More efforts will be committed to a better management of the registration fees.
The legal system for education needs to be built up and improved to strengthen the supervision and evaluation of education.
The promulgation and implementation of Law on Compulsory Education, Law on Teachers and Law on Education provide a solid foundation for administrating education in accordance with laws.During the 9th 5-Year Plan, more efforts will be intensified to disseminate and implement the promulgated laws and regulations so that all the behaviors of governments at all levels, all social sectors and schools will meet the requirements set up by laws and regulations.The preparation and publication of Law on Vocational Education and Law on Higher Education as well as the draft and researches on other laws and regulations needs to be accelerated so that a serious of laws and regulations which is urgently needed by educational reform and development and enjoy a mature environments, can be promulgated soon.A developed legal system framework for educational development will be established to provide legal foundation for the educational management and administration.In order to ensure the effective implementation of educational policies and the stable improvement of educational quality and efficiency, more supervision on primary and secondary education and illiteracy eradication is required to establish a better supervision system.For higher education and secondary vocational education, an evaluation system with educational quality and efficiency as the priority will be gradually built up.
The follow-up activities after planning will be strengthened.
In order to guarantee the successful implementation of this Outline, it is necessary to promote educational planning in all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under that State Council and the central departments, so the national development objectives will be finally fulfilled.The initiatives of the policy-makers, managers and educational researchers need to be fully mobilized so that the key issues in educational planning and development will be followed up and researched and more suggestions for policy making will be generated for reference.A supervision system on the implementation progress needs to be established to analyze and compare the progress with the planned objectives so that experience and lessons will be collected timely and responding policies will be made in due time.Based on the supervision index and the educational data collection, the educational departments of central and local governments will produce their own annual supervision report.