A guiding document for education development over the next five years has been officially released. The State Council issued the Education Development 15th Five-Year Plan and ordered its implementation across all regions and departments. The plan is based on the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Education Powerhouse Construction Plan, aiming to accelerate the building of an education powerhouse.
The plan sets a core target for 2030: significant results in building an education powerhouse and the basic completion of a high-quality education system. By then, the Party's overall leadership over education will be more complete, morality education will yield greater results, people's sense of educational fulfillment will increase, education's support for science, technology, and talent will be stronger, a learning society will basically take shape, and China's education international influence, competitiveness, and discourse power will rise notably.
To achieve these goals, the plan outlines several strategic tasks. In morality education, it requires innovative ideological and political courses, integrated reform from primary to tertiary education, and strengthened student physical and mental health, for example ensuring no less than 2 hours of comprehensive physical activity per day for primary and secondary students and implementing a "15-minute break". For talent cultivation, the plan advances a new round of "Double First-Class" construction, modestly expanding its scope, while launching "Double Excellence" construction for high-level applied undergraduate universities and "New Double High" construction for vocational education.
Several new arrangements are made in the public education service. The plan proposes steadily expanding the scope of free education, exploring extending the compulsory education period, and increasing the supply of general senior high school places. For special groups, it ensures that children of relocated workers have equal rights to take the senior high school entrance exam in the destination city. Furthermore, undergraduate enrollment in "Double First-Class" universities will increase by over 100,000, and quality undergraduate education will continue to expand.
On teacher development, the plan stresses upholding teacher ethics as the top standard and applying "zero tolerance" for ethical breaches. It will also deepen the reform of teacher professional title systems and reduce non-teaching burdens. In terms of international openness, the plan proposes building the "Study in China" brand and deepening educational cooperation with other countries and international organizations.
The proportion of national fiscal education expenditure to GDP will remain above 4%. The plan also mandates advancing digital and intelligent transformation in education, carrying out the "AI + Education" action, and improving the education evaluation system to promote equity and quality.