Speeches

MOF: Giving priority to funding for education

Source: People’s Daily
2018-09-13

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the financial departments of local governments increased financial input, adjusted investment structures and enhanced management, which boosted the all-round development of the education sector, especially education in the mid-western region and rural areas. Over the past five years, cumulative government spending on education reached 12.95 trillion RMB (a year-on-year increase of 8.2%), making educational expenditure the largest item on the general public budget. In 2017, total government funding for education accounted for 4.14% of GDP (a proportion maintained above 4% for the sixth consecutive year), of which half was spent on compulsory education and half on education in the mid-western region.

As an important pillar of governance, financial policy plays an important role in empowering the nation through knowledge. In the spirit of the National Education Conference, financial departments will prioritize funding for education while making education-related work more targeted, effective and forward-looking. Specifically, they will make efforts to:

(i) promote the steady and continuous growth of investment in education by improving the education appropriation and investment system, ensure that government spending on education stands above 4% of GDP every year, while guaranteeing annual rises in educational expenditure per registered student;

(ii) optimize the expenditure structure with a focus on the better utilization of both existing and additional financial resources to bolster quality and equity in education; and

(iii) enhance performance-based monetary management, with a view to making allocation of financial resources more efficient and effective.