[People.com.cn]: Yuan Guiren, minister of education, answered questions about education reform and development.

[Zhu]: Good afternoon and welcome to the press conference for the 12th National People’s Congress’s Fourth Session. Today’s topic is educational reform and development and we’re happy to have Yuan Guiren, the education minister, to answer reporters’ questions. So, Minister Yuan, we’ll turn it over to you.

[Yuan]: Good afternoon everybody. First of all, I’d like to take this chance to express our sincere gratitude for the reporters from China and abroad for their care, support, and help for education. So, thank you all for attending today’s press conference and I am pleased to have a face-to-face talk with you and answer your questions.

[Zhu]: Thank you, Minister Yuan. Now, let’s open the meeting to questions.

[Economic Daily]: Last year marked the fifth anniversary of the Outline of China’s National Plan for Medium and Long Term Education Reform and Development, according to some institutions, China’s education has entered the medium-high level in the world, what are the bases for that conclusion. And I also have another question, in this year’s work report of government, it is pointed out that students from low-income families will be the first to be exempted from the tuition and miscellaneous fees for the secondary education, does that mean that the compulsory education will be prolonged in China in the future?

[Yuan]: Thank you. The two questions are closely related.

I’d like to answer the question on the level of China’s education development first. As you said, 2015 was the 5th year of the Outline of the National Plan for Mid-to-Long Term Education Reform and Development, and it came at the end of the 12th Five-year Plan (2010-2015). At such an important point, we asked a third party to assess China’s educational development and the conclusion was that its educational development had entered a mid-high level in the world, which was supported by the following data:

First, the overall enrollment rate of preschool education was 75 percent, reaching the average level of upper-middle income countries. Second, with the net enrollment rate of primary school at 99.9-percent and overall enrollment rate of junior high school at 104-percent nationwide, China’s 9-year compulsory education had a public access rate above the average of high-income countries. Third, the overall enrollment rate of senior high school students reached 87 percent and higher education students, 40 percent, both of them higher than the average for upper-middle-income countries.

One can hardly know how difficult some things are without experiencing them first hand. These achievements I just mentioned were a hard-won battle for China, which is a developing country with large population. As to further extension of free education I have also read some reports saying that some provinces have proposed it, but does that mean that compulsory education will be prolonged in the future? As we draft the 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020), we have asked experts to do studies and to get people’s opinions on this. Based on these, the central government has decided that China will maintain its 9-year compulsory education under the 13th Five-year Plan. Compulsory education, the country’s basic education system has at least four characteristics – universal access, free, balanced, and compulsory. It is impossible for a country to have several compulsory education modes. Though we will not prolong China’s compulsory education, we will focus on making it better in the following ways:

First, universal access to education. It has been made clear in the 13th Five-year Plan and in the government work report that China will make senior high school education universal over the next five year. This move indicates that universal access covers 12 years of study, 9-years of compulsory education and 3-years of senior high. The 13th Five-year Plan also covers the overall enrollment rate of preschool education going from the current 75-percent to 85-percent by 2020. Compulsory education was already made universal by the beginning of the 21st century, with the enrollment rate reaching 85 percent.

Higher education in China will also see overall enrollment increase from the current 40-percent, to 50-percent by 2020. Most people in the world recognize that higher education is an elite education if overall enrollment rate is below 15-percent and it becomes mass education if the rate ranges from 15-50 percent. It gets popularized as the figure goes over 50 percent. China’s compulsory education is still nine years for the 13th Five-Year Plan period, but we will popularize other phases of education.

Second, free education, the current 9-years of compulsory education are free in China. Both the government work report and the 13th Five-year Plan noted that secondary vocational education is to become free gradually. At present, 90 percent of the secondary vocational education is free of charge and more than 20 provinces have 100-percent free secondary vocational education. This means that it will not take long to make all secondary vocational education across China free. Also, students in senior high with financial difficulties will be the first to be exempt from tuition and certain fees, meaning that senior high school education will gradually become free.

The media have reported that some regions provide free senior high school education and some places even exempt tuition and fees for the last year of pre-school education. We support this and agree with what they have done. It is also worth noting that these regions are mainly the less developed areas, I think local leaders have real strategic insight to do so. Exempting students from tuition and fees for pre-school and senior high school education will not only meet the needs of students wanting to go to school but also help get their families out of poverty. Free education is an important matter in people’s livelihood, and it is crucial for China to shake off poverty in building a moderately well-off society. And I would like to take this opportunity to show my respect for leaders in these regions.

Third, we need to strike a balance in educational resources, teacher distribution, and education quality. It is more difficult to achieve such a balance in pre-school and senior high school education. The fact that people are trying to select schools means that resource distribution in compulsory education is still not balanced. The imbalance will be more serious if pre-school and senior high school education are made a part of compulsory education now.

Finally, compulsory. The government needs to make sure that they can provide the necessary conditions for each student to study in school and each family shall send their child to school. This is what compulsory means. We will still insist on the 9-year compulsory education in China under the 13th Five-year Plan, and at the same time, will work hard to allow more people and teenagers to get better education.

[Wall Street Journal]: I have two questions. First is that, last year, you said that text books with western values are not suitable for the classrooms, can you please give us more explanation what do you mean by western value because Marxism is also a kind of western value. Another question is that how will the Ministry of Education will approach those text books with western values?

[Yuan]: Thank you for your questions. Karl Marx is not Chinese, but using Marxism as our guiding thought shows the open spirit of the Communist Party of China, which gets its guiding thoughts by combining scientific theories with Chinese reality. Once the guiding thoughts are decided, our Party sticks to them.

The Marxism we have said is a constantly innovative Marxism combined with China’s situation. That is what we stick to. The values we have said are those combined with China’s traditional culture as advocated by Marxism. I guess this is what your question is about at the surface. In fact, what you are interested in is how the Chinese government and education departments give students moral education.

I can put it this way. China has a tradition of paying attention to moral education, including the values you just mentioned. Educating people and putting morality first are the fundamentals of Chinese schools and teachers in their teaching. We always give morality priority and moral education can be realized in the following ways:

We emphasize ideals and faith and we enhance education in core values, traditional culture, and China’s revolutionary tradition. These have guided us and allow our students to become qualified builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

We emphasize integration and connection. We integrate our thought, principles, and goals in classes and educational activities and give special emphasis to practices and experience, such as voluntary service and labor education, in the hope that students can accept our values and absorb traditional Chinese and revolutionary culture through theory and practice.

We emphasize ideology and political education as well as moral education and education in the school, family and society. The family, schools, politics, and even the Party can dramatically affect teenagers. We believe it is important for teachers, parents, civil servants, and celebrities to set a good example for students. We highlight the improvement of moral education.

And, last, what I want to say is that Chinese teenagers are a generation with lofty ideals and aspirations and can make a great contribution to the prosperity of China and to a global community with a common future.

[Takungpao]: My question is about education in the rural areas in China. I know that Minister Yuan you had years of experience working in the primary education sector. Now as the minister of education, how do you see the problems in education sector in the rural areas in China, and what kind of measures have been taken by the Ministry of Education to address them. And hypothetically, if the conditions back then was better than they were, would you choose to stay at the middle school you used to work in, will you make that choice?

[Yuan]: I appreciate your research on my background. I was a teacher in rural areas, both in public and non-public schools and thank you very much for paying attention to the direction the Chinese government is headed in and the weakness of education that concerns all sectors of society.

Rural education is our weakness because of a lack of top quality teachers. China has come up with support policies over the years, such as free normal school education and special plans to improve the education conditions and professional capabilities of teachers in the rural areas. Just as there’s a gap between urban and rural areas in social and economic development, so is there a regional education gap. The key to improving rural education is to build teacher teams, getting teachers to be willing to work in rural areas and to improve the teaching level. Improvements are related to many issues like more rural teachers, better payment and welfare, and higher teaching skills. The State Council announced its Rural Teacher Support Plan last year, for the overall building of rural teacher teams. We’re working hard to implement the Plan on following aspects:

First, we need to unify the standards of teaching personnel in both urban and rural areas and ensure same student - teacher ratio in rural areas as in urban areas. For small schools and primary schools in rural areas, we also need to consider increasing the number of teachers for each class.

Second, we need to expand the sources for recruiting rural teachers, and need to add more teachers to rural education.

Third, we need to substantially improve welfare for rural teachers. This has been done in some poverty-stricken areas over the years, benefiting thousands of rural teachers. Now we need a subsistence allowance for all rural teachers.

Fourth, we need to favor rural teachers in terms of granting professional titles.

Fifth, we will increase the rotation of urban teachers in rural areas and make teaching experience in rural areas an essential requirement of their employment and promotions.

Sixth, we need to increase our efforts in training rural teachers and improving their teaching skills and moral level. Seventh, we plan to establish a rural teacher honor system. Eighth, we will also give rural teachers more room for development by promoting a system of rural teachers working for village schools but hired by the county government.

In relation to the eight measures i just mentioned, 31 provinces across China have already made plans in line with State Council requirements and the Ministry of Education will work with other government departments to implement favorable policies for rural teachers. We are confident that we can build a stronger team of rural teachers and improve rural education through joint efforts.

Your second question is of realistic significance. I made Beijing Normal University my first choice when I took the college entrance exam even though I had a very high score. Why? The reason is that I was actually ready to go back to teach in rural middle schools after graduation. But this didn’t happen because I was recommended to pursue a master’s degree and then stayed at Beijing Normal University working as a teacher, and later president of the school. After that, I came to work at the Ministry of Education. I feel very strongly about rural teachers and totally understand their tough working environment and poor conditions. And I would do my best to fulfill this task for the benefit of rural education and rural teachers across the country.

[China Review News]: We know last year BBC had a documentary about several Chinese teachers teaching in a British middle school, which sparked a lot of debates and discussions about the different styles of education in China and western countries. What is your take on the similarities and differences between Chinese and western education.

[Yuan]: Thanks for the question. If you’ve seen the BBC documentary on Chinese vs British education, you must be concerned about the difference between the oriental and western systems of education. BBC’s reason for making the documentary in the first place was because in 2009 and 2013, some Shanghai students taking part in a Program for International Student Assessment test, organized by the OECD, ranked first among students from around the world. This caused other countries to pay more attention to Chinese elementary education and the interest in the Chinese way of organizing its teaching and student achievements also caused people to compare the Chinese and foreign educational systems.

China has quite a long history of education traditions and has developed its own unique system. Education in China values the passing on of knowledge and the training of basic skills and behavioral norms. What’s more, Chinese teachers and students value hard work. So, we have achieved a lot in some aspects.

But we still have our disadvantages. For example, our pupils are overloaded with homework, and our students lack creative and practical abilities. We identified this problem in the 1990s when China pushed its education reforms for all-round development. In this aspect, western education has provided some valuable experiences and we should keep our traditions and learn from foreign practice to improve our education.

[Xinhua News Agency]: My question is about the transformation of higher education institutions. Could you please give us more specific information about such transformation? What kind of institutions will undergo such transformation?

[Yuan]: The transformation of higher education institutions is actually a supply side reform. Higher education has made fast improvements particularly since the country’s reform and opening up in later 1970s, and the enrollment rate is already 40 percent. China now has over 2,500 higher institutions with 30 million college students, ranking first in the world. In a time of rapid economic progress and industrial transformation, we find that the higher education structure is not optimal. We have too many institutions focusing on academic and theoretical areas while few focus on practical skills.

Because of the contradictions between the educational structure and that of the national economy, college graduates find it hard to get a job while employers find it hard to recruit a qualified employee. Transformation of higher education is one possible way to deal with the situation and meet social needs. In the process, we now encourage local colleges to transform into application-oriented schools first, because the majority of higher educational institutions in China are administrated by local authorities.

The readjustment of university faculties and specialties is the vital step in the transformation process. Some specialties, such as engineering and science which cost more than the humanities, should be increased to match the country’s economic and industrial structures.

The core of the transformation is talent cultivation. It is well-known that applied talents and academic talents have similarities and differences. Neither Einstein nor Edison could do each other’s work; nevertheless, both of them have made great contributions to the development of mankind. We need to cultivate more skilled front-line talent in the transformation for our real economy.

About 200 colleges in more than 20 provinces across China have been chosen as the pilot units in the educational reform. We aim to form a more reasonable structure of higher education, according to the needs of our society.

[CCTV]: We noticed that back in September 2014, the State Council issued opinions on reforming the enrollment and examination systems, and since 2015 we have seen an increase in the number of provinces adopting uniform national tests for the college entrance examinations and that number will increase this year. People who know children that are going to take the test do not have a direct expression of the impact of this policy. So could you please give us more information? By extension, I also have a further question. Do you think it is possible that in the near future we can adopt this kind of uniform national tests across the whole country?

[Yuan]: I have seen some NPC members bring up the same question during the two sessions. Since the release of the opinions on reform of the enrollment and examination systems, the question has been widely debated. My opinion is that at first we used to have a uniform national test across the country, but about a decade ago, the situation started to change because some provinces started to reform high school courses, while other provinces remained the same.

The educational reform was going on in different stages across the country. Also, there is the risk that once the contents of the test were leaked, the whole nation’s examinees would be affected. Since 2004, 16 provinces have their own tests for high school graduates. The national test center is responsible for the other 15 provinces, and have four sets of questions based on different educational status. But now the system shows some problems. Different sets of questions make it impossible to measure students under the same standards. This may cause unfairness for college enrollment.

Also, it costs a lot to run a college entrance examination. To make a set of questions, each province has to organize a group of educational experts to make questions in a fully enclosed environment for months. In the 2014 Opinion, the country called for more provinces to adopt the uniform national test. Since then, 11 provinces have applied to adopt the test run by the national test center, leaving only 5 administrative regions, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to run their own tests.

What remains to be explained is that even for the provinces which adopt the test run by the national center, their test papers can be different. This is due to the fact that provinces differ in process and speed of their teaching reform. In other words, they just share an examination database system from the national center while having flexibility on choosing their own set of questions based on their situation.

Whether the “5+1” pattern is reasonable or not, or needs further reform, we can only see through practice. Education is a field with a long cycle period. It takes more than ten years to test the quality of a set of textbooks, as with the reform of a uniform national test. So today I cannot give you an exact answer, but through practice, we promise to adopt a better way for the national college entrance exam.

[Beijing News]: I’m with Beijing News, I have two questions. First, we know now there are currently tens of millions of children left behind in the rural areas by their migrant worker parents, and their education has been followed with keen interest by the general public. What kind of measures will the Ministry of Education adopt to enhance their education? My second question is about campus violence. Recently years have seen many cases of such campus violence and what measures will the ministry adopt to address them?

[Yuan]: Thank you for your questions. One is about left-behind children and the other is about campus violence.

Left-behind children are a new group emerging in the country’s process of urbanization. As more farmers seek jobs in cities, some of the children go to the cities with their parents, referred as “accompanying children of the rural workers”, while the others stay in the rural area, referred as “left-behind children”. Statistics show that today China has about 240 million migrant workers and 60 million left behind children, of which 24 million are of the age for compulsory education. This is quite a big number. Being far away from their parents, lacking parental care and guardianship results in a series of problems - involving sad cases in which they are severely hurt, all of which has gradually become a hot topic of social concern.

Three years ago, the Ministry of Education issued “Guidelines on the issue of Left-Behind Children” and this February, the State Council issued “Guidelines for Work on Caring for and Protection of Left-Behind Children”, urging governments ,schools and social groups of all levels to sew a safety net for these children to grow safely and happily. The document covers a wide range and I think the Ministry of Education can make efforts on the following aspects:

First, we will step up works on “Three Priorities” - boarding schools should give priority to left-behind children in enrollment; provision of nutritious meals should give priority to left-behind children’s needs; and the traffic safety of left-behind children on their way to and from school should also be prioritized.

Second, we will strengthen psychological health education to cultivate their independent spirit and to find and avoid possible problems. We will provide more convenient channels for them to communicate with their parents. I believe some of our reporters have visited villages and have seen some school’s efforts.

Third, schools should keep close communication and cooperation with parents to get overall information on their family condition and give timely feedback of the children’s performance. Parents should give enough attention to their children’s health and safety and fulfill their duty of guardianship. We also call on the whole society to join in the effort to create a safe and loving environment for these children.

I have said just now that safety is the most important issue. Without safety, both education and growth are impossible. Children’s safety involves two aspects - in school and outside. Campus violence severely hampers children’s safety and health, arousing concerns from society.

We will work with the police and make every effort to reduce campus violence and keep children away from harm both from peers and from outside school.

For education, first we will enhance children’s education on unity, love, law and discipline. And for students who are on the verge of violence, we will help them to learn self-management and self-control and in the meantime, we will help them enhance their knowledge of self-protection.

Second, we will strengthen school management to avoid violence in the starting phase and create a loving and harmonious campus environment to stop students from being influenced by bad behaviors outside of campus.

Third, we should strengthen punishment in line with laws to make sure violators assume social and legal responsibility.

In the near term, we will cooperate with related sectors to conduct special examinations and supervision on campus violence. We hope, as our Premier urged in his government work report, our schools, families and society can work jointly to provide a healthy and safe environment for our children. This morning, I accompanied Premier Li Keqiang to attend the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region’s conference where Premier Li placed special emphasis on safety of students. This shows that our leaders are very concerned about our students’ safety. In this regard, I call on the whole society to spare no effort in creating a safe environment for our children.

[China Education Television]: I’m with China Education Television. This year will see 7.65 million students graduate from universities. Under the difficult economic climate, what measures will the Ministry of Education introduce to help them find jobs and how will the ministry support college students starting their own businesses?

[Yuan]: Thank the host for giving the last question to CETV, the only national television station except CCTV.

Employment is the base of people's livelihood and we encourage creating jobs through starting up businesses. Both the Central Committee of CPC and the State Council have always paid great attention to employment, especially for college students. Each year, the State Council holds special conferences and issues documents on the issue as well as carefully deploying employment work. Under the joint efforts of governments at all levels and colleges in different places, we are seeing smooth progress in recent years, with the initial employment rate above 70 percent in the last 13 years and with the number of self-employed rising every year.

As the reporter has said, this year we have 7.65 million graduates nationwide, 160,000 more than last year. The situation is that on one hand, we have more graduates and on the other hand, we are facing economic downturns, bringing more pressure on our work to promote college graduate employment and startups.

We should take advantage of our policy conditions and opportunities. Take our commercial system. It adds more than ten thousands companies every day, providing a favorable environment for graduates’ employment. First, further steps will be taken to push the two plans we have initiated – promoting university students’ employment and guiding their innovative undertakings. Second, we will continue to refine the preferential policies promoting university student employment and startups and help our students make the most of our policies. Third, we will strengthen employment guidance by collecting information about new jobs, organizing job fairs to build bridges between students and employers and create more opportunities. Fourth, we will tailor aid policies to provide specific and targeted help for each student to help them find the right job. Though the employment situation is severe and complicated today, we are as confident in employment as we are in our economy in the future.

Our goal is to help more students become better off and achieve full potential in their life. Thus we will not just simply turn everyone into entrepreneurs. More importantly, we will help them to be innovative. In this regard, numerous steps are being taken to promote college students’ innovation, and our focus is on the following three areas - offering entrepreneurship classes to students; helping student to get offices and capital for startups; and allowing flexible education for students who want to start business first and then return to school. An example is that last year we managed to hold the 1st Internet Plus College Students' Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, helping a large number of students to start businesses and help companies find their projects. Thank you!

[Zhu]: The press conference today is coming to the end. Thanks for the presence of Minister Yuan and all friends from the press. Thank you!

[People.com.cn]: The press conference concludes here. Thank you for your attention!