On February 25, the MOE and the Shanghai Municipal government held a forum on deepening Shanghai’s comprehensive education reforms during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. Li Qiang, Secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, and Minister of Education Chen Baosheng, and Mayor of Shanghai Gong Zheng attended the forum and delivered a speech.
Li Qiang expressed his appreciation to the MOE for its support in guiding comprehensive educational reforms in Shanghai. Noting that better education meant better livelihoods and environment, and greater competitiveness, he said that Shanghai had a greater demand for quality education as the city entered a new stage of development. He pledged to introduce enabling educational policies to make the city more future-oriented and competitive. Specifically, the disciplinary structure will be optimized as part of the changes to the way talent is cultivated; industry-education alliances will be strengthened to make future generations of graduates more suited to market needs. Li also underlined the digital transformation in education, reforms in educational models and ideas, and comprehensive educational governance. He concluded by calling for further guidance of the MOE as the city went ahead with educational reforms.
Chen applauded the Shanghai municipal government and Party Committee for prioritizing education in its development plans, as well as the educational breakthroughs achieved through comprehensive reforms. He underlined the importance of building sound institutions, and ensuring quality, equality, balance, competition and cooperation in the next round of educational reforms. The minister pledged his full support and expected the city to blaze a new trail in creating feasible and replicable practices with regard to quality education, while building on its unique strengths.
Gong said that the Shanghai government would press ahead with systematic reforms of talent cultivation models, management institutions, support mechanisms and performance assessment methods, as part of the effort to build a quality and more equitable education system. He pledged to ensure full implementation of cooperation agreements signed with the MOE, and improve accountability, consultation and support mechanisms.
The meeting was informed of the last round of comprehensive reforms in Shanghai, the main components included in the cooperation agreement between the MOE and the city, and the key tasks for this year.
