The Ministry of Education (MOE) held the 2024 Seminar on Education Evaluation Reform in Beijing on May 21–24. Vice Minister of Education Weng Tiehui attended the event and delivered a keynote report.

Weng noted that CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping places great importance on the reform of education evaluation and has highlighted in his major addresses the critical role of education evaluation reform in building China into a leading nation in education. These directives need to be implemented by local governments and schools nationwide in line with their specific circumstances.

Since the issuance of the Overall Plan for Deepening the Reform of Education Evaluation in the New Era three years ago, joint efforts have been made to reach broad consensus and take collective action to break the “Five Onlys” (i.e., improper mindsets that focus solely on scores, diplomas, titles, papers, and funding). Thanks to improvement in state-level systems of supportive reform measures and policies, significant progress has been made in schools across the country, with the utilitarian trend in education effectively curbed in certain areas. In a word, China’s education evaluation reform has brought about a positive regional and international impact.

Weng also stressed the need to conduct education evaluation reform to solve existing challenges in the education sector. She called on more work to be done to further promote the reform of education evaluation, thereby advancing comprehensive reform in the education sector. This will entail accelerating the development of a world-class education evaluation system that is characterized by diverse stakeholder participation and accords with China’s realities, in order to provide momentum and fundamental, strategic support for building a strong education nation. To this end, efforts will be concentrated on four aspects:

1) Grasping the political nature and guiding role of evaluation reform, to enhance ownership and accountability during the process;

2) Understanding the scientific and professional characteristics of evaluation reform, to ensure the quality and effectiveness of reform;

3) Acknowledging that evaluation reform should be holistic and coordinated, to create synergies for continuous reform; and

4) Recognizing that evaluation reform should be a long-term process, requiring steady, consistent steps to achieve reform goals.

Seminar attendees included representatives from local educational departments and frontline agencies, heads of various higher education institutions, relevant experts from education evaluation reform research bases, and frontline agency representatives.