Press Briefing On Shandong Province’s Educational Development

[9:21:11, Sept 22, 2009] The press briefing is chaired by Mr. Kong Fanke, director of the International Communication Office of the CPC Shandong Provincial Party Committee, deputy director of the Information Office of Shandong Provincial People`s Government, and director of the Office of Shandong Provincial News Release Coordination Group.

[9:34:02, Sept 22, 2009] Kong Fanke: Today, we hold a provincial government press briefing and have invited Mr. Chen Guanghua, deputy director and spokesman of the Provincial Education Department, to give a briefing on our province’s educational development.

[9:35:32, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: Good morning, media friends, ladies and gentlemen. Now, I will give a briefing on the development of our province’s education during the 60 years since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China.

[9:35:40, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: Just as the national education, Shangdong Province’s education experienced a series of great changes from restoration, adjustment, reform, to development and innovation during the 60 years since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China. The compulsory education enrollment rate of school-age population has risen to over 99 percent, the gross enrollment rate of senior high school education has risen to over 90 percent, and the gross enrollment rate of higher education has risen to 23 percent.

[9:37:01, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: The 60 yeas is the 60 years when Shandong governments and party committees at all levels made strenuous effort to develop education, the educational cause achieved an leaping development and people’s quality was significantly improved. It is the 60 years when the quality education was generally implemented, education reform was carried out, and new education system was constructed. And it was the 60 years when the construction of a fair educational system was significantly strengthened and the disadvantaged groups benefited more. 

[9:38:34, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: Today it seems a bit incredible to see the following educational figures: by the end of the 1949, there were 66 general high schools with 38,900 students and 27,400 elementary schools with 1.93 million pupils. The enrollment rate of school-age children was only 20 percent.

[9:41:41, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: On April 12, 1986, the Fourth Session of the Sixth National People`s Congress discussed and passed the Compulsory Education Law of the Peoples Republic of China, which was a prelude to the legal implementation of nine-year compulsory education.

[9:45:01, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: On May 31, 2000, the last two counties passed the Provincial Government’s “nine-year compulsory education” acceptance. That indicates that all the counties (cities, districts) in our province had completed the task of basically popularizing nine-year compulsory education and basically eliminating illiteracy among the young and middle-aged people. The task involved over 85 percent of the population and our province was one of the few provinces that first achieved this goal.

[9:47:34, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: In 2008, our province’s financial departments at all levels raised a fund of 5.61 billion yuan, and our province’s compulsory education thoroughly realized the change from “people-run education” to “government-run education”. Schooling with no payment has become the most favorable topic of the public.

[9:48:19, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: First, all the fees during the compulsory education period have been exempted. Second, the basic standards of public expenditures have been comprehensively implemented. Third, rural students’ textbook expenses have all been exempted. Fourth, the policy for resident students’ living subsidies has been implemented. Fifth, a long-term mechanism for the repair and reconstruction of school buildings has been established. Sixth, the security level of rural primary and secondary school teachers’ salaries has been raised.

[9:53:30, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: The vigorous vocational education, which serves enterprises and the students’ employment, has become one of the mainstays of the education system.

[9:54:19, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: In the early years after the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, our province only had 34 secondary specialized schools with 13,700 students and most of them were secondary normal schools and there were almost no secondary technical schools.

[9:55:02, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: Adhering to the correct school-running direction and strengthening its close links with economy. A mechanism closely linked with the labor market has been established. Our province has been sticking to the innovation of the vocational education system, and actively promoted the reform of school-running system, management system, teaching system, enrollment system, and employment system. The single school-running pattern under the planned economy has thoroughly been broken, the cadre status of secondary vocational school graduates has been cancelled, and the change from emphasis on diploma education to emphasis on education of employment ability has been realized. For years, our province has actively promoted the all-in-one teaching system combining teaching, production, science and technology promotion and service and the “dual system” teaching model that highlights teaching through practice.

[9:59:14, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: On the basis of implementing the “Key Units Driving Project”, our province further optimized school distribution, by carrying out the “Ten, Hundred, and Thousand Vocational Education Project”, and integrated vocational education resources.
[10:00:18, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: After a 60 year’s unremitting effort, our province’s vocational education has made considerable progress and achieved outstanding successes. One hundred and ten schools have been listed among the key secondary vocational schools for priority construction by the National Development and Reform Commission’s Today, our province’s gross enrollment rate of higher education has been increased to 23 percent, which means that a historic leap has been achieved in higher education providing enrollment opportunities for the school-age population.

[10:06:53, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: During the 60 years, the reform of our province’s higher education management system and school-running system have been continuously moving forward, and a diversified school-running pattern has been formed in our province with the government as the main body and the broad participation of enterprises and individuals. Private higher education has developed rapidly. Now, there are 36 private regular institutions of higher learning with 269,000 students in our province.
[10:08:06, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: The structure of higher education has been further optimized. The quality and level of higher education has been raised continuously. During the 60 years, 56,378 postgraduates were graduated, which greatly improved the quality and structure of the force of professional and technical personnel, the force of business management personnel, and the force of the Party and government personnel, and which provided personnel security and intellectual support for the building of our province into an economically and culturally powerful province.

[10:10:34, Sept 22, 2009] Chen Guanghua: Thank you.

[10:12:32, Sept 22, 2009] Kong Fanke: Today`s press briefing is over. Thank you.