Deepening the Livelihood Foundation for Building a Strong Education Country

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the National Education Conference: “The strong education country we aim to build is a socialist strong education country with Chinese characteristics, which should possess strong ideological and political guiding force, talent competitiveness, scientific and technological support, livelihood security, social coordination, and international influence, providing robust support for comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization.” Livelihood security, as one of the “six major characteristics” of a strong education country, embodies the people-oriented nature of education and highlights the important concept of adhering to a people-centered approach to developing education. To advance the construction of a strong education country, we must take General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on education as the fundamental guide, deeply understand and scientifically grasp the rich connotations and practical requirements of enhancing livelihood security, continuously improve the inclusiveness, accessibility, and convenience of public education services, solve the urgent and pressing problems of the people regarding education, deepen the foundation of people’s well-being through the power of education, and ensure that the fruits of education reform and development benefit all people more equitably.

习近平总书记在全国教育大会上强调：“我们要建成的教育强国，是中国特色社会主义教育强国，应当具有强大的思政引领力、人才竞争力、科技支撑力、民生保障力、社会协同力、国际影响力，为以中国式现代化全面推进强国建设、民族复兴伟业提供有力支撑。”民生保障力作为教育强国的“六大特质”之一，体现了教育的人民属性，彰显了坚持以人民为中心发展教育的重要理念。推进教育强国建设，必须坚持以习近平总书记关于教育的重要论述为根本遵循，深刻理解和科学把握增强民生保障力的丰富内涵与实践要求，不断提升教育公共服务的普惠性、可及性、便捷性，解决好人民群众关于教育的急难愁盼问题，以教育之力厚植人民幸福之本，让教育改革发展成果更多更公平惠及全体人民。

Scientifically Grasping the Rich Connotations of Livelihood Security

科学把握民生保障力的丰富内涵

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: “In Chinese-path modernization, livelihood is the foremost concern.” Livelihood security embodies the organic unity of why education is run, for whom it is run, and how it is run. Scientifically grasping the rich connotations of livelihood security helps deepen the livelihood foundation for building a strong education country.

习近平总书记强调：“中国式现代化，民生为大。”民生保障力蕴含了为什么办教育、为谁办教育和如何办教育的有机统一。科学把握民生保障力的丰富内涵，有助于厚植教育强国建设的民生根基。

It highlights the people-centered development philosophy. In September 2014, during a symposium with representatives of teachers and students at Beijing Normal University, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Education is an important pathway for improving the comprehensive quality of the people and promoting the all-round development of individuals; it is a cornerstone for national rejuvenation and social progress, and an undertaking of decisive significance for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” Running education for the people and running education that satisfies the people is an important manifestation of the Party’s original aspiration and founding mission. Enhancing livelihood security, taking the promotion of people’s all-round development as the starting point and goal of education, highlights the people-centered development philosophy, embodies the value pursuit of the socialist education cause with Chinese characteristics, answers the fundamental question of whom education serves, and is an important value guideline for advancing the construction of a strong education country. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has always placed education in a strategic priority position for development, from the universalization of compulsory education to the basic equalization and high-quality balanced development of compulsory education and the popularization of higher education, from targeted poverty alleviation through education to the revitalization of rural education… a series of measures have effectively raised the overall level of education in our country, and China’s education cause has achieved remarkable results in guaranteeing basics, improving quality, and promoting fairness.

彰显了以人民为中心的发展思想。2014年9月，习近平总书记在同北京师范大学师生代表座谈时指出：“教育是提高人民综合素质、促进人的全面发展的重要途径，是民族振兴、社会进步的重要基石，是对中华民族伟大复兴具有决定性意义的事业。”为人民办教育、办人民满意的教育，是党的初心和使命的重要体现。增强民生保障力，把促进人的全面发展作为教育的出发点和落脚点，彰显了以人民为中心的发展思想，体现了中国特色社会主义教育事业的价值追求，回答了教育为谁服务的根本问题，是推进教育强国建设的重要价值遵循。党的十八大以来，以习近平同志为核心的党中央始终把教育摆在优先发展的战略位置，从义务教育全面普及到义务教育基本均衡、优质均衡发展和高等教育普及化，从教育精准扶贫到乡村教育振兴……一系列举措有效提升了我国整体教育水平，我国教育事业在保障基本、提升质量、促进公平上取得显著成效。

It embodies the important concept of social fairness and justice. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Educational fairness is an important foundation for social fairness.” As a key component of livelihood construction, education concerns the people’s sense of gain, happiness, and security. Enhancing livelihood security means accelerating the construction of education that equally faces every individual, placing greater emphasis on the balanced allocation of high-quality educational resources across regions, urban and rural areas, schools, and groups, striving to ensure that everyone, regardless of gender, urban or rural residence, region, or wealth, can receive a good education, further responding to the diverse and individualized educational needs of the people, and promoting the unity of “having access to schooling” and “receiving a good education.” Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has adhered to the principle of public welfare in education, taking educational fairness as a basic national education policy, consolidating the foundation of educational fairness from multiple dimensions such as educational opportunities, resource allocation, and institutional policies, enabling students with different aptitudes and developmental interests to learn effectively and develop in diverse ways. For example, while ensuring the public welfare nature of education, the “double reduction” policy [1]1 The “double reduction” policy (双减) refers to a set of regulations introduced by the Chinese government in 2021 aimed at reducing the burden of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring on students in compulsory education. has been promoted to regulate and govern the disorderly expansion of capital in the education sector; another example is combining education reform and development with solving practical problems to meet the schooling needs of children accompanying migrant workers in cities, with the proportion of such children studying in public schools or enjoying government-purchased degree services exceeding 95%; yet another example is the in-depth implementation of the national education digitalization strategy to expand the coverage of high-quality educational resources and improve the public service level of lifelong learning; and so on. This fully guarantees the public welfare attribute of the education cause.

体现了社会公平正义的重要理念。习近平总书记指出：“教育公平是社会公平的重要基础”。作为民生建设的重要组成部分，教育关乎人民群众的获得感、幸福感、安全感。增强民生保障力，意味着要加快建成平等面向每个人的教育，更重视优质教育资源在区域、城乡、校际、群体之间的均衡配置，努力使每个人不分性别、不分城乡、不分地域、不分贫富等都能接受良好教育，进一步回应人民群众多样化、个性化的教育需求，促进“有学上”与“上好学”的统一。党的十八大以来，以习近平同志为核心的党中央坚持教育公益性原则，把教育公平作为国家基本教育政策，从教育机会、资源配置、制度政策等多个维度夯实教育公平根基，让不同禀赋、不同发展兴趣的学生能够有效地学习、多样化成才。比如，在保证教育公益性的前提下，推进“双减”工作，规范治理资本在教育领域无序扩张行为；又如，将教育改革发展与解决现实问题结合起来，满足进城务工人员随迁子女入学需求，进城务工人员随迁子女在公办学校就读和享受政府购买学位服务的比例超过95%；再如，深入实施国家教育数字化战略，扩大优质教育资源受益面，提升终身学习公共服务水平；等等。这充分保障了教育事业的公益属性。

It improves the supply quality of building a strong education country. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: “Building a strong education country is a strategic precursor to comprehensively building a modern socialist strong country, an important support for achieving high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology, an effective pathway to promoting common prosperity for all people, and a foundational project for comprehensively advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization.” To build a strong education country, it is necessary to improve the quality and efficiency of education supply. Enhancing livelihood security requires paying more attention to the new demands that building a strong education country places on education supply, ensuring that the education supply system better adapts to changes in demand structure and supports Chinese-path modernization. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has comprehensively grasped the political, people-oriented, and strategic attributes of education, accurately positioned education supply, improved the quality of education supply, optimized the path of education supply, adhered to unifying education’s service to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with meeting the needs of the people, and achieved a mutually reinforcing relationship between supporting national strategy and meeting livelihood needs. It has optimized the allocation of regional educational resources, established a basic public education service supply mechanism coordinated with population changes, effectively increased the intensity of education development in central and western regions and underdeveloped areas, and strived to achieve the unity of balanced education development and coordinated regional development. At the same time, adapting to the situation of population changes, it has promoted the formation of an educational resource layout that matches and is compatible with population distribution, striving to ensure that every student can enjoy better education.

提高了教育强国建设的供给质量。习近平总书记强调：“建设教育强国，是全面建成社会主义现代化强国的战略先导，是实现高水平科技自立自强的重要支撑，是促进全体人民共同富裕的有效途径，是以中国式现代化全面推进中华民族伟大复兴的基础工程。”建设教育强国，必须提高教育供给的质量和效率。增强民生保障力，要更加关注教育强国建设对教育供给的新要求，确保教育供给体系更好适应需求结构变化和支撑中国式现代化。党的十八大以来，以习近平同志为核心的党中央全面把握教育的政治属性、人民属性、战略属性，找准教育供给定位、提高教育供给质量、优化教育供给路径，坚持把教育服务中华民族伟大复兴和满足人民群众需求相统一，实现了支撑国家战略和满足民生需求的相得益彰。优化区域教育资源配置，建立同人口变化相协调的基本公共教育服务供给机制，切实加大中西部地区和欠发达地区教育发展力度，努力实现教育均衡发展和区域协调发展相统一。同时，适应人口变化形势，推动形成与人口分布相匹配、相适应的教育资源布局，努力让每个学生都能享受到更好的教育。

Enhancing Livelihood Security Requires Focusing on Weak Links

增强民生保障力需要聚焦薄弱环节

Adhering to the combination of problem orientation and goal orientation is an important method to be followed in enhancing livelihood security. Focusing on the weak links in building a strong education country and conducting in-depth analysis of problems can provide an objective basis for precise policy implementation.

坚持问题导向与目标导向相结合，是增强民生保障力应遵循的重要方法。聚焦教育强国建设中的薄弱环节，深入分析问题，才能为精准施策提供客观依据。

The supply of high-quality educational resources is still insufficient. Facing the changes in the principal contradiction in society in the New Era, the existing supply of educational resources cannot effectively meet the people’s growing needs for a better life. On the one hand, the supply of high-quality educational resources in cities is insufficient, and phenomena such as “school selection fever” still exist, indicating that the problem of insufficient supply and uneven distribution of high-quality educational resources persists, and high-quality educational resources remain a key variable affecting the people’s educational well-being; on the other hand, rural education clearly lags behind urban education. Although the hardware facilities of rural education have been greatly improved, insufficient excellent teachers and lack of advanced educational concepts remain important factors affecting the development of rural education.

优质教育资源供给尚不充分。面对新时代社会主要矛盾的变化，现有教育资源供给不能有效满足人民日益增长的美好生活需要。一方面，城市优质教育资源供给不充分，“择校热”等现象仍然存在，这表明优质教育资源供给不足和分布不均的问题依然存在，优质教育资源仍是影响人民群众教育福祉的关键变量；另一方面，农村教育明显落后于城市教育，尽管农村教育硬件设施有了很大提升，但是优秀师资不足、先进教育理念欠缺等仍然是影响农村教育发展的重要因素。

Educational guarantees for special groups are still insufficient. The quality of education received by special groups such as students from families with financial difficulties, children with disabilities, and left-behind children in rural areas needs improvement. For example, due to parents working in cities and grandparents lacking energy for care, some left-behind children in rural areas experience “hidden dropout.” In terms of accessibility, there are still many restrictions on the policy for children accompanying migrant workers to take the college entrance examination in cities other than their registered residence. For instance, although some provinces have formulated corresponding policies in accordance with the relevant requirements of the Ministry of Education, there are many restrictive conditions that do not fully match the educational needs of children accompanying migrant workers. In addition, there are also problems such as insufficient coverage of special education schools, and inadequate development of preschool special education and special education at the upper secondary level, mainly focused on vocational education.

特殊群体教育保障尚不充足。家庭经济困难学生、残障儿童和农村留守儿童等特殊群体的受教育质量有待提升。比如，由于父母进城务工、爷爷奶奶照顾精力不济，部分农村留守儿童存在“隐性辍学”。从可及性上看，进城务工人员随迁子女异地高考政策仍存在诸多限制。比如，虽然按照教育部相关要求，部分省份制定了相应政策，但约束条件较多，与进城务工人员随迁子女求学的需求不完全匹配。此外，还存在特殊教育学校的惠及度仍然不够，学前特殊教育和以职业教育为主的高中阶段特殊教育发展不够充分等问题。

The education evaluation indicator system is still not perfect. Examination scores and enrollment rates remain the key batons for evaluating students, teachers, and schools, and problems such as an obsession with “doing practice questions” and hindered quality education persist. For example, after the implementation of the “double reduction” policy, many parents still have their students excessively attend tutoring classes, students’ academic burden and pressure remain high, and the proportion of household education expenditure remains high; teachers’ illegal paid tutoring has shifted from public to private, from offline to online, affecting the quality of normal classroom teaching. “Scores” remain an important part of the education evaluation system, which to a certain extent weakens the ability of education to serve society, leads to poor integration between general education and vocational education, insufficient matching between vocational education and industrial upgrading, and a disconnect between talent cultivation and social needs, among other issues.

教育评价指标体系尚不完善。考试成绩、升学率仍是评价学生、教师和学校的关键指挥棒，热衷“刷题”、素质教育受阻的问题仍然存在。比如，“双减”政策实施后，很多家长仍然让学生过度补课，学生的学业负担和压力仍然较大，家庭的教育支出占比居高不下；教师违规有偿补课，由公开变为私下、由线下变为线上，正常课堂教学质量受到影响。“分数”仍是教育评价体系中的重要一环，这在一定程度上使教育服务社会能力减弱，普通教育与职业教育融通不畅，职业教育与产业升级匹配不够，人才培养与社会需求脱节，等等。

Firmly Grasping the Practical Requirements for Enhancing Livelihood Security

牢牢把握增强民生保障力的实践要求

To strengthen the capacity to safeguard people’s livelihood, we must take General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses and directives on education as the fundamental guide, raise our political stance, and view the significance of strengthening the capacity to safeguard people’s livelihood from the height of comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization. We must conscientiously implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core regarding education work, ensuring implementation without compromise, with swift action, with a realistic and pragmatic approach, and with boldness and effectiveness, so as to achieve a systemic leap and qualitative transformation in education, providing all-round talent support and intellectual backing for advancing Chinese-path modernization.

增强民生保障力，必须坚持以习近平总书记关于教育的重要论述和重要指示批示精神为根本遵循，提高政治站位，从以中国式现代化全面推进强国建设、民族复兴伟业的高度看待增强民生保障力的重要意义。认真贯彻落实以习近平同志为核心的党中央对教育工作的决策部署，不折不扣抓落实、雷厉风行抓落实、求真务实抓落实、敢作善为抓落实，实现教育系统性跃升和质变，为推进中国式现代化提供全方位的人才支撑、智力支持。

Promote the balanced allocation of educational resources. Targeting the existing imbalances in the allocation of educational resources among regions, urban and rural areas, schools, and groups, we should promote the balanced allocation of educational resources through fiscal transfers, paired cooperation, and other means. Improve the mechanisms for educational collaboration and paired assistance between the eastern and western regions, promote the supply and input of high-quality educational resources to underdeveloped areas, and further optimize the allocation of regional educational resources. Optimize the layout of urban and rural schools, accelerate the expansion and increase of capacity in urban schools, run necessary small-scale rural schools with high quality, strengthen the construction of boarding schools, and narrow the urban-rural gap through targeted training, paired assistance, and digital sharing, accelerating the integration of urban and rural education. Deepen the reform of the “county-managed school recruitment” management of teachers in compulsory education schools, promote the rational flow of high-quality management personnel and teaching staff, and enhance the initiative and motivation of outstanding urban teachers and principals to exchange and rotate to rural and weak schools. Promote the institutionalization of educational care, improve the precise screening mechanism for left-behind children and children in difficult circumstances in rural areas, strengthen educational guarantees and care protection, and ensure that special groups receive quality education. Establish and improve a mechanism for the coordinated allocation of educational resources that adapts to changes in population size and structure, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the use of educational resources.

推动教育资源均衡配置。瞄准区域、城乡、校际、群体之间的教育资源配置存在一定失衡的问题，通过财政转移、对口合作等方式，促进教育资源均衡配置。完善教育东西部协作和对口支援机制，推动优质教育资源向欠发达地区供给和输入，进一步优化区域教育资源配置。优化城乡学校布局，加快推动城镇学校扩容增位，高质量办好必要的乡村小规模学校，加强寄宿制学校建设，通过定向培养、结对帮扶、数字共享，缩小城乡差距，加快推进城乡教育一体化。深入推进义务教育学校教师“县管校聘”管理改革，促进优质管理人员和师资力量合理流动，提高城镇优秀教师、校长向乡村学校、薄弱学校交流轮岗的积极性和主动性。推进教育关爱制度化，完善农村留守儿童、困境儿童精准摸排机制，加强教育保障和关爱保护，确保特殊群体接受优质教育。建立健全与人口数量、人口结构变化相适应的教育资源统筹调配机制，提高教育资源使用效益效能。

Optimize the education assessment and evaluation system. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: “We must establish a scientific view of talent, view of success, and view of education in the whole society, accelerate the reversal of the utilitarian tendency in education, and form a healthy educational environment and ecosystem.” Deepen the reform of the education evaluation system in the New Era, and build an education evaluation system with multi-subject participation, adapted to China’s actual conditions, and with a world-class level. Improve the student internship and practice system, place greater importance on internship and practice education in universities, middle schools, and primary schools, and further enhance the standardization, fairness, and effectiveness of internships, improving students’ comprehensive quality. Accelerate the construction of a vocational education system that integrates vocational and general education and combines industry and education, enhance the interoperability between general education and vocational education, accurately interpret the policy of dividing students into general and vocational tracks [2]2 The policy of dividing students into general and vocational tracks refers to the practice after compulsory education of channeling students into either academic high schools or vocational schools based on exam scores, a key mechanism for cultivating skilled labor., increase social recognition, and smooth the path for cultivating master craftsmen, skilled artisans, and high-skilled talents; encourage vocational colleges to integrate into the industrial chain for school operation, have enterprises establish or participate in vocational education, promote the order-based training of high-skilled talents, and enhance the integration of vocational education with industrial development. Continue to consolidate the achievements of the “double reduction” policy [3]3 The “double reduction” policy, introduced in 2021, aims to reduce the burden of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring on students in compulsory education., strive for coordination among the government, schools, teachers, and parents, and achieve an organic unity of improved classroom teaching levels, enhanced after-school service quality, and a reasonable proportion of family education expenditure.

优化教育考核评价体系。习近平总书记强调：“要在全社会树立科学的人才观、成才观、教育观，加快扭转教育功利化倾向，形成健康的教育环境和生态。”深化新时代教育评价改革，构建多元主体参与、符合中国实际、具有世界水平的教育评价体系。完善学生实习实践制度，把大中小学实习实践教育放在更加重要的位置，进一步提升实习的规范性、公平性、有效性，提高学生综合素质。加快构建职普融通、产教融合的职业教育体系，增强普通教育与职业教育的互通性，准确解读普职分流政策、增强社会认同度，为培养大国工匠、能工巧匠和高技能人才畅通路径；鼓励职业院校融进产业链办学，企业举办或参与职业教育，推广高级技能人才的订单式培养，增强职业教育与产业发展的融合度。持续巩固“双减”成果，努力做到政府、学校、教师、家长相协同，实现课堂教学水平提升、课后服务质量提高、家庭教育支出占比合理的有机统一。

Strengthen policy support and guarantee. Implement the strategy of prioritizing education development, fulfill the requirements of “one generally not less than, two only increases and not decreases” [4]4 “One generally not less than, two only increases and not decreases” is a fiscal requirement for education spending: the general public budget education expenditure per student should generally not decrease; the total fiscal education expenditure and the average education expenditure per student should only increase, not decrease., improve the fiscal education investment mechanism, and consolidate the fiscal guarantee foundation for prioritizing the development of education. Strengthen the legal guarantee for education, focus on improving the relevant legal and regulatory systems and strengthening supervision and enforcement, provide strong legal support for education development, and ensure that the level of law-based governance of education, law-based school management, and law-based school operation is further enhanced. Improve the guarantee mechanisms for preschool education, special education, and specialized education, promote the universal, inclusive, safe, and high-quality development of preschool education, run special education well, and strengthen the construction of specialized schools and specialized education work. Promote digital education, make full use of modern information technology means, build an education resource sharing platform, construct a flexible and open lifelong education system, provide diverse learning pathways for different age groups and social groups, expand the coverage of high-quality educational resources, and empower the construction of a learning society.

强化政策支持保障力度。把教育优先发展战略落到实处，落实“一个一般不低于，两个只增不减”要求，健全财政教育投入机制，为优先发展教育事业夯实财政保障基础。强化教育法治保障，着力健全相关法律法规体系、加强监督执行力度，为教育发展提供强有力的法律支撑，确保依法治教、依法治校、依法办学水平进一步提升。健全学前教育和特殊教育、专门教育保障机制，推进学前教育普及普惠安全优质发展，办好特殊教育，加强专门学校建设和专门教育工作。推进数字化教育，充分利用现代信息技术手段，搭建教育资源共享平台，构建灵活开放的终身教育体系，为不同年龄段和社会群体提供多样化的学习途径，扩大优质教育资源覆盖面，赋能学习型社会建设。

The mission of the era to build a strong education system calls on universities to shoulder the heavy responsibility of people’s livelihood. Hunan Women’s University has always taken education benefiting the people as the foundation of the school, with the mission of serving women’s development and promoting educational equity, writing a chapter of women’s responsibility in strengthening the capacity to safeguard people’s livelihood. The university closely follows social needs to optimize the layout of disciplines, precisely aligns with the rigid demands of people’s livelihood through the model of integrating industry and education and school-enterprise cooperation, extends educational achievements from the campus to communities and families, and makes due contributions to writing a magnificent chapter of education benefiting the people on the grand journey of national rejuvenation.

教育强国建设的时代使命呼唤高校勇担民生重任。湖南女子学院始终将教育惠民作为立校之本，以服务妇女发展、促进教育公平为使命，在增强民生保障力中书写巾帼担当。学院紧扣社会需求优化学科布局，以产教融合、校企合作模式精准对接民生刚需，让教育成果从校园延伸到社区家庭，为在民族复兴的壮阔征程上书写教育惠民的壮丽篇章作出应有贡献。

(The author is the Party Secretary of Hunan Women’s University)

（作者为湖南女子学院党委书记）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心