China's Minister of Education, Huai Jinpeng, said on Saturday (March 7) that the ministry will continue to carry out clean-up and rectification operations targeting illegal school operations, excessive studying hours, and school bullying, adopting stricter and more practical measures to reinforce the defense line of campus safety.
According to China News Service, the fourth session of the 14th National People’s Congress of China held a press conference on livelihood topics on Saturday. While discussing the “15th Five-Year Plan” (2026 to 2030) arrangements for basic education, Huai Jinpeng said efforts would focus on comprehensively building a fair and high-quality basic education system, and implementing major projects in basic education, emphasizing four key tasks.
Regarding the expansion and improvement of quality and fairness, Huai Jinpeng said, on one hand, that higher standards would be used to expand the coverage of high-quality resources. He pointed out that for preschool education, the focus is on increasing the supply of places in public kindergartens; for compulsory education, the priority is to enhance construction standards to meet the needs of building a strong nation; and for high school education, the main task is the continued revitalization of county-level schools.
On the other hand, Huai Jinpeng stated that the bottom line of educational fairness must be firmly upheld, with ongoing special initiatives for transparent admission, and a long-term mechanism for fair enrollment being improved. The aim is to ensure equal access to education for children of migrant workers, left-behind children, and children with disabilities.
Speaking on the allocation of premium resources to ensure quality, Huai Jinpeng said that in order to proactively respond to the peaking of the school-age population in succession, the ministry has strengthened forward-looking analysis, established a national monitoring system, and optimized resource allocation. Priority will be given to increasing the supply of school places in towns with net population inflows and in areas with weak education foundations, as well as adjusting educational resources across different educational stages according to local conditions.
In terms of standardized governance to ensure safety, Huai Jinpeng stated that a special campaign for campus safety will be launched, working with departments of public security, health, and market regulation, to build a tighter and more secure defense for school safety. There will be a continued crackdown on illegal school operations, excessive study hours, and school bullying, as well as in-depth special rectifications for campus meals, supplementary teaching material subscriptions, and school uniform procurement.