The Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China is a constituent department of the State Council, responsible for basic education, vocational education, higher education, and other educational affairs throughout the country. The Ministry of Education acts as the predominant funder of national universities and colleges in China. The ministry also accredits tertiary institutions, degree curriculum, and school teachers of the country.
The Ministry of Education currently has 19 internal departments and bureaus. As of 2022, there were 75 colleges and universities affiliated with the Ministry of Education.
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History
The Ministry of Education was founded in October 1949. The work of the ministry was overseen by the Culture and Education Commission that was created at the same time. On October 19, writer and poet Guo Moruo was made the director of the commission, and linguist Ma Xulun was made the first education minister of the People's Republic of China.
In February 1958, the Ministry of Higher Education was merged into the Ministry of Education. In July 1964, the Ministry of Higher Education was restored. In July 1966, the Ministry of Higher Education was once again merged into the Ministry of Education.
In June 1970, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party decided to abolish the Ministry of Education and establish the Science and Education Group of the State Council.
The Ministry of Education was restored after the disruptions of the Cultural Revolution in 1975 by the 4th National People's Congress. Until the Ministry's 1975 restoration, the State Council's Science and Education Group was the most important government body in the education bureaucracy.
On June 18, 1985, the Eleventh Standing Committee of the 6th National People's Congress decided to abolish the Ministry of Education and establish the National Education Commission of the People's Republic of China.
In 1998, the Decision on Institutional Reform of the State Council was adopted at the First Session of the 9th National People's Congress, and the National Education Commission was renamed the Ministry of Education.
In 2003, China's Ministry of Education called for adding environmental education content throughout the public school curriculum from the first year of primary school through the second year of high school. Its guidelines on environmental education emphasized firsthand experience and recommended that a quarter of environmental education content should consist of "practice activities".
In 2019, the Ministry issued a new regulation aimed at unifying the teaching materials for primary and middle schools across China in areas including history, language, and politics.
Since 2019, the Ministry of Education's Institute for a Community with Shared Future (ICSF), hosted at the Communication University of China, has served to promote the concept of "community of a share future for mankind" internationally through multiple affiliated research centers in several countries.
Beginning in 2019, the Ministry establishes "integrated research platforms" at universities in China to conduct research on scientific areas deemed as national strategic needs.
In 2022, the Ministry released opinions on developing "organized scientific research" as a means of promoting "high-level self-reliance and self-empowerment." These opinions described universities as a major component of "national strategic scientific and technological strength" in "accelerating major breakthroughs in goal-oriented research" and pursuing "key core technologies".
Development of the political counselor system
In 1952, the Ministry of Education sought to develop a system of political counselors as a pilot program in universities. Tsinghua University established a political counselor program in 1953, becoming the first university to do so. In this program, new graduates who were also Chinese Communist Party members worked as political counselors in managing the student body and student organizations, often simultaneously serving as Communist Youth League secretaries.
The program was interrupted by the Cultural Revolution but resumed in 1977. After its endorsement by Deng Xiaoping, the program expanded across higher educational institutions.
Beginning in the 1990s, the political counselor system was further institutionalized and expanded in higher educational institutions throughout China, with the ministry issuing standardized rules such as term limits and age limits in 2000.
Organizational structure
According to the "Regulations on the Main Functional Configuration, Internal Organizations and Staffing of the Ministry of Education," the Ministry of Education has set up the following institutions:
Internal departments
General Department
Department of Policies and Regulations
Development Planning Department
Comprehensive Reform Department
Personnel Department
Finance Department
Teaching Materials Bureau (Office of the National Teaching Materials Committee)
Department of Basic Education
Off-campus Education and Training Supervision Department
Department of Vocational and Adult Education
higher education department
Education Supervision Bureau (Office of the State Council Education Supervision Commission)
Department of Ethnic Education
Department of Teacher Affairs
Department of Physical Education, Health and Arts Education
Ideological and Political Work Department
Social Sciences Division
Department of Science, Technology and Information Technology
Department of College and University Students
Department of Degree Management and Graduate Education (Office of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council)
Affiliate national bureau
National Language and Words Work Committee (Deputy Ministerial Level)
Affiliate public institutions
Ministry of Education Service Center
National Institute of Educational Administration
Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences (Office of the National Educational Science Planning Leading Group)
Research Center for Scientific Development of Higher Education Institutions of the Ministry of Education
Vocational Education Development Center of the Ministry of Education
Chinese and Foreign Language Exchange and Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Education
Institute of Language and Character Applications (State Language Commission Putonghua and Character Application Testing Center)
National Open University (National University for the Elderly)
Educational Technology and Resource Development Center of the Ministry of Education (Central Audio-visual Education Center, Basic Education Resource Center of the Ministry of Education)
China Educational Television
Ministry of Education Education Management Information Center
Curriculum Materials Research Institute
Secretariat of China Scholarship Council
Ministry of Education Fund Supervision Affairs Center
National Education Development Center of the Ministry of Education
Affiliate enterprises
China Education Publishing and Media Group Co., Ltd.
People's Education Press Co., Ltd.
Higher Education Press Ltd.
Chinese Language Publishing House Co., Ltd.
Language and Culture Press
China Audio and Video Publishing House
Educational Science Press Co., Ltd.
The Ministry has a role in the foreign aid process thorough scholarships it provides for study in China.