Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 13 (Xinhua) Recently, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Overall Plan for Deepening the Reform of Education Evaluation in the New Era", and issued a notice asking all localities and departments to conscientiously implement it in light of the actual situation.
The full text of the Overall Plan for Deepening the Reform of Educational Evaluation in the New Era is as follows.
Educational evaluation is related to the direction of educational development. What kind of evaluation baton there is, what kind of school-running orientation there is. In order to thoroughly implement the important exposition of the Supreme Leader General Secretary on education and the spirit of the National Education Conference, improve the system and mechanism of cultivating people by virtue, reverse the unscientific orientation of education evaluation, resolutely overcome the stubborn diseases of only grades, only entering higher schools, only diplomas, only papers and only hats, improve the ability and level of education governance, accelerate the modernization of education, build an educational power, and run a satisfactory education for the people, the following programs are formulated.
I. General requirements
(1) Guiding ideology. Guided by the Supreme Leader’s Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the New Era, we will fully implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Plenary Sessions of the 19th National Congress, fully implement the Party’s educational policy, adhere to the direction of running a socialist school, implement the fundamental task of educating people by virtue of education laws, systematically promote the reform of educational evaluation, develop quality education, guide the whole party and society to establish a scientific concept of educational development, talent growth, selection and employment, promote the construction of an education system that serves the lifelong learning of the whole people, and strive to cultivate and take on the great responsibility of national rejuvenation.
(2) Main principles. Adhere to moral education, keep in mind the mission of educating people for the party and the country, give full play to the baton role of educational evaluation, guide the establishment of scientific educational goals, and ensure the correct development direction of education. Adhere to the problem-oriented, start with the issues concerned by the CPC Central Committee, the masses and the society, break through and make substantial breakthroughs in promoting the reform of key areas of educational evaluation. Adhere to scientific and effective, improve the evaluation of results, strengthen process evaluation, explore value-added evaluation, improve comprehensive evaluation, make full use of information technology, and improve the scientificity, professionalism and objectivity of educational evaluation. Adhere to overall planning, design and steadily advance according to the characteristics of different subjects, different classes and different types of education, and enhance the systematicness, integrity and synergy of the reform. Adhere to the characteristics of China, take root in China, integrate China and foreign countries, base on the times and face the future, and unswervingly take the road of education development in Socialism with Chinese characteristics.
(3) reform objectives. After five to ten years’ efforts, the level of scientific performance of duties by Party committees and governments at all levels has been significantly improved, the implementation mechanism of moral education in schools at all levels has been improved, the evaluation system for guiding teachers to devote themselves to educating people has been improved, the evaluation methods for promoting students’ all-round development have been more diversified, and the social selection and employment methods have been more scientific. By 2035, an education evaluation system with characteristics of the times, China characteristics and world level will be basically formed.
Second, the key tasks
(A) the reform of the Party committee and government education evaluation, and promote the scientific performance of their duties.
1. Improve the system and mechanism of the Party’s overall leadership over education. Party committees at all levels should conscientiously implement their leadership responsibilities, establish and improve an education leadership system in which the Party committees lead in a unified way, the Party and the government work together, and all departments assume their respective responsibilities, perform their duties of guiding the direction, managing the overall situation, making decisions and ensuring implementation, take ideological and political work as the lifeline of all school work, run through the whole process of school education management, firmly establish a scientific concept of educational development, and resolutely overcome short-sighted behavior and utilitarian tendencies. Party committees and governments at all levels should improve the mechanism of regular research and education, and establish and improve the system of in-depth education and front-line research by leading comrades of the party and government, ideological and political lessons for teachers and students, contact with schools, and education at the end of the year.
2. Improve the evaluation of the government’s educational responsibilities. The provincial government mainly evaluates the overall implementation of the Party’s educational policy and the decision-making arrangements of the CPC Central Committee on education, the implementation of the education priority development strategy, and the solution of outstanding educational problems that the people are generally concerned about, not only evaluating the final results, but also evaluating the degree of efforts and progress and development. According to the evaluation contents and indicators established at the national level, all localities refine them in combination with the actual situation as the basis for evaluating the next level of government’s performance of educational duties.
3. Resolutely correct the tendency of one-sided pursuit of enrollment rate. Party committees and governments at all levels should adhere to the correct concept of political achievements, and must not issue entrance examination indicators or assess the next-level party committees and governments, education departments, schools and teachers with the entrance examination rate, and must not link the entrance examination rate with school projects, fund allocation, evaluation and evaluation, and must not reward teachers and students with the entrance examination results in any form. It is strictly forbidden to publish, publicize and speculate on the entrance examination "No.1" and the entrance examination rate. If the ecological problems of education are outstanding and cause serious social impact, they shall be held accountable according to laws and regulations.
(B) Reform the school evaluation, and promote the implementation of the fundamental task of Lide Shuren.
4. Adhere to the effectiveness of Lide Shuren as the fundamental standard. Speeding up the improvement of the evaluation criteria of schools at all levels and types will take the implementation of the Party’s overall leadership, adhering to the correct direction of running schools, strengthening and improving the Party building in schools, leading the Party to build teams, doing a good job in ideological and political work, running schools according to law, and maintaining security and stability as the important contents of evaluating schools and their leaders and managers, improve the internal quality assurance system of schools, resolutely overcome unilateral school-running behaviors such as attaching importance to intellectual education over moral education and attaching importance to scores over quality, and promote students’ physical and mental health and all-round development.
5. Improve kindergarten evaluation. Focus on the evaluation of kindergarten scientific education, standardized kindergarten, safety and health, team building, overcoming the tendency of primary school, etc. The state has formulated guidelines for evaluating the quality of kindergarten education, and all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) have improved the standards for evaluating the quality of kindergartens, included all kinds of kindergartens in the quality evaluation category, and regularly announced the evaluation results to the public.
6. Improve the evaluation of primary and secondary schools. Compulsory education schools focus on promoting students’ all-round development, ensuring students’ equal rights and interests, leading teachers’ professional development, improving education and teaching level, creating a harmonious educational environment, building a modern school system, academic burden and social satisfaction. The state formulates evaluation standards for the quality of compulsory education schools, improves the quality monitoring system of compulsory education, strengthens the application of monitoring results, and promotes the balanced development of compulsory education. Ordinary senior high schools mainly evaluate the cultivation of students’ all-round development. The state formulates the evaluation standards for the quality of running ordinary senior high schools, highlighting the implementation of students’ comprehensive quality evaluation, developing students’ development guidance, optimizing the allocation of teaching resources, orderly promoting class selection, and standardizing enrollment and running schools.
7. Improve the evaluation of vocational schools. Focus on the evaluation of vocational schools (including technical colleges, the same below), the integration of production and education, school-enterprise cooperation, the combination of education and training, the students’ acquisition of vocational qualifications or vocational skill level certificates, the employment quality of graduates, the construction of "double-qualified" teachers (including "integrated" teachers in technical colleges, the same below), etc., expand the participation of industry enterprises in the evaluation, and guide the training of high-quality workers and technical and skilled personnel. Deepen the integration of vocational education and general education, explore the high-level apprenticeship system with China characteristics, and improve the degree awarding standard and evaluation mechanism suitable for the development of vocational education. We will increase the evaluation weight of vocational training, service areas and industries, take the undertaking of vocational training as an important basis for verifying the total performance salary of vocational school teachers, and promote the improvement of the lifelong vocational skills training system.
8. Improve the evaluation of colleges and universities. Promote the classified evaluation of colleges and universities, guide the scientific orientation of different types of colleges and universities, and make them unique and level. Improve the teaching evaluation of undergraduate education, emphasizing ideological and political education, teaching for undergraduates by professors, the ratio of students to teachers, the number of courses per student, the dominant specialty, the guidance of graduation thesis (graduation design), student management and service, students’ participation in social practice, graduate development, and employer satisfaction. Improve discipline evaluation, strengthen the position of talent training center, dilute the number of papers, citation rate, awards and other quantitative indicators, highlight the characteristics, quality and contribution of disciplines, and correct the practice of unilaterally evaluating academic level with academic titles. Teachers’ achievements are strictly determined by the signing units and do not follow the people. Explore the establishment of application-oriented undergraduate evaluation standards, and highlight the cultivation of corresponding professional ability and practical application ability. Formulate evaluation methods for the effectiveness of "double first-class" construction, highlight the cultivation of first-class talents, output first-class achievements, actively serve the needs of the country, and guide universities to strive for world first-class. Improve the evaluation of normal universities, take running normal education as the first duty, and take training qualified teachers as the main assessment index. Improve the performance evaluation of university funds, and guide universities to increase their support for education, teaching and basic research. Improve the evaluation of international exchanges and cooperation in colleges and universities, and promote the quality of inter-school exchanges, studying in China, cooperating in running schools, and introducing overseas talents. Explore the evaluation of universities serving the whole people’s lifelong learning and promote the construction of a learning society.
(C) the reform of teacher evaluation, and promote the practice of teaching and educating people.
9. Adhere to the teacher’s morality as the first standard. Resolutely overcome the phenomenon of valuing scientific research over teaching and valuing teaching over educating people, regard the performance of teachers’ morality as the primary requirement for regular registration of teachers’ qualifications, performance appraisal, evaluation and appointment of professional titles, and evaluation and reward, strengthen the investigation of teachers’ ideological and political quality, and promote the normalization and long-term construction of teachers’ morality and style. Improve the teacher honor system and give play to the leading role of typical demonstration. We will fully implement the professional code of conduct for teachers in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools and colleges in the new era, and establish a notification and warning system for teachers’ moral misconduct. For teachers with serious problems of teachers’ morality and style, explore the implementation of the education industry-wide ban system.
10. Highlight educational and teaching achievements. Taking the conscientious performance of education and teaching duties as the basic requirement for evaluating teachers, and guiding teachers to do well in every class and care for every student. Kindergarten teachers’ evaluation highlights the practice of teaching protection, and takes the ability of promoting children’s active learning and all-round development with games as the key index, which is included in the training standards of preschool education professionals and the important content of on-the-job training of preschool teachers. Explore the establishment of a teaching evaluation system for primary and secondary school teachers. Teachers should evaluate each student’s studies every semester, and the evaluation should be included in the teacher assessment. We will improve the performance appraisal methods for primary and secondary school teachers, and the distribution of performance pay will be tilted towards the head teacher and the teachers with outstanding teaching effects. Improve the evaluation criteria for the identification, employment and assessment of "double-qualified" teachers, and highlight the level of practical skills and professional teaching ability. Standardize the conditions for the employment of college teachers and the evaluation of professional titles, and do not take the study experience outside the country (territory) as a restrictive condition. Participate in teaching and research activities, compile teaching materials and cases, guide students’ graduation design, employment, innovation and entrepreneurship, social practice, community activities, competitions and performances, etc. are included in the workload. To implement the system of professors attending classes, colleges and universities should make it clear that professors should undertake the minimum class requirements for undergraduate (junior college) students, ensure the teaching quality, and give unqualified treatment to those who fail to meet the requirements in annual or employment assessment. Support the construction of high-quality academic journals of teaching and research, and encourage university journals to tilt towards teaching and research. Improve the monitoring and evaluation mechanism of textbook quality, implement the national reward system for textbook construction, and select it once every four years.Teachers who have made outstanding contributions shall be commended and rewarded according to regulations. Improve the national teaching achievement award selection system, optimize the award-winning categories and the allocation of selected places.
11. Strengthen the work of front-line students. All kinds of schools at all levels should make clear the specific requirements for leading cadres and teachers to participate in student work. Implement the home visit system for primary and secondary school teachers and incorporate the contact between home and school into the teacher assessment. The annual debriefing of members of leading bodies in colleges and universities should take ideological and political lessons and contact with students as important contents. To improve the selection and appointment mechanism of party and government management cadres in schools, in principle, students should have work experience such as ideological and political teachers, counselors or class teachers. Young teachers in colleges and universities must have at least one year’s work experience as counselors, class teachers and other students in order to be promoted to a higher professional title.
12. Improve the scientific research evaluation of university teachers. Highlight the quality orientation, focus on the evaluation of academic contributions, social contributions and supporting personnel training, and do not link the quantitative indicators of scientific research such as the number of papers, the number of projects, and the project funds with the performance salary distribution and rewards. According to the characteristics of different disciplines and different posts, we insist on classified evaluation, carry out representative achievement evaluation, explore long-term evaluation, improve peer expert evaluation mechanism, and pay attention to the combination of individual evaluation and team evaluation. Explore special evaluation methods for teachers’ scientific research in special fields such as national defense science and technology. For those who have achieved major theoretical innovations, made breakthroughs in cutting-edge technologies, solved major engineering and technical problems, and made significant contributions to the development of economic and social undertakings, the papers may not be subject to restrictive requirements when applying for senior titles.
13. Promote the return of talent titles to academic and honorary. Effectively streamline the talent "hat" and optimize and integrate various talent plans in the field of education. The title of talent shall not be regarded as a restrictive condition for undertaking scientific research projects, job title evaluation and employment, appraising awards and degree point declaration, and the relevant declaration form shall not be set up to fill in the column of talent title. According to the actual contribution, the salary of talents should be reasonably determined, and the title of talents should not be simply linked to material interests. Encourage those who have won the title of "Changjiang Scholar" and other talents in universities in the central and western regions and northeast regions to sign long-term service contracts with the schools, so as to contribute to the implementation of national and regional development strategies.
(D) Reform the evaluation of students and promote the all-round development of morality, intelligence, physique, beauty and labor.
14. Establish the concept of scientific success. Adhere to morality first, ability first and all-round development, adhere to the principle of facing everyone, teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and integrating knowledge with practice, resolutely change the practice of labeling students with scores, innovate the process evaluation method of morality, intelligence, physique and beauty, improve the comprehensive quality evaluation system, and effectively guide students to strengthen their ideals and beliefs, cultivate patriotic feelings, strengthen their moral cultivation, increase their knowledge and experience, cultivate their spirit of struggle and enhance their comprehensive quality.
15. Improve moral education evaluation. According to students’ physical and mental characteristics at different stages, we should scientifically design all kinds of educational and moral education objectives and requirements, guide students to develop good ideological and moral, psychological quality and behavior habits, inherit the red gene, enhance the "four self-confidences", and be determined to listen to and follow the party, take root in the people and contribute to the country. Through information technology and other means, explore effective ways for students, parents, teachers and communities to participate in the evaluation, objectively record the daily performance and outstanding performance of students’ conduct, especially the practice of socialist core values, as an important content of students’ comprehensive quality evaluation.
16. Strengthen sports evaluation. Establish an examination mechanism that combines daily participation, physical fitness monitoring and special sports skills testing, and take meeting the requirements of national students’ physical health standards as an important part of education and teaching assessment, so as to guide students to develop good exercise habits and healthy lifestyles, temper their strong will and cultivate the spirit of cooperation. Primary and secondary schools should objectively record students’ daily sports participation and physical health monitoring results, and give feedback to parents regularly. Improve the content, method and scoring method of physical education test in senior high school entrance examination, and form an effective mechanism to encourage students to strengthen physical exercise. Strengthen the evaluation of college students’ physical education and explore offering physical education courses at all stages of higher education.
17. Improve the evaluation of aesthetic education. Incorporate primary and secondary school students’ learning of music, fine arts, calligraphy and other art courses and their participation in art practice activities organized by the school into their academic requirements, promote students to form artistic hobbies, enhance their artistic literacy, and comprehensively enhance their ability to feel, express, appreciate and create beauty. Explore the inclusion of art subjects in the pilot reform of the senior high school entrance examination. Promote colleges and universities to incorporate public art courses and art practice into talent training programs, implement credit system management, and students can only graduate after completing the required credits.
18. Strengthen the evaluation of labor education. Implement the guiding outline of labor education in universities, primary and secondary schools, clarify the objectives and requirements of labor education in different classes and grades, and guide students to advocate and respect labor. Explore the establishment of a labor list system, clarify the specific content and requirements for students to participate in labor, so that students can develop labor habits in practice, learn to work, and learn to be diligent. Strengthen the process evaluation, and include the participation in the study and practice of labor education courses into the students’ comprehensive quality files.
19. Strict academic standards. Improve the academic requirements of students at all levels and schools, and strictly control the export. For junior and senior high school graduating students, the school must reasonably arrange educational activities from the end of the college entrance examination to the summer vacation. Improve the academic evaluation system that organically combines process assessment with result assessment, strengthen classroom participation and classroom discipline examination, and guide students to establish a good style of study. Explore the pilot sampling work of bachelor’s degree thesis (graduation project), improve the sampling work of doctoral and master’s degree thesis, and seriously deal with all kinds of academic misconduct. Improve the practice (training) assessment methods to ensure that students fully and truly participate in the practice (training).
20. Deepen the reform of the examination enrollment system. We will steadily push forward the reform of the college entrance examination, build an examination content system to guide students’ all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique, beauty and labor, change the relatively solidified form of examination questions, enhance the openness of examination questions, and reduce the phenomenon of rote memorization and "mechanical brushing". Accelerate the improvement of the construction and use of junior and senior high school students’ comprehensive quality files, and gradually change the enrollment model that simply takes test scores as the sole criterion. Improve the enrollment method of "cultural quality+vocational skills" examination in higher vocational education. Deepen the reform of postgraduate examination enrollment, and strengthen the examination of scientific research and innovation ability and practical ability. Schools at all levels and types are not allowed to compete for students in violation of regulations by setting bonuses. Explore the establishment of a credit bank system, promote the recognition, accumulation and transformation of various forms of learning results, realize the interconnection between different types of education, academic and non-academic education, on-campus and off-campus education, and smooth the channels for lifelong learning and talent growth.
(E) Reform the evaluation of employment and jointly create a good environment for the development of education.
21. Establish a correct orientation for employing people. Party and government organs, institutions and state-owned enterprises should take the lead in reversing the employment orientation of "only prestigious schools" and "only academic qualifications", establish a talent use mechanism oriented by morality and ability and aiming at job demand, change the "high consumption" of talents, and form a good situation of dropping talents without sticking to one pattern.
22. Promote the suitability of people and posts. The recruitment of civil servants at all levels, institutions and state-owned enterprises should make reasonable recruitment conditions and determine the educational level according to the job requirements. In the recruitment announcement and actual operation, the graduation institution, study experience outside the country (territory) and learning methods should not be used as restrictive conditions. Vocational school graduates are treated equally with ordinary school graduates in terms of settlement, employment, participation in recruitment of government agencies, enterprises and institutions, evaluation and employment of professional titles, and promotion of job ranks. Employers should scientifically and reasonably determine job responsibilities, adhere to the principle of fixed salary by post, remuneration according to work, and excellent remuneration for excellent work, and establish an incentive mechanism that emphasizes performance and contribution.
Third, organize the implementation
(1) Implementing the responsibility for reform. Party committees and governments at all levels should strengthen organizational leadership, put deepening the reform of education evaluation on the important agenda, and clearly implement measures according to the requirements of this plan and the actual situation. Leading groups for education work of party committees at all levels should strengthen overall coordination, publicity and guidance, and supervise implementation. The relevant departments of the central and state organs should combine their responsibilities and formulate supporting systems in a timely manner. Schools at all levels and types should pay close attention to implementation and effectively get rid of the stubborn disease of "five talents". The state and provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) choose qualified places, schools and units to carry out pilot projects and play a leading role in demonstration. Educational supervision should take the promotion of educational evaluation reform as an important content, urge and correct those who violate relevant regulations, and severely deal with relevant responsible personnel according to regulations and laws.
(2) Strengthening the construction of specialization. Establish an evaluation system with multi-participation of government, schools and society, establish and improve a unified and responsible education evaluation and monitoring mechanism for education supervision departments, and give play to the role of professional institutions and social organizations. Strictly control the number and frequency of educational evaluation activities, reduce multi-head evaluation and repeated evaluation, and effectively reduce the burden on grassroots and schools. All localities should innovate the guiding methods of teaching and research work in basic education, and strictly control the random inspection and evaluation of schools and students by examination. Innovative evaluation tools, using artificial intelligence, big data and other modern information technologies, explore the whole process of longitudinal evaluation of students’ learning situation in all grades, and horizontal evaluation of all elements of morality, intelligence, body, beauty and labor. Improve the application of evaluation results, and comprehensively play the role of guidance, identification, diagnosis, regulation and improvement. Strengthen the construction of teachers’ educational evaluation ability, support qualified universities to set up educational evaluation, educational measurement and other related disciplines, and train educational evaluation professionals. Strengthen the construction of the national education examination work team and improve the incentive mechanism for teachers to participate in proposition and examination work. Actively carry out international cooperation in education evaluation, participate in the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the educational objectives of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, highlight the China concept and contribute to China’s programs.
(3) create a good atmosphere. Party and government organs, institutions and state-owned enterprises should perform their duties and promote the whole society to form a scientific concept of selecting and employing people. The news media should strengthen the propaganda and interpretation of science education concepts and reform policies, reasonably guide expectations, and enhance social consensus. Construct a family education guidance service system covering urban and rural areas, and guide parents to establish a correct view of education and success. All localities should summarize, publicize and popularize the successful experiences and typical cases of educational evaluation reform in a timely manner, expand the radiation area and improve their influence.
