Adjust the Structure of the Education System: Smooth Out Internal and External Relations

Abstract

As we analyze our country's social and economic development, the following sets of contradictions stand out in the picture of this development. These include: (1) the contradiction between the expansion of population and the growth of per capita income, (2) the contradiction between a high employment rate and a low rate of production efficiency, (3) the contradiction between a sense of common wealth and well-being and the expansion of the gaps between people's incomes, and (4) the contradiction between the policy of opening up to the outside world and the construction of spiritual culture. There are many ways to solve these contradictions, but, under the system of socialism, in addition to organizing production and the people's lives in a reasonable way, the fundamental way out of the potential impasses seems to be nothing more than strengthening the education system and developing the cause of education. When education is done well, and our people's quality is enhanced generally, then the expansion of the population would not just be an explosion in consumption; rather, it would mean an expansion in technique and skill, and an enhancement in the labor productivity and efficiency rate. Our common wealth and well-being will then also be based on ability and contribution. Then, too, we will be able, under the conditions of opening up to the outside, to absorb truly and correctly the essence of foreign cultures to help us in building up the spiritual culture of socialism in our country. Therefore, we believe that it is a mark of true foresight and acumen that the party center designated the development of education as a strategic focal point for our country's growth in the current period and for some time into the future. The "Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Reforming the Education System" pointed out that we must give the enterprise of education a tremendous boost in its development as the foundation of the nation's overall economic development. Furthermore, this resolution stipulated that the growth of the state's annual expenditure in the area of education must be kept at a higher level than the growth of the normal and regular fiscal income of the state. It also stipulated that there should be a year-to-year increase in the per-student annual average educational expenses. These very important decisions will propel with great force the development of our nation's enterprise of education and will allow it to have a greater and greater impact on our country's economic revival and recovery, its social growth, and its scientific and technological progress.