Sustainable Education Policy Development in China: Challenges and Strategies (Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices) 9819911907, 9789819911905

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Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices

Jian Li

Sustainable Education Policy Development in China Challenges and Strategies

Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices Series Editors Eryong Xue, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China Simon Marginson, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Jian Li, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

This book series explores education policy on Pre-K, K-12, post-secondary education, and vocational education, informing multiple experts from academia to practitioner, and specifically pays focuses on new frontiers and cutting-edge knowledge that transforms future education policy development. It has been initiated by a global group of education policy research centers and institutions, whose faculty and staff includes internationally recognized researchers in comparative education policy studies. The series’ mission is to advance the modernization of the education and social construction. This series provides policymakers and researchers with an in-depth understanding of international education policy from diverse perspectives. Topics include cuttingedge and multidisciplinary studies on identifying, analyzing and uncovering education policy reform and practice among the fields in education policy and pedagogy. It addresses how education policy shapes the development of education systems in different regions and seeks to explain how specific education policies concentrate on accelerating the development of quality education and social progress. More importantly, this book series offers policymakers and educational stakeholders, government, and private sectors a comprehensive lens to investigate the trends, rationales of education policy development internationally.

Jian Li

Sustainable Education Policy Development in China Challenges and Strategies

Jian Li Beijing Normal University Beijing, China

The study received funding from Social Science Foundation of Beijing “Assessment of the Impact of COVID-19 on the Internationalization of Universities in Beijing and Research on Policy Innovation of Local Internationalization” (Project No.: 21JYC015) ISSN 2730-6356 ISSN 2730-6364 (electronic) Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices ISBN 978-981-99-1190-5 ISBN 978-981-99-1191-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-1191-2 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Foreword

This book investigates the sustainable education policy development in China from both challenges and strategies’ perspectives. Education for sustainable development is a key part of the concept of sustainable social development advocated by the international community. In this book, the conceptual model of the sustainable education policy development in China is divided into several parts, including the sustainable development of preschool education in China, the sustainable development of ethnic education in China, sustainable development of vocational education in China, the sustainable development of higher education in China and the sustainable development of lifelong learning in China. This book also offers an in-depth understanding of power of sustainable education policy locally and globally. Chapter 1 explores the sustainable development of preschool education in China. The competition between countries in today’s world is the competition of science and technology and talents. The development of science and technology needs vigorous talents, and the key to cultivate talents lies in education. And in the stage of education, preschool education is very important. Preschool education is extremely important for children who are full of infinite curiosity about the world. It is not only a way to acquire knowledge, but also an important stage to develop children’s moral character. Good early childhood education experience can be said to be a lifetime wealth in the growth of children. Preschool education is the main starting point of preschool education activities. Teachers put the basic starting point of preschool education on the position of children’s lifelong development, which can effectively ensure the healthy growth of children in the future. This chapter mainly aims at the sustainable development of preschool education, respectively from the research review of preschool education, the problems and challenges facing preschool education in China, and better responds to the problems and challenges in preschool education. Chapter 2 examines the sustainable development of ethnic education in China. Since the third Plenary Session of the eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the basic task of ethnic work has been to promote the economy of ethnic minorities and ethnic areas as soon as possible. To accomplish this task, we must rely on science and technology and education, and start from training ethnic

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talents and improving the skills and qualities of ethnic workers. The implementation of the strategy of sustainable development of national education continues to progress. However, the gap between the education level of minority areas and the national average education level is obvious, and there are still many serious problems and difficulties in the development of minority education. For example, the influence of exam-oriented education is still very serious in minority areas. The main body of running schools is relatively single, the teacher force is lacking, and the economy has a great restriction on the development of education. The problem is that the countermeasure, facing the sustainable development of national education problem continuous improvement, can, to a certain extent, improve the cultural confidence of the ethnic minority areas, for example, perfecting policy support for the sustainable development of education in ethnic areas, intensifying education partnerships, strengthening the economic aid of ethnic areas and promoting the sustainable development of national education process. Chapter 3 concentrates on sustainable development of vocational education in China. In recent years, the development of vocational education has been widely concerned. China’s vocational education can be traced back to the 1860s, after more than 100 years of history. Until the reform and opening 30 years ago, China’s vocational education has developed rapidly. China’s vocational education has the characteristics of value purpose, history of development level, restriction of development conditions, time of development content, regularity of development process and so on. The sustainable development of China’s vocational education plays a very important role in the development of our country. The curriculum system of China’s vocational education has formed three major courses in the long-term teaching practice: public courses, basic technical courses and specialized technical courses. Since the reform and opening, the development of vocational and technical education has gone through the period of rapid development, the period of falling back and the current period of development opportunities, which has made an important contribution to the economic and social development. Since 2013, the State Council and the Ministry of Education have issued several decisions, plans and opinions, indicating that China attaches great importance to the sustainable development of vocational education. However, the sustainable development of vocational technology in China is still facing many challenges and problems. It is necessary to deepen the reform in the aspects of changing the development mode, policy inclination, improving conditions and improving quality, to ensure the development of vocational education. Chapter 4 explores the sustainable development of higher education in China. The sustainable development of higher education is closely related to our country’s social economy and people’s life. The sustainable development of higher education should be evaluated by the principles of sustainability, integrity and fairness. Considering China’s national conditions, “fairness” is more instructive for the development of higher education in China at present. “Equity in higher education” means that everyone can receive education, and everyone is equal before education. However, in the aspect of higher education, higher education also faces many problems and challenges, which are the opportunities of higher education. This paper mainly explains the main contents, characteristics, scholars’ viewpoints, problems encountered in

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practice and countermeasures and suggestions for the sustainable development of higher education. Chapter 5 examines the sustainable development of basic education in China. Basic education as an important stage of China’s education system, of course, is also synchronously made great achievements. Education for sustainable development is a new educational idea put forward by the international community. This paper analyzes the problems and challenges existing in current education from the current problems and challenges in China’s basic education. There are many problems in China’s basic education, which make it difficult to focus on sustainable development education, and lack of special funds for sustainable development education. This chapter will introduce the sustainable development of basic education in detail from the aspects of research review, problem status and countermeasures. Chapter 6 focuses on the sustainable development of lifelong learning in China. With the rapid development of science and technology, the sustainable development of lifelong education has become a trend. The idea that a person can get through life with a set of knowledge and skills will also be a thing of the past. Traditional education will not meet the needs of human life development, but lifelong education can. Developing lifelong education towards a learning society has become the current trend of education development in the international society. Since lifelong education is the most closely related to social development, the popularization of lifelong education will surely further promote social development. After entering the twentyfirst century, the state attaches greater importance to the dissemination and practice of the concept of lifelong education and regards accelerating the development of lifelong education, especially community education, education for the elderly and vocational education, as a major measure to promote social development, promote social equity and optimize the educational structure. This chapter systematically expounds the concept, characteristics, content and development history of lifelong education and sustainable development, and further understands the policy changes of lifelong education in China. The sustainable development of lifelong education promotes social development, but it will inevitably be challenged. In view of the main problems existing in the development of lifelong education and the analysis of the evaluation results, this paper puts forward some strategies, such as perfecting the corresponding management organization and operation mechanism, striving to create a learning society, integrating and developing digital learning resources, so as to promote lifelong education to make greater contributions to the social development. Lifelong education promotes the socialization of education and the establishment of learning society. The old idea of school as the only educational institution should be eliminated, and education should go beyond the limitations of school education, so as to expand to human social life.

Contents

1 Sustainable Development of Preschool Education in China . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.1 The Idea of Preschool Education Sustainable Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.2 The Characteristics of Preschool Education Sustainable Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.3 The Main Content of Sustainable Development of Preschool Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Historical Development of Preschool Sustainable Education . . . . . . 1.2.1 The Period of Recovery and Development of Preschool Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.2 The Period of Sustained Development of Preschool Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.3 The Period of Policy Changes of Development of Preschool Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 The Challenges and Problems in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.1 Poor Professionalism and Lack of Professionalism . . . . . . . . 1.3.2 Few Post-service Training Opportunities and Unsatisfactory Professional Development . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.3 The Distribution of Preschool Education Teachers Is Not Balanced, and High-quality Teachers Are Too Concentrated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 The Countermeasures and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.1 Strengthen the Construction of Laws and Regulations on Preschool Education to Provide Institutional Guarantee for the Training of Preschool Teachers . . . . . . . . . 1.4.2 Comprehensively Promote the Reform of Education and Teaching of Preschool Talent Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.3 Reform the Training Mode of Preschool Education Talents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.4 Improve the Enrollment Level of Preschool Teachers . . . . . .

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1.4.5 Optimize the Allocation of Preschool Education Teacher Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.6 Promote the Diversification of Post-service Training Methods for Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.7 Focus on Building a Contingent of Preschool Teachers . . . . 1.4.8 Establish a Comprehensive Management System for the Nurseries and Kindergartens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.9 Strengthen Kindergarten Curriculum Construction . . . . . . . . 1.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Sustainable Development of Ethnic Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.1 The Purpose of Sustainable Development of National Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.2 Characteristics of Ethnic Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.3 The Traditional Culture of All Nationalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Historical Development of Ethnic Education Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.1 China Has Been a Unified Multi-ethnic Country Since Ancient Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.2 The Emerging Concept of Sustainable Education Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Challenges and Problems in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.1 Separation of Teacher Education Practice from Basic Education in Minority Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.2 Teachers in Minority Areas Lack Cultural Consciousness in Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.3 Highlighting Deep-Seated Contradictions in Ethnic Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.4 The Educational Approach of Marxist National View Is Single . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Countermeasures and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.1 Strengthening the Link Between Teacher Education and Basic Education in Ethnic Minority Areas . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.2 Improving Teachers’ Cultural Consciousness of Education Curriculum in Ethnic Minority Areas . . . . . . . . 2.4.3 Strengthening the Development of Ethnic Education . . . . . . 2.4.4 Improve the Management System for Ethnic Education . . . . 2.4.5 Relevant Enrollment Policies Should Be Implemented . . . . . 2.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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3 Sustainable Development of Vocational Education in China . . . . . . . . 3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.1 Vocational Education Is an Important Part of China’s Education System and Plays an Important Role in Promoting China’s Economic Development . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.2 Vocational Education Is to Develop Production, Technology, Management, Service the First Line of the Applied Talents Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Historical Development of Vocational Education in China . . . . . . . . 3.2.1 From “Hierarchy” to “Type”: Breaking the “Ceiling” of Vocational Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.2 Improve the System: The Level of Serving the National Economy and People’s Livelihood Is Improving Day by Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.3 The Needs of the Society to Maintain Adaptation . . . . . . . . . 3.3 Challenges and Problems in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.1 The Vocational Education Enrollment and the Number of Students Declined Year After Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.2 The Quality of Vocational Education Students Decreased Year by Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.3 Conditions for Running Vocational Education Are Not Optimistic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.4 The Funding of Vocational Education Is Insufficient . . . . . . . 3.3.5 The Employment Rate of Vocational Education Graduates Tends to Decline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.6 It Is Urgent to Improve the Teaching Quality and School-Running Efficiency of Vocational Schools . . . . . 3.4 Countermeasures and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4.1 Change the Development Mode and Realize the Sustainable Development of Vocational Education . . . . . 3.4.2 Establish a Scientific Outlook on Development and Correctly Deal with the Relationship Between Various Factors in the Development of Vocational Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4.3 Strengthen Vocational Quality Education and Improve the Quality Level of Vocational Talents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4.4 Replenishing the Vocational Education System at the Undergraduate Level and Above . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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4 Sustainable Development of Higher Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.1 The Sustainable Development of Higher Education . . . . . . . 4.1.2 Characteristics of the Sustainability of Educational Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.3 The Balance of Education Ecology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Historical Development of Higher Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.1 The Policy Change of Higher Education Opening to the Outside World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.2 Three Dimensions—Digitalization, Modernization and Internationalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 Challenges and Problems in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.1 The Development of Knowledge Economy and Learning Society Will Make the Function and Function of Higher Education in China More Obvious and Prominent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.2 The Content of Higher Education Should Meet the Needs of Sustainable Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.3 The Increase of Educational Funds Must Ensure the Sustainable Development of Higher Education . . . . . . . . 4.3.4 The Popularization of Higher Education Will Bring About Profound Changes in China’s Higher Education . . . . 4.3.5 Excessive Expansion of the Scale and Insufficient Educational Resources Affect the Quality of Education . . . . 4.3.6 The Quality of Teaching Management Personnel Restricts the Improvement of Management Level . . . . . . . . . 4.3.7 The Evaluation System of Higher Education Quality Needs to Be Perfected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4 Suggestions and Countermeasures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.1 Optimize Regional Allocation of Higher Education Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.2 Formulate Clear Objectives for Personnel Training . . . . . . . . 4.4.3 Formulate Measures to Coordinate the Construction Scale with the Interests of Faculty and Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.4 Improving the Quality of Teaching Management Personnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.5 Promote Classroom Teaching Reform and Strengthen Interdisciplinary Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.6 Strengthen Education Quality Diagnosis and Establish Quality Evaluation System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.7 Lack of Institutional Innovation Is the Bottleneck of China’s Higher Education Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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5 Sustainable Development of Basic Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.1 The Sustainable Development of Basic Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.2 Characteristics of the Sustainable Development of Basic Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.3 Historical Development of Basic Education Sustainable Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 Policy Changes of Basic Education Sustainable Development in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.1 The Development Stage of Basic Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.2 Changes in School-Age Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 Countermeasures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.1 Implementing the Fundamental Task of Fostering Moral Integrity and Cultivating People and Applying Core Socialist Values Throughout Education and Teaching Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.2 Promote Balanced Development Among Counties, Districts and Schools, Solve the Problem of Unbalanced and Inadequate Development of Education, and Raise the Overall Level of Schools . . . . . . 5.3.3 Investment in Compulsory Education Must Mainly Be Made from Government Financial Appropriations: Separate Education Budgets and Firm Control of Extra-Budgetary Funds Are Two Important Guarantees for Increasing Government Investment in Basic Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.4 Investment in Education Should Be Tilted Toward Schools with Weak Foundations to Create Conditions for Eliminating the Phenomenon of High-Cost School Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.5 Increasing Total Funding for Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.6 Giving Play to the Role of the Main Channel of State Financial Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.7 Strengthening the Reform of the Curriculum System . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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6 The Sustainable Development of Lifelong Learning in China . . . . . . . 6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1.1 The Concept of Lifelong Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1.2 The Concept of Sustainable Development of Education . . . . 6.2 Historical Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.1 1920s to 1940s: The Birth of Lifelong Education . . . . . . . . . 6.2.2 1950s to 1970s: The Modern Revival of Lifelong Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Contents

6.2.3 1980s: The Construction of the Modern Lifelong Education System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 Challenges in Lifelong Learning Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.1 The Demand for Personal Quality Development Keeps Increasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.2 Identification of the Influence of Complicated Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.3 Urbanization Process and Demographic Changes . . . . . . . . . 6.4 Problems in Lifelong Learning Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.1 The Allocation and Quality of Resources Need to Be Improved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.2 The System and Mechanism Are Not Perfect Enough . . . . . 6.4.3 Lifelong Learning Is Faced with the Difficulty of Insufficient Motivation in Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.4 Learning Initiative Depends on Respect for Personality . . . . 6.4.5 Insufficient Investment in Lifelong Education . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.6 The Institutional Problems Facing the Development of Out-of-School Education Have Long Been Unsolved . . . 6.5 Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.5.1 Strengthen the Publicity of Lifelong Education . . . . . . . . . . . 6.5.2 Strengthen Theoretical Research on Lifelong Education . . . 6.5.3 Establish and Improve the Guaranteed Mechanism for Lifelong Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.5.4 Revise and Supplement Existing Laws and Regulations . . . . 6.5.5 Establish a Reasonably Structured, Flexible and Open Education System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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About the Author

Jian Li is the Associate Professor in China Institute of Education Policy, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University. She received her Ph.D. degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (ELPS), School of Education, Indiana University Bloomington. Her research interests focus on Education Policy Studies, Globalization and Internationalization of Higher Education. She currently also serves as think tanker at China Institute of Education and Social Development, Beijing Normal University. In the past years, she has published more than 80 papers in Chinese and English in Higher Education, International Journal of Education Research, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Educational Research, Comparative Education Research, China Education Journal and other SSCI and CSSCI indexed journals. She has published 30 English monographs and published more than 40 articles in China Education Daily, People’s Political Consultative Conference News and People’s Daily Overseas Edition, more than 30 international academic conference papers, national, provincial and ministerial level decision-making departments and adopted or participated in the writing of more than 30 proposals of the CPPCC National Committee. She presided over or participated in 6 national, provincial and ministerial projects and serves as the editorial board member and reviewer of several international English journals.

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Chapter 1

Sustainable Development of Preschool Education in China

This chapter explores the sustainable development of preschool education in China. The competition between countries in today’s world is the competition of science and technology and talents. The development of science and technology needs vigorous talents, and the key to cultivate talents lies in education. And in the stage of education, preschool education is very important. Preschool education is extremely important for children who are full of infinite curiosity about the world. It is not only a way to acquire knowledge, but also an important stage to develop children’s moral character. Good early childhood education experience can be said to be a lifetime wealth in the growth of children. Preschool education is the main starting point of preschool education activities. Teachers put the basic starting point of preschool education on the position of children’s lifelong development, which can effectively ensure the healthy growth of children in the future. This chapter mainly aims at the sustainable development of preschool education, respectively from the research review of preschool education, the problems and challenges facing preschool education in China, and better responds to the problems and challenges in preschool education.

1.1 Introduction 1.1.1 The Idea of Preschool Education Sustainable Development Preschool education is the first stage of schooling and an important part of the national education system. This paper defines preschool education as “education from birth to the age of six”. Preschool education is an important period for the formation of values, attitudes, lifestyles and habits. The earlier the children are exposed to the idea of sustainable development and prosperity, the greater the lifelong impact. So the development of preschool education is of great significance, not only for © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 J. Li, Sustainable Education Policy Development in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-1191-2_1

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the children themselves, but also for the development of the country and the society. Preschool education plays an important role in the sustainable development of education. Preschool education is an important part of basic education in China, which has the attributes of basic, welfare and public welfare. Therefore, the study on the sustainable development of preschool education in China plays an important role in the sustainable development of education in China. Compared with other countries, preschool education in China started slowly. China’s modern preschool education began in the late Qing Dynasty. During development, there are periods of development, and there are periods of stagnation. In general, how to better develop preschool education in our country now has important reference significance. In view of the problems of preschool education in China, we will discuss them in detail in the following paragraphs. In the sustainable development of preschool education, there are problems in the construction of teachers, problems in the balanced development of preschool education, problems in the single form of preschool education institutions in China, whether public or private, and serious tendency of primary school curriculum system of preschool education in China. In a world where knowledge and learning are fundamental to change, a new social contract for education should allow us to think differently about learning and the relationship between students, teachers, knowledge and the world. Starting from the overall situation, China has formulated a population policy suitable for the new era. The introduction of the two-child and three-child policy has further highlighted the regional and structural resource contradiction in preschool education in China. The preschool education problems mentioned above mainly involve teachers and society. This is because we recommend both. In view of the teachers’ problems in preschool education, our countermeasures are reforming the training mode of preschool education teachers, focusing on the construction of preschool teachers, promoting the optimal allocation of preschool education teachers’ resources and promoting the diversification of teachers’ postservice training methods. To solve the social problems in preschool education, our countermeasures are paying attention to the education of overall consideration and paying attention to rational allocation of resources, establishing the nurseries—a consortium of comprehensive management system—to set up the parents management center of preschool education institutions, alleviate the education of parents anxiety, constantly optimize the order of basic education and strengthen the construction of kindergarten curriculum. There are five suggestions, which are: to solve the problem from the government, to strengthen the preschool teacher team, to increase the number of kindergartens, continue to expand the preschool teacher training channels and continue to improve the treatment of rural preschool teachers, to really protect the rights and interests of strengthening the training of teachers (Cheng, 2020, 2021; Guan, 2005; Li, 2006, 2014; Li & Liu, 2019; Lin & Liu, 2021; Wang, 2018; Xiang, 2016; Xie, 2016; Yang, 2020, 2022; Yu, 2020; Zhang, 2013). Preschool education is the first stage of schooling and an important part of the national education system. Preschool education from the word “preschool” refers to the stage before school children; “preschool education” refers to all the education before school children. In 1981, at the International Consultative Conference on Pre-School Education in Paris, preschool education was defined as “the sum total

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of activities that stimulate children’s desire to learn, give them learning experiences and contribute to their overall development”. From the international point of view, the age for the children attending primary school in each country is not the same referred to the age span of preschool education. Preschool education in China also refers to the education of children from birth to school. This paper explains the concept of preschool education as: “Preschool education refers to the education of children from birth to the age of six”. Sustainable development was originally put forward to coordinate the relationship between human, resources, environment, and social and economic development. It is an integrated, developmental and dynamic concept involving the natural environment, the social economy and education, with education becoming the core driving force of sustainable development. High-quality preschool education needs high-level, professional preschool teachers. Therefore, the sustainable development of preschool education has become the basis and driving force of the development of preschool education (Cheng, 2020; Guan, 2005; Li & Liu, 2019; Wang, 2018; Zhang, 2013).

1.1.2 The Characteristics of Preschool Education Sustainable Development Preschool education is an important period for the formation of values, attitudes, lifestyles and habits. The earlier the children are exposed to the idea of sustainable development and prosperity, the greater the lifelong impact. Preschool education plays an important role in the sustainable development of education. Preschool education gradually presents a series of characteristics in the process of development: children go to kindergarten to receive education which is voluntary rather than forced to accept; parents can fully consider whether to send their children to nursery or kindergarten, and which kindergarten or nursery to send their children according to the situation of their children and their own aspects. Now, China still has nine-year compulsory education, preschool education is not compulsory education, so it is not mandatory for parents to send their children to kindergarten, and the time arrangement is relatively flexible. The education of preschool children should be linked with their actual development needs and should not be sent, timely and teach, step by step, do not damage the “tender shoots”, and promote its strong growth. Preschool period is the early stage of life development, which is the person’s physical development, mental development and personality, but at primary stage, preschool children began a preliminary socialization process; in the face of the world, they are curious, confused and take the initiative to explore and show their own inner life essence. This period of education lays a good foundation for the development of preschool children in the future, so that preschool children’s physical strength, intelligence, moral character and emotion can be developed, making them quickly adapt to the formal learning

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life in the primary school and laying a foundation for their life of sustainable development (Cheng, 2020; Guan, 2005; Li & Liu, 2019; Lin & Liu, 2021; Wang, 2018; Zhang, 2013). Preschool education develops for a relatively long time, and there are diversified types of educational institutions, which provide diversified childcare services for children. Preschool education in China is mainly divided into three types: kindergarten, kindergarten and preschool education service institutions, and is divided into fulltime and half-day system, mainly to help children’s families to carry out education services, and the age is mainly 3–6 years old. Preschool education is an important stage of lifelong education, an important field of human sustainable development and an important aspect of sustainable development goal of education. To study and explore the sustainable development of preschool education, we should adhere to the professional, scientific and comprehensive principle, draw lessons from multidisciplinary theories and methods and strive to achieve new breakthroughs in theory and practice. The insights of Julie M. Davis, an Australian academic, are instructive. In her book Early Childhood and the Environment: Is committed to the sustainable development of the early education book systematically combed the United Nations about the basic context of sustainable development, further discusses the nature of sustainable development, points out that the sustainability emphasis is on human social, political, environmental and economic aspects of the coupling and interdependence, recognition between human beings and the importance of the relationship between people and other species, which is also based on the criticism of the way human beings use and share resources and the understanding of the issue of intergenerational equity.

1.1.3 The Main Content of Sustainable Development of Preschool Education “Kindergarten Work Regulations” (trial) stipulates that the content of education for children aged 3–6 is: to promote the normal development of children’s body and the coordinated development of their functions, enhance their physical fitness, cultivate good living habits, health habits and interest in participating in sports activities; to develop children’s basic ability of correct use of senses and language communication, enhance their understanding of the environment, cultivate beneficial interest and practical ability, and develop intelligence; to germinate children’s love to home, the motherland, the collective and labor; to cultivate their good moral characters, behaviors, habits, as well as lively and cheerful personality, such as honesty, courage, good inquiry, friendship, cherish public property, not afraid of difficulties, courtesy, discipline and so on; and to germinate children’s initial taste of beauty and beauty. The selection of content should conform to the criteria of intuitiveness, science, education, interest and acceptability. On the one hand, the cooperation of material, psychological environment and home and community is brought into kindergarten education,

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which emphasizes the invisible influence of environment on children’s development and advocates making full use of the advantages of parents and community to develop kindergarten education, which is conducive to expanding the way and breadth of education. In terms of the content of education, it is clearly proposed that kindergartens should not teach the content of primary schools and should not carry out activities contrary to the physical and mental development of children. On the other hand, kindergarten education should focus on games as the basic activities, so that children can experience happiness and gain knowledge in games. 0–7 years old is the beginning of life, for children’s life growth has laid the most important foundation. The development of preschool education is of great significance to the development of countries, nations, regions and individuals. “Preschool education is to build wealth for the country” has become a global consensus. The World Preschool Organization (OMEP) has also been committed to promoting the sustainable development of early education and clearly stated that “we are committed to sustainable transformation, not temporary repair” organizational purpose. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, OMEP participated in the publication of the Gothenburg Initiative for Sustainable Education (2008), an important document on the sustainable development of early education, and organized member states to carry out research on the sustainable development of preschool education. The Chinese Committee of the World Preschool Organization has actively participated in relevant studies and submitted corresponding research report.

1.2 Historical Development of Preschool Sustainable Education Preschool education is an important part of the national education system, which is of great significance to improve the quality of compulsory education and improve the quality of the people. In the view of Chinese scholars, preschool education refers to the education of children from birth to the age of six. Compared with other countries, preschool education in China started slowly. China’s modern preschool education began in the late Qing Dynasty. In 1903, the Qing Government formulated the Constitution of Zuding School, which included preschool education into the school system for the first time. In 1904, Hubei Kindergarten, the first official preschool education institution in China, was founded in Wuchang, Hubei province. In 1922, the Government of the Republic of China issued a new school system and named preschool education institutions as “kindergartens”. In 1932, the Ministry of Education promulgated the Kindergarten Curriculum Standards for the first time. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1951, the Decision of the Administrative Council of the Central People’s Government on the Reform of the School System stipulated that early childhood education was an integral part of the cause of socialism. In 1952, the Ministry of Education promulgated the Interim Regulations on Kindergartens (Draft) for trial implementation, which clearly stipulated

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the schooling system, setup and leadership of kindergartens. In 1952 and 1956, the Provisional Kindergarten Teaching Program and the Provisions on kindergarten work and rest system and various activities were promulgated respectively. Due to the development of preschool education policies in line with China’s national conditions, the development rate of kindergartens has been steadily rising year by year. During the Cultural Revolution, preschool education in our country suffered devastating damage. After the reform and opening up, the Party and the government have taken a series of measures to reform preschool education. China has gradually established a preschool education management system of “local responsibility, hierarchical management” and the division of responsibilities by relevant departments, and preschool education has developed rapidly.

1.2.1 The Period of Recovery and Development of Preschool Education The management system of preschool education, the development policy of urban and rural preschool education, kindergarten curriculum standards and preschool education teacher training and management have made clear provisions. In 1978, the Ministry of Education revived the Preschool Department. In June 1979, the Second Session of the Fifth National People’s Congress adopted the Report on the Work of the Government, pointing out that “we should attach great importance to the development of nurseries and kindergartens and strengthen pre-school education”. In view of the slow development of preschool education in rural areas at that time, the State Education Commission issued several Opinions on the Development of Preschool Education in Rural areas in 1983, proposing that we must adhere to the policy of “walking on two legs” and adopt various forms of kindergarten. During this period, the cooperation between education departments and relevant departments greatly aroused the enthusiasm and creativity of education workers and promoted the recovery and development of preschool education (Cheng, 2020, 2021; Guan, 2005; Li & Liu, 2019; Lin & Liu, 2021; Wang, 2018; Zhang, 2013).

1.2.2 The Period of Sustained Development of Preschool Education In 2003, the State Council forwarded the Guiding Opinions on the Reform and Development of Early Childhood Education issued by the Ministry of Education and other departments. China has gradually established a preschool education management system under which local governments are in charge and different levels of administration are administered by different departments. In 2010, China issued the Outline of the Education Plan and put forward the strategic task of “basically

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universal preschool education”. Subsequently, the State Council issued several Opinions on the Current Development of Preschool Education, pointing out: “To develop preschool education, we must adhere to the public welfare and universal benefits, strive to build a preschool education public service system that covers urban and rural areas with a reasonable layout, and ensure that school-age children receive the most basic and quality preschool education”. For the first time, the concept of “sustainable development” was clearly put forward in 1987, when the United Nations Commission on Environment and Development reported “Our Common Future”, which was the first time that sustainable development appeared on the historical stage with a new concept. In the twenty-first century, the United Nations put forward “Millennium Development Goals” and “Sustainable Development Decade (2005–2014)”, which mentioned the need for universal compulsory education and the decade of sustainable development of education, pointing out a clear direction for the sustainable development of education. Our country after the United Nations put forward efforts to practice this goal. On September 25, 2015, the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit formally adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 4: ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and ensure lifelong learning opportunities for all. This includes ensuring that, by 2030, all boys and girls have access to quality early childhood development, care and preschool education to prepare them for primary education. Our country has made a very rapid and remarkable contribution to sustainable development education. China has incorporated sustainable development education into the Outline of the National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) to promote the implementation of sustainable development education in schools, setting a good example for other countries. Swedish scholar Carl Lindberg put forward: “Sustainable development should be an important teaching principle to be adhered to for a long time throughout the whole education process from preschool education to higher education. Among them, early education should be the starting point of sustainable development education, and all children should enjoy the right to education, especially before the age of 0-8, children’s learning ability is the strongest. Therefore, the earlier education on sustainable development begins the better, the greater the impact it will have on children’s development throughout their lives. Sustainable development education in preschool institutions requires preschool institutions to develop a program implementation plan, especially pre-school teachers should be able to receive some training in sustainable development education and make sustainable development education an important part of their work” (Cheng, 2020, 2021; Guan, 2005; Li & Liu, 2019; Lin & Liu, 2021; Wang, 2018; Zhang, 2013).

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1.2.3 The Period of Policy Changes of Development of Preschool Education In 1903, the Qing Government formulated the Constitution of Zuding School, which included preschool education in the school system for the first time. In 1922, the Government of the Republic of China issued a new school system and named preschool education institutions as “kindergartens”. In 1932, the Ministry of Education promulgated the Kindergarten Curriculum Standards for the first time. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1951, the Decision on the Reform of the School System stipulated that early childhood education was an integral part of the socialist cause. In 1952, the Ministry of Education promulgated and tried out the interim Regulations for Kindergartens (Draft). In 1952 and 1956, the Teaching Program for Kindergartens and regulations on kindergarten work and rest system and various activities were promulgated respectively. In 1996, the State Education Commission promulgated the “Kindergarten Work Regulations”, and China’s preschool education developed rapidly. In 2003, the State Council forwarded the Guiding Opinions on the Reform and Development of Early Childhood Education issued by the Ministry of Education and other departments, and China gradually established a preschool education management system of “local responsibility and hierarchical management” and the division of responsibilities by relevant departments. In 2010, China issued the Outline of its Education Plan, which set out the strategic task of “basically making preschool education universal”. The fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee set the goal of “basically realizing socialist modernization by 2035” to resolve the contradiction between the people’s ever-growing material and cultural needs and backward social production. The formulation of preschool education policies during this period mainly focused on solving practical problems such as “it is expensive and difficult to enter kindergartens”. Influenced by national economy and politics, China still adheres to the principle of efficiency first in the policymaking of preschool education. However, the country has also found the importance of “fairness” and put forward the slogan of “developing fair and quality education” to solve the contradiction between supply and demand of preschool education.

1.3 The Challenges and Problems in Practice 1.3.1 Poor Professionalism and Lack of Professionalism According to the survey results of kindergarten teachers’ basic understanding of their own professional quality, kindergarten teachers think that the ability they lack most is “the ability to plan and implement educational activities”, accounting for 43.8%. The ability to support and guide game activities accounted for only 10.2 percent of

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the respondents. According to the data, 52.5% of kindergarten teachers think professional skills are the professional quality that they need to improve most. We believe that the obvious lack of professionalism and weak professional ability of kindergarten teachers are the main reasons for the “primary school” of kindergarten class management and curriculum arrangement, which is most prominent in some small counties, rural areas and remote areas. Some kindergarten teachers have low educational level and few opportunities to go out to study. Many teachers lack advanced educational concepts and improper teaching methods. The lack of professional spirit makes a lot of teachers think that kindergarten teachers’ duty is only to kids and teach some simple knowledge, considering their positions as the “nanny”. So the kindergarten teachers should be aware of their own shoulder responsibility to promote the development of children’s quality in all aspects to narrow the gap to become a qualified kindergarten teacher. According to the survey results, 16.6% of teachers still believe that “kindergartens and preschools are only childcare centers for children, and the responsibility of kindergarten teachers is to take good care of children”. A good preschool teacher should be a comprehensive development of teachers, should have a lot of skill, can teach the children writing, drawing, singing, dancing, etc., and should also have a good education thought: for a kindergarten child, we should give full play to their nature, let them play in the happy atmosphere in learning, be good at stimulating students’ curiosity and take students as the center. This requires teachers to have advanced education concepts and know how to teach. Teaching is not an easy thing for a teacher; there are many teachers do not take the responsibility of teaching. This requires that we teachers must firmly establish the idea of lifelong learning and learn to lifelong learning, anytime, anywhere and there is a purpose, in a planned way of learning, and every learning is to further improve the groundwork of professional ability, every point on the professional progress, so forming better ability to defend risk and laying a good foundation for their own professional sustainable development, thus, preschool teachers in the professional can always maintain a continuous and uniform development trend (Cheng, 2020; Guan, 2005; Li & Liu, 2019; Wang, 2018; Zhang, 2013).

1.3.2 Few Post-service Training Opportunities and Unsatisfactory Professional Development Due to economic and ideological constraints, kindergartens provide low support for the professional development of kindergarten teachers and provide few opportunities for teachers to learn and train, which is not conducive to the self-growth of teachers and the sustainable development of preschool education. Most of the teachers have to depend on themselves to get opportunities for taking part in onthe-job training and other forms of continuing education. A few years ago, in the normal education from three levels to two levels of training transition process, many preschool normal schools implement the “close, turn, rise”. Due to the weak strength

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of preschool education and its marginalization in the society, the subject is not taken seriously in universities, and its development is difficult. In addition, due to merger or upgrade of the infant normal school, no longer exists many infant normal school, so preschool education in university undertakes the task of cultivating high-quality preschool education graduates, which meet a part of town kindergarten demand for high-quality preschool teacher, but a grassroots rural preschool education in colleges and universities and private preschool education institutions are difficult to obtained professional graduates, so that all kinds of secondary school preschool teacher classes gain vitality and reduce the initial level of preschool teachers. After graduation, it is difficult for students majoring in preschool education to enter public kindergartens with business establishment because of the limitation of establishment plan. In addition, private preschool education is the main body, preschool teachers lack the sense of stability and belonging of teachers in public schools, and the phenomenon of job-changing is also very common. Coupled with the pure feminization of preschool teachers, many preschool teachers no longer engage in preschool education after they get married, resulting in the frequent loss of preschool teachers, which objectively increases the task of preschool teacher training (Cheng, 2020; Guan, 2005; Li & Liu, 2019; Lin & Liu, 2021; Wang, 2018; Zhang, 2013).

1.3.3 The Distribution of Preschool Education Teachers Is Not Balanced, and High-quality Teachers Are Too Concentrated Due to the unbalanced regional economic development, as well as the different emphasis and financial investment of local governments on preschool education, the development of preschool education is unbalanced between urban and rural areas and between different kindergarten models. High-quality preschool education teachers continue to gather in urban kindergartens with a certain scale, resulting in the unbalanced distribution of preschool education teachers. Can be seen from the title the geographical distribution of preschool education teachers, the most advanced preschool education and above title teachers focus on the provincial or municipal kindergartens, all senior kindergarten teachers in remote mountainous areas and rural areas are little, leading the drop of many kindergartens teachers’ quality to drop and the decrease of the quality of the preschool education, which is not conducive to the sustainable development of preschool education. The unbalanced distribution of preschool education teachers leads to people’s desire for high-quality teachers and subjectively amplifies the contradiction between supply and demand of preschool education teachers, which is not conducive to the healthy development of preschool education and the sustainable development of preschool education. The balanced development of preschool education is mainly reflected in three aspects: first, equality of educational opportunities, which is mainly reflected in the balanced enrollment rate of all kinds of children; second, equality in education process, mainly reflected

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in equal allocation of resources. The third is equity in educational outcomes; that is, every child should meet basic standards after receiving education. It is mainly manifested in the inequality of preschool access opportunities between urban and rural children and children of different classes in cities. In cities, despite the availability of good quality and affordable public kindergartens, the number of these kindergartens is still too low relative to the demand for kindergarten enrollment. The space and facilities of kindergartens are not balanced. In addition to the necessary teachers, the basic conditions of kindergarten also need to meet the requirements of the standard garden space and supporting facilities. We did questionnaire survey with nearly 200 kindergartens distributed in different regions, different nature, using stratified sampling investigation including 4 municipal administrative public garden, 10 city garden, 22 county public park, 47 township center kindergartens and other 117 various types of private garden. The investigation content includes construction equipment, outdoor venues and facilities, function room and indoor facilities, toys and books equipped with the situation. Through the analysis of the survey results, we found the following problems. First, there are great differences in the degree of standardization of construction equipment. According to the relevant urban kindergarten construction standards of the Ministry of Urban and Rural Construction and Environmental Protection and the National Education Commission, nurseries and kindergartens with more than four classes should have independent building bases. If the scale is less than three classes, they can also be located at the bottom of residential buildings, but there should be independent entrances and exits, corresponding outdoor game venues and safety protection facilities. The selection of kindergarten base should be far away from all kinds of pollution sources and meet the relevant health protection standards, convenient for parents to pick up, avoid traffic interference, etc. Compared with the standard, we found that: first, there is a great randomness and obvious difference in site selection. The construction of urban demonstration public parks basically meets the national requirements, but the problems of newly built central kindergartens and private parks are relatively large. There are central kindergartens built on the main traffic road and the form of super luxury, they are not only far away from residential areas, and the environment is noisy, lack of practicality, and has become a prominent leader’s political achievements’ image project. And some gardens run by the local people only have the aid of civilian house and humble habitation corner, mostly do not have special building and do not have enough side place and facilities to wash one’s hands and face. Second, outdoor venues and facilities are also in shortage which shows obvious differences. The overall outdoor area of urban demonstration kindergartens is up to the standard, but the distribution is unreasonable, and the utilization rate is not high. If some kindergartens use the roof as an outdoor activity site, it is necessary to take safety protection measures, but in case of emergency, it is seldom used at ordinary times, resulting in the relatively insufficient effective use of outdoor activity area. In some kindergartens, the area for outdoor activities is insufficient. Sometimes, children are even taken to the side of the road for activities. The time and quality of activities are difficult to guarantee (Cheng, 2020; Li, 2006, 2014; Xiang, 2016; Xie, 2016; Yang, 2020; Yu, 2020; Zhang, 2013).

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Secondly, there are certain differences in activity rooms and indoor facilities. Due to the high quality and low quantity, the class capacity of urban demonstration public parks is generally more than 40 students, resulting in the relative shortage of activity rooms and indoor facilities. However, due to space limitations and insufficient funds, private kindergartens mainly have non-standard indoor supporting facilities, such as open toy shelves for children, bookshelves, closets and drinking water and toilet equipment for children, which do not meet the basic requirements of serving children and facilitating children. Again, the difference of the situation that toys and books in each class is obvious. There are many kinds of toys, enough books, good quality and relevant regular replacement system. However, there is a big gap between most private kindergartens, especially rural private kindergartens and urban kindergartens. They also have a certain number of toys and books, but the variety is not complete, and the number is insufficient. Even some damaged toys and books cannot be repaired or replaced in time. China’s preschool education institutions, whether public or private, have the problem of single form. Kindergartens and early education institutions are the main ones. Compared with China, the United States is more abundant and flexible in this respect, which can meet the diverse needs of different parents. China’s preschool education institutions are concentrated in kindergartens and early education centers. Although the form is single, because it’s relatively unified, the curriculum system is more systematic and perfect, standardized and scientific. At the same time, because of its single form, it cannot meet the needs of all parents. In today’s situation where most parents need to go out to work, there are many inconveniences and problems in the care of 0–3-year-old children. A lot of children are taken care of by grandpa and grandma, for the first choice, who usually are not healthy; the home is in other places and other inconvenient factors, which causes parents to work and look after the child after 4 months (maternity leave before April) with physical and mental exhaustion, head and tail cannot care for each other. While 0–3 children are in the rapid growth stage, during this period, childcare is very important. Parents can give their children food and daily life, but there is a lack of education. Some parents have abnormal expectations for their children, producing harsh requirements for their children. Some parents are very fond of their children so that to meet all kinds of requirements of children, resulting in the doting of children. All these have a negative impact on the psychological development of children and thus affect their relationship with the outside environment. For example, when children enter the kindergarten after the age of 3, they cannot get along well with their peers and teachers in the kindergarten. Some of them are reluctant to enter the kindergarten because they are too attached to their parents. In addition, China is deficient in special education, and specific to the stage of preschool education, China’s preschool education institutions are geographically unbalanced—the overall is in the “climbing” stage. Disabled children are already in the marginal position of the society, and preschool education should guide them to become “central people”. All these hinder the sustainable development of a child’s preschool education (Cheng, 2020; Guan, 2005; Li, 2006, 2014; Li & Liu, 2019; Xiang, 2016; Yu, 2020; Zhang, 2013).

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1.4 The Countermeasures and Suggestions 1.4.1 Strengthen the Construction of Laws and Regulations on Preschool Education to Provide Institutional Guarantee for the Training of Preschool Teachers From the perspective of the development of preschool education in Japan, the Japanese government has been actively promoting the construction of laws and regulations on preschool education. Unfortunately, in China, the construction of laws and regulations on preschool education is still not perfect, so far there is no independent law on preschool education. At present situation, the preschool education has got certain development and the education team is gradually large, but in many developed preschool education institutions, teachers of good and bad qualification level are intermingled, the threshold of the preschool education teachers’ ranks low, and education level is significantly different. At present, a large part of the teachers engaged in preschool education in preschool education institutions have a college degree or below. In addition, preschool education teachers are very unstable, and few teachers can persist for a long time. The reasons for this are low pay for teachers and inadequate safeguards so that preschool units are unable to retain teachers. This is directly related to the imperfect laws and regulations of preschool education in China. There are no clear laws and regulations to protect the rights and interests of teachers, and teachers cannot get a sense of security in preschool education. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate and promulgate special laws and regulations concerning preschool education. It is very necessary to promote the construction of preschool education teachers in China by ensuring the cultivation and development of preschool teachers by legal means.

1.4.2 Comprehensively Promote the Reform of Education and Teaching of Preschool Talent Training To strengthen the reform of education and teaching of preschool education personnel training and cultivate professional quality, with professional spirit of preschool education professionals, we should not only cultivate students’ theoretical learning but also pay attention to the cultivation of students’ practical ability. In view of the problem that preschool teachers lack the ability to implement educational activity plans, it is easy to change preschool education into primary education in practical professional life and correct the phenomenon of preschool education as primary school. Preschool education should not only consolidate students’ theoretical basis but also cultivate their practical ability. Education and teaching are of great significance to the improvement of teaching quality and play a leading role in teachers’ teaching concepts and teaching methods. It is necessary to develop the

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curriculum setting, curriculum standards and curriculum evaluation of preschool education. More attention should be paid to the practicability and practicality of the course, and the teacher’s morality should be improved as well as the students’ skill training. In addition to the reform in the curriculum, the evaluation system should be reformed, not only to examine students’ theoretical knowledge learning, but also to examine their skills. Set up teaching skills competition and lecture style, through this assessment to promote the practical ability of preschool education talents to improve. Finally, the teaching methods should also be implemented in the usual class, encourage preschool students to be bold and innovative, pay attention to the development of students’ personality and innovative thinking and problem-solving ability.

1.4.3 Reform the Training Mode of Preschool Education Talents To avoid the derailment between in-school learning and actual teaching, we should establish the talent training mode of “theory and practice, both in and out of school”, carry out the teaching mode of applying theory to practice, combine in-school learning with off-campus learning and connect the campus to the actual social situation. We should stimulate students’ enthusiasm and initiative in learning, cultivate students’ teamwork spirit and creative thinking ability, use open teaching methods, diversified teaching means and information teaching technology, enrich curriculum resources and improve students’ practical ability. We should deepen the cooperation between school and kindergarten, carry out the discussion about preschool education jointly, make teachers and students learn that the kindergarten would enter preschool education industry which demands numbers of teachers of preschool, school and kindergarten teaching staff with rich experience should jointly revise professional talent training plan, set up professional teaching resource and connect the information. Cultivate talents in line with the needs of preschool education and improve the professional quality and practical ability of preschool teachers (Cheng, 2020; Guan, 2005; Li, 2014; Li & Liu, 2019; Xiang, 2016; Yu, 2020; Zhang, 2013).

1.4.4 Improve the Enrollment Level of Preschool Teachers To improve the quality of preschool teachers is the key to ensure the healthy development of preschool education. Therefore, in the reform of the training system of preschool education teachers, we must first improve the enrollment starting point of preschool education teachers and greatly improve the educational level of preschool teachers. To improve the level of preschool teachers, it is necessary to improve the entry threshold, improve and standardize the current personnel management

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system of kindergartens, requiring kindergartens to strictly implement the standardized teacher employment and access system, which is of great help to improve the level of preschool education teachers.

1.4.5 Optimize the Allocation of Preschool Education Teacher Resources Due to the differences in the economic development of different regions, areas with better economic development are more able to retain teachers, while teachers in areas with poor economic development have lower treatment conditions, which leads to the loss of teachers and ultimately leads to the concentration of high-quality teachers in cities and other areas with better development. Therefore, we should intervene in the allocation of teacher resources. The first problem is the professional identity of preschool teachers. Based on “the law of the People’s Republic of China on Teachers” and “labor contract law of the People’s Republic of China” and other existing laws and regulations, we should improve the personnel management system and regulate the current kindergarten strict execution faculty recruitment and access system, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of preschool teachers and their professional identity according to law. Only when the legitimate rights and interests of teachers are protected can they continue to work at ease and obtain a certain premise of professional happiness. Then, it is the preschool teacher’s salary treatment question. Through the intervention of the national government, promulgate relevant policy documents and requirements and focus on solving the problem of different pay for the same work of public kindergarten teachers. Protect the legitimate rights and interests of live teachers and teachers’ treatment can improve the unequal distribution of teachers, but the most fundamental is related to the local economic level, but the development of economy is a long-term problem, so to increase the government’s fiscal spending to boost the development of preschool education, improve the emphasis on the building of the kindergarten and then optimize teachers’ resource allocation (Cheng, 2020, 2021; Guan, 2005; Li & Liu, 2019; Lin & Liu, 2021; Wang, 2018; Zhang, 2013).

1.4.6 Promote the Diversification of Post-service Training Methods for Teachers Post-service training for preschool education teachers can be carried out in different levels. The kindergarten teacher group is divided into three different stages: novice teachers, backbone teachers and expert teachers. There will be different training emphases for different stages. Internal training can also be carried out in kindergartens, so that training and work are not wrong, but also more docking with work.

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In today’s information age, the Internet is developing well, and teachers can make good use of network resources for on-the-job training. Relevant government departments should also pay attention to on-the-job training of teachers and regularly hold the relevant training expert meetings of preschool teachers.

1.4.7 Focus on Building a Contingent of Preschool Teachers It is important to guarantee the fairness of preschool education, pay attention to the construction of teachers and improve the overall quality of teachers. The quality of preschool teachers is related to the quality of preschool education and children’s physical and mental development. First, make clear the status of preschool teachers and improve wages. To clarify the status of teachers is the premise of implementing teachers’ legal status and rights and interests. Salaries and benefits have an important impact on stabilizing the ranks of teachers and improving their occupational attractiveness. We should expand the number of preschool teachers, make them enjoy salaries equal to those of primary and secondary school teachers, ensure that teachers’ salaries are paid on time and in full and ensure medical treatment and welfare benefits for teachers. Secondly, strict access, pay attention to the examination of preschool teachers’ qualifications, from the source to ensure the qualified teachers, improve the basic quality of teachers. Finally, make full use of the convenience of local preschool normal schools, recruit students as needed and train more high-quality new teachers. In addition, we should improve the preschool teacher training system, strengthen on-the-job education, make full use of conditions such as teacher training schools, preschool teacher training centers, local normal colleges and universities and actively establish diverse training institutions. At the same time, different forms of training should be guaranteed, such as off-job, correspondence, teaching and research and other forms of on-the-job training. For a long time, preschool teachers are all female, which also causes some deficiencies and shortcomings for preschool education, such as feminization, lack of masculinity and so on. Early childhood is a critical period for a person’s growth. In this period, it is very important to develop one’s intelligence, develop one’s character and cultivate one’s innovation ability, which requires all-round education. From the perspective of the law of development of things, a diversified environment can let children access to more information, to enhance the ability to distinguish things and to promote the active thinking of children. Therefore, adjusting the gender ratio of preschool teachers and attracting male teachers to add to the preschool teachers, no matter from which point of view, are to promote the growth of children and the healthy development of preschool education. Preschool education is the basis of basic education, is a part of national education and is an important social public welfare undertaking. The government’s attention and leadership to preschool education are a prerequisite for the development of preschool education. It is urgent for the government to attach great importance to it, strengthen the responsibility of the government and bring preschool education into the compulsory education. The government can increase the number of kindergartens by building, expanding and

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rebuilding public kindergartens. Governments at all levels have increased investment in rural preschool education and put preschool education in all areas and localities on the agenda. For the urban kindergarten disorder phenomenon, the government should adjust and integrate the kindergarten, but also control the kindergarten charge situation macroly. High-quality preschool teachers are the core and guarantee of high-quality preschool education and an important measure to ease the difficulty in entering kindergartens. The key to the development of preschool education is to cultivate a team of preschool teachers with noble ethics, excellent business and reasonable structure, who love children. It’s essential to improve the welfare treatment of preschool teachers and formulate a reasonable security system to attract more excellent talents into preschool education and set their minds at teaching; strengthen the construction of preschool teachers; innovate the training methods of preschool teachers; implement the policy of “helping” excellent teachers; and improve the quality of preschool teachers; strengthen kindergarten access management; improve laws and regulations; and standardize early childhood education management system. We will strictly implement the admission system for kindergartens and improve and implement the annual inspection system for kindergartens. No unit or individual may set up a kindergarten without a kindergarten permit or registration formalities. The competent departments in charge of examination and approval shall strengthen the supervision and administration of all kinds of preschool training institutions and early education guidance institutions, formulate reasonable charge standards and standardize the charge management of kindergartens (Cheng, 2020; Guan, 2005; Li & Liu, 2019; Lin & Liu, 2021; Wang, 2018; Zhang, 2013).

1.4.8 Establish a Comprehensive Management System for the Nurseries and Kindergartens The nursery and kindergarten complex is a kind of preschool education institution favored by parents in Russia, and there is even a situation of short supply. The emergence of such preschool education institutions not only meets parents’ expectation of “allowing children to receive consistent and continuous education”, but also has unique features in school-running ideology, management system, teaching system, childcare connection, resource integration, teacher construction and other aspects, attracting parents to come to study with their children. In addition to the characteristics of general nurseries and kindergartens, Russian nurseries and kindergartens have their own unique practices. Firstly, the creche/kindergarten consortium establishes the principle of integrity and continuity, that is, to treat infants and children from the age of 2 months to 7 years as a whole and to insist on integrated education. Secondly, the nursery and kindergarten consortium has established a comprehensive management system. In terms of the management of administrative system and the management of school-running system, both the nursery and the child are

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taken into account to form a comprehensive management system, which closely combines macromanagement, specific management and micromanagement. Finally, the nursery-kindergarten consortium has established a reasonable teacher training and assessment system. On the one hand, the association of nurseries—through the establishment of teachers’ training system and plan of teachers on a regular basis— have a purpose, organized training, to improve teachers’ quality, on the other hand, at the end of the training, evaluation of teachers and evaluation content includes education, and further improve the teaching quality and scientific research, teaching research and so on. In order to realize the connection between children and children under the background of “de-primary school”, it is necessary to understand and relieve parents’ educational anxiety. The educational anxiety of parents promotes the “primarization”, which not only harms the physical and mental health and growth of children, but also damages the physical and mental and economic interests of parents. Therefore, blindly criticizing will only make parents more anxious and will not change their choice of “primary school”. Even in the implementation of the “double reduction” policy today, parents’ educational anxiety is far from eliminated. Just as parents believe that “primary school” can make children “win”, the most important thing is to recognize and accept the connection between young and young under the mode of “de-primary school”, which is more conducive to the long-term sustainable development of children. For example, software learning is more popular for parents at present, so that parents can understand that behind the colorful and interesting dynamic software, the physical object that children should perceive is abstracted into cold symbols, which is the stripping of children’s active learning and thinking. The link between preschool science is to use software as a tool to understand children, rather than trying to passively promote children’s “learning” through software (Cheng, 2020; Guan, 2005; Li & Liu, 2019; Lin & Liu, 2021; Wang, 2018; Zhang, 2013).

1.4.9 Strengthen Kindergarten Curriculum Construction The main reason why kindergarten and primary school need to link up is that kindergarten and primary school belong to the school education system. The connection between kindergarten and primary school is not simply the assimilation of kindergarten and primary school, but the realization of the unique value of kindergarten education as basic education based on respecting the essential difference between them. The “gamification” curriculum emphasized by kindergartens is not an abstract concept divorced from reality that places kindergartens outside the school education system. The connection between kindergarten curriculum and primary school curriculum should be homogeneous in concept and content, rather than simply understood as kindergarten only emphasizes “games” while primary school only attaches importance to “learning”. Compared with the primary school curriculum, the kindergarten curriculum in China has no national curriculum standards and clear curriculum system and focuses more on the learning and development level of preschool children.

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Therefore, there are objective difficulties in the connection of curriculum content system structure between the young and primary stages. When the kindergarten curriculum is in the institutionalization, standardization, personalized construction and development, kindergartens can truly realize the phenomenon of “de-primary school”. According to relevant statistics, it can be found that the on-the-job training of teachers plays a very important role in improving the professional level and teaching level of teachers. Therefore, local education departments must actively carry out the training of preschool teachers according to the actual situation. By establishing a multi-level, multi-form and multi-open training system, strengthen the comprehensive quality level and ability of preschool teachers, but the local government must give enough funds to ensure the smooth implementation of this work. And continuous free training work should be implemented for preschool teachers in poor areas, thus to constantly improve the enthusiasm of teachers to participate in the work and improve the overall quality and level of preschool education teachers in rural China. In order to strengthen the stability of the preschool teachers, then it must be in accordance with the law to carry out the teachers’ qualification system as well as teachers’ appointment system, clarify the identity and status of teachers, and the country must also, from the height of administering education according to law, develop a series of policy documents and include preschool teachers team construction in orbit of the rule of law. Moreover, excellent teachers in rural kindergartens must be recruited based on their corresponding academic qualifications. After establishing corresponding legal contracts, kindergarten teachers should be actively guided to obtain teacher qualification certificates, which will be regarded as an important condition for promotion of work benefits. For preschool teachers being formal appointed must also enjoy the same treatment and welfare. And in the overall work, it’s also necessary to formulate the corresponding assessment system according to the results and give award to very outstanding staff. Some measures of rewards and punishments can better stimulate the enthusiasm of the early childhood teachers and improve the efficiency of their work. The overall preschool teacher salary standard cannot be lower than the average of the labor force, but also must be paid on time. According to some relevant provisions of the state, it is necessary to solve the pension and insurance problems of rural preschool teachers, which is an important solution to stabilize the construction team of preschool teachers. Only in this way, we can better ensure the legitimate rights and interests of rural preschool teachers (Cheng, 2020; Guan, 2005; Li & Liu, 2019; Lin & Liu, 2021; Wang, 2018; Zhang, 2013).

1.5 Conclusion Education for sustainable development is a key part of the concept of sustainable social development advocated by the international community. From the Dakar Program of Action to the Education 2030 Program of Action, the international community has continuously set phased goals for education for sustainable development and promoted education for all that contributes to equitable and high-quality

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global development. China has made remarkable achievements in the process of sustainable development education. It has not only fulfilled the goals of the Dakar Program of Action in all indicators of sustainable development education, but also reached higher goals in some indicators. At the same time, in response to the Education 2030 Action Plan proposed by the international community, the Chinese government is formulating the Education Modernization 2030 plan to guide the sustainable development of education in China, raise the level of education popularization, narrow the gap between regions, urban and rural areas and social classes in education, and promote education equity. We will develop more inclusive and equitable quality education and achieve lifelong education for all. In the process of development, China’s early childhood education has achieved good results, but there are also some problems. These problems need to be discovered and solved. In the process of solving the problem, we must bear in mind that education is an important means to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and early childhood education, as a basic education, should be an integral part of the sustainable development education system. Young children have the experience to learn the concept of sustainable development, are the current stakeholders of sustainable issues and have the right to participate in sustainable development research, understand and seek solutions to sustainable problems (Cheng, 2020, 2021; Guan, 2005; Li, 2006, 2014; Li & Liu, 2019; Lin & Liu, 2021; Wang, 2018; Xiang, 2016; Xie, 2016; Yang, 2020, 2022; Yu, 2020; Zhang, 2013).

References Cheng C. (2021). NIE brimming. Background, progress and enlightenment of sustainable early childhood education. Preschool Education Research, 20(8), 1–11. Cheng, Y. (2020). High-quality development: The demand, challenge and response of preschool education—A summary of the 7th cross-strait preschool education forum. Journal of Shaanxi Preschool Normal University, 38(4), 15–21. Guan, X. (2005). Problems of teachers in the development of preschool education in China during the transitional period. Preschool Education, 20(5), 4–6. Li, X. (2006). Reflection triggered by the characteristics of preschool education curriculum in China. Science and Education Literature Collection (Second Half), 20(12), 181. Li, X. (2014). Sustainable development of preschool education specialty in secondary normal schools: Connotation, problems and realistic strategies. Vocational Education (Mid-day), 20(4), 14–19. Li, X., & Liu, K. (2019). Problems and countermeasures of balanced development of preschool education in Xingtai City. Think Tank Times, 20(3), 119–121. Lin, D., & Liu, H. (2021). Self-interest and symbiosis: The basic point of human nature in the community of human destiny and the value orientation of school moral education. Education Science, 6(11), 3–13. Wang, Y. (2018). SWOT analysis of sustainable development of preschool education specialty in Ningxia. Journal of Nanchang Institute of Education, 33(6), 30–34. Xie, Z. (2016). Main characteristics and role prospect of 2016 edition of kindergarten work regulations. Journal of Shaanxi Preschool Normal University, 32(7), 113–116.

References

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Yang, X. (2020). Reflection on modernity and sustainable development of education in China. Journal of East China Normal University (Education Science), 39(11), 86–99. Yang, D. (2022). Co-existence with the world: Towards 2050 education paradigm change. Journal of Hunan Normal University, 20(2), 12–19. Xiang, H. (2016). The characteristics of foreign preschool education and its enlightenment to China’s preschool education. Chizi (Upper and Middle), 206(23), 231. Yu, Y. (2020). To meet sustainable development of the preschool education in the epidemic. Journal of Preschool Education Research, 20(6), 3–8. Zhang, Y. (2013). Analysis on the development status of preschool education in China from the comparison of the forms of preschool education institutions between China and The United States. Journal of Taiyuan City Polytechnic, 20(1), 92–93.

Chapter 2

Sustainable Development of Ethnic Education in China

This chapter examines the sustainable development of ethnic education in China. Since the third Plenary Session of the eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the basic task of ethnic work has been to promote the economy of ethnic minorities and ethnic areas as soon as possible. To accomplish this task, we must rely on science and technology and education, and start from training ethnic talents and improving the skills and qualities of ethnic workers. The implementation of the strategy of sustainable development of national education continues to progress. However, the gap between the education level of minority areas and the national average education level is obvious, and there are still many serious problems and difficulties in the development of minority education. For example, the influence of exam-oriented education is still very serious in minority areas. The main body of running schools is relatively single, the teacher force is lacking, and the economy has a great restriction on the development of education. The problem is that the countermeasure, though continuously improve, facing the sustainable development of national education problem, can, to a certain extent, improve the cultural confidence of the ethnic minority areas, for example, perfecting policy support for the sustainable development of education in ethnic areas, intensifying education partnerships, strengthening the economic aid of ethnic areas and promoting the sustainable development of national education process.

2.1 Introduction 2.1.1 The Purpose of Sustainable Development of National Education The purpose of sustainable development of national education is to train the educates with the consciousness of sustainable development and make them understand that © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 J. Li, Sustainable Education Policy Development in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-1191-2_2

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the culture of national areas is precious and unique. All aspects of ethnic areas in which ethnic education plays a role can achieve sustainable development. Strong sustainable development of national education, because the sustainable development of national education needs to deal with the relationship between national education and the economic and social development, build good development operation mechanism, make the education always maintain the vigor and vitality of sustainable development, cultivate talents with sustainable development ability and promote the advancement of material and spiritual civilization in ethnic minority areas. Ethnic education is short for ethnic minority education, which refers to the education of 55 ethnic groups except the Han nationality. Ethnic education is an important part of China’s overall education module and plays an indispensable role in the development of China’s overall education cause. The purpose of ethnic education is that children of ethnic minorities can also enter the mainstream society. It is not only to cultivate more ethnic knowledge groups through education, but also to realize the Party’s line and principles through them, spread scientific, cultural and technological knowledge, inherit ethnic culture and maintain the stability and ethnic unity of the border areas. In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development defined the concept of sustainable development in its report “Our Common Future”. The report identifies sustainable development as a development path that can sustain the long-term progress of human society, that is, “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without threatening the ability of future generations to meet their needs”. Sustainable development also means maintaining, rationally using and enhancing the natural resource base that underpins ecological resilience and economic growth. Sustainable development also means incorporating environmental concerns and considerations into development plans and policies and does not represent a new form of conditionality in aid or development financing (Chen et al., 2017; Guo & Sun, 2019; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Liu, 2002; Wang, 2006; Wang & Huang, 2018; Wu, 2015; Zhou & Liao, 2018).

2.1.2 Characteristics of Ethnic Education Due to various historical and realistic reasons, the current National education in China mainly has the following characteristic. The distribution of ethnic minorities in China is “large and mixed, small and concentrated” and mostly distributed in the southwest remote mountainous plateau, grassland, desert zone, such as Uyghur, Tibetan, Zhuang and so on. As a result, China’s educational cause has long existed the problem of unbalanced development of educational cause in different regions. The educational cause in the central and eastern regions has developed rapidly, and almost all of them have completed the nine-year compulsory education, but the educational development process in the Western minority regions is relatively slow. The result of these imbalanced problems is that the educational resources enjoyed by minority students

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are unfair. Therefore, ethnic education is characterized by unbalanced regional development. Nationality is the “impression” of national education, as a kind of the practice of training minority talents, national education must be the origin and development of minority culture, most can highlight essence of the national character and local cultural transmission in the education of national regional social community and retained its own cultural background and the continuation of their national character. In 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was founded, of the 55 ethnic minorities in China, 18 had their own written languages, while the rest did not, except the Hui, Manchu and She who spoke Chinese. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Party and the state helped 10 ethnic minorities, including the Zhuang, Buyi, Miao, Dong, Hani and Li, create the Pinyin characters with the Latin alphabet. Therefore, the nationality of national education is also reflected in the national language (Chen et al., 2017; Guo & Sun, 2019; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Liu, 2002; Wang, 2006; Wang & Huang, 2018; Wu, 2015; Zhou & Liao, 2018). Ethnic education policy emphasizes that ethnic education should pay attention to ethnic cultural differences, but it does not mean that the differences and particularities of ethnic culture can surpass the commonness of general education or even surpass the unity of social political and economic system. Therefore, learning modern science and technology is an inevitable choice for ethnic students in the modern society and also an objective need for ethnic students to obtain broad development space and promotion development channels. At present, the modernity of ethnic education has provided more resources and opportunities for the development of ethnic minorities. Firstly, as a way of life, it provides people with a lot of convenience, intensifies the contact between ethnic minorities and the outside world and broadens people’s horizon. Secondly, as a kind of value, it gradually dominates people’s cognitive way that people advocate science and adhering to the rational principle to guide their behavior style. National education modernity is in school education in national regions, establishing modern education system in national regions, can let the student contact latest education concept, technology, equipment, teachers, etc., through the system, complete the teaching activities, let them get the latest knowledge, keep up with the pace of The Times and grow into a new era of comprehensive development of youth. Under the influence of the natural environment, political system, economic development level, cultural background, language, customs and other factors in each ethnic region, the education of the ethnic minorities and the areas where they live in compact communities have formed its particularity different from that of other ethnic groups and regions. For example, in terms of the purpose and function of education, it has the particularity of training national talents and spreading national culture. From the perspective of national educational investment, it is inclined. From the main body of running school, it has the enthusiasm of religious people. From the aspect of educational management, it is full-time and complicated. From the perspective of educational development level, ethnic education has low Chinese level and imbalance; from the aspect of running a school and teaching organization form, it has diversity; in terms of school layout, it is decentralized. In terms of teaching time, it has flexibility; in terms of teaching language and characters, it is bilingual. Ethnic education consists of multiple educational content and integrated educational

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content. The content of pluralistic education is the culture of each nation, while the content of integrated education is the culture of Chinese nation (Chen et al., 2017; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Liu, 2002; Wu, 2015).

2.1.3 The Traditional Culture of All Nationalities The culture of each nation is the sum of all the material and spiritual wealth formed by the members of each nation in their long-term life and the interaction with the external environment and is the inheritance of each nation’s own culture. The content of traditional education of ethnic minorities is rich and colorful, including knowledge of agriculture, fishing, hunting and gathering, handicrafts, medicine, celestial phenomena, religious etiquette, ethics and other aspects. Mutual reference and integration of cultures among different nationalities is an important way of cultural innovation. Cultural exchange, reference and integration are the process of learning and absorbing the excellent cultural achievements of various ethnic cultures to develop their own national cultures. It is the process of learning from each other and making up for each other’s weaknesses. It is the process of introducing a new culture integrating various cultural characteristics based on cultural exchange and reference. The Culture of the Chinese nation is the crystallization of the quintessence of each nation’s culture formed in the process of long-term historical communication and cultural changes, such as mutual communication, adaptation and assimilation of each nation’s culture. The implementation of sustainable development strategy cannot be separated from the strong support of education. Similarly, the development of education itself also needs to enter the track of sustainable development for continuous reform and innovation. The formulation of national education policy must accord with the characteristics of national education. The Communist Party of China has always attached great importance to the development of ethnic education. To promote the sustainable development of ethnic education, China has formulated a large number of policies and measures for ethnic education in different historical periods according to the needs of ethnic work and the development of ethnic education. For example, at present, China’s preferential college entrance examination policies for ethnic minority students and regions are particularly obvious. Revitalizing national economy is the foothold of sustainable development of national education. Due to the distinctive cultural characteristics of ethnic minorities, promoting the economic development of ethnic minorities can not only promote the development of their education, but also play a driving role in the cultural, political and other factors of the whole ethnic areas. Improving national quality is the foundation of realizing the modernization of national education. Since the 1980s, China has implemented bilingual education system in ethnic minority areas throughout the country, which has actively improved the level and quality of education in ethnic minority areas and laid a foundation for the sound development of ethnic education. However, China’s education policy lacks the educational concept of cultural diversity, ignores the role of ethnic education in inheriting and developing minority

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culture, and ignores the protection of traditional ethnic culture, which reduces and weakens the function of inheriting culture carried by education. Therefore, it is urgent to promote the development of ethnic culture and education. Cultural education is the due responsibility and historical mission entrusted by The Times to ethnic education workers, and it is also an important measure to promote the sustainable development of ethnic education. It is an important guarantee to implement the strategy of sustainable development of national education to strengthen people’s consciousness of sustainable development and enhance people’s ideological realm by relying on national education and developing national education. Only the belief of sustainable development of people in minority areas can promote the strategy of sustainable development. The development of national education depends on science and technology and talents, and the development of science and technology and talents depends on education. In the minority areas where science and technology is less developed, it is the most important thing to promote the sustainable development of minority education to determine the correct value orientation of applying science and technology and improve the scientific and technological quality of students in minority areas. Controlling population quantity and improving population quality is an indispensable part of implementing sustainable development strategy. It can be said that the sustainable development of social economy depends to a large extent on the solution of population problem. As the main body of social and economic activities, human beings are not only the purpose of sustainable development, but also the power to achieve sustainable development. Moderate population scale can promote sustainable development, while large population scale and low population quality will become obstacles to sustainable development (Chen et al., 2017; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Liu, 2002; Wang, 2006; Wu, 2015).

2.2 Historical Development of Ethnic Education Policy 2.2.1 China Has Been a Unified Multi-ethnic Country Since Ancient Times China has been a unified multi-ethnic country since ancient times. Before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, due to historical, political, economic, geographical and other reasons, all ethnic minorities were in a weak position in politics, economy, culture and society. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, especially since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), it has been the basic task of ethnic work to promote the economy of ethnic minorities and ethnic minority areas as soon as possible. Therefore, the Party and the government have adopted a series of measures to develop ethnic education, making ethnic education a priority in the national education cause and in various undertakings in ethnic minority areas, and incorporating it into an important goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

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After years of efforts, ethnic education has made remarkable achievements and has initially formed an ethnic education system with ethnic characteristics and times characteristics. (1) Basic education developed rapidly, and the number of ethnic minority students in schools at all levels and of all types increased significantly. (2) Vocational education and adult education have made great progress. (3) Ethnic higher education has grown from scratching to cultivating many senior professionals for ethnic minorities. It has trained a contingent of minority teachers with a certain quantity and quality. After decades of efforts, a teacher training system for ethnic minority education has been formed. According to statistics, in addition to local normal universities undertaking the task of training teachers for ethnic minorities, there are 22 independent minority normal colleges and more than 100 minority secondary normal schools. Over the years, many ethnic minority teachers have been trained for the country. For a long time, the party and the government attach great importance to the national education, in order to promote the development of education in ethnic minority areas; in addition to the general policy, the education development of ethnic minorities and national regions has staged a series of special development policy and has held six times of the nation’s national education conference which discussed the policy of ethnic minority education work and the development of ethnic minority education measures. From September 20 to 28, 1951, the first National Conference on Ethnic Education of the Ministry of Education was held in Beijing. The meeting stressed that the primary task of ethnic minority education should be to train ethnic minority cadres, while strengthening primary education and adult part-time education and making efforts to solve the problem of teachers in ethnic minority schools at all levels. At the meeting, four draft documents were revised and adopted, including the Directive on Strengthening the Work of Education for Ethnic Minorities, the Decision on Establishing an Administrative Agency for Education for Ethnic Minorities, the Tentative Plan for Training Teachers for Ethnic Minorities, and interim Measures for the Treatment of Ethnic Minority Students. From June 4 to 17, 1956, the second National Conference on Ethnic Education of the Ministry of Education was held in Beijing. The conference formulated the 12-year Plan for National Ethnic Education. The Outline proposes that, during the development of national education, the educational undertakings of ethnic minorities should gradually approach and catch up with those of the Han nationality. The specific content of the outline is to systematically carry out literacy work and popularize compulsory primary education in ethnic minority areas (Chen et al., 2017; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Liu, 2002; Wu, 2015). From February 16 to 25, 1981, the Ministry of Education and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission held the third National Conference on Ethnic Education in Beijing. The meeting pointed out that the work of ethnic education should be strengthened, ethnic characteristics should be respected, and ethnic education should be carried out in a form suitable for the development and progress of the people of all ethnic groups. From the actual situation of each ethnic region, formulate practical ethnic education plan. In addition to the state’s vigorous support, we must also give full play to the enthusiasm of factories, mines, enterprises, communes and teams in ethnic minority areas and local areas in running schools and follow the policy of “walking on two legs”. From March 15 to 18, 1992, the fourth National Conference

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on Ethnic Education was held in Beijing. The meeting stressed that great efforts should be made to reform and develop ethnic education to promote common prosperity of all ethnic groups. In October the same year, the state education commission issued the national ethnic education development and reform guidelines (trial), “for the next decade’s development of ethnic minority vocational education, which put forward specific requirements: according to the local resources superiority and the need of production and life for the populace, actively develop various forms of vocational and technical education and adult education. On July 7, 2002, The State Council issued the Decision on Deepening reform and Accelerating the Development of Ethnic Education. To implement the spirit of the document, the Ministry of Education and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission jointly held the fifth National Conference on Ethnic Education in Beijing from July 26 to 27. We will work hard to improve the living conditions of boarding primary and secondary schools. We should support ethnic minorities and western regions in running demonstration high schools and developing high school education”. “Efforts should be made to run institutions of higher learning in ethnic minority areas and ethnic higher learning institutions”. On August 18, 2015, the sixth National Conference on Ethnic Education was held, emphasizing the implementation of the Decision on Accelerating the Development of Ethnic Education issued by the State Council, proposing that by 2020, the overall development level and main indicators of education in ethnic minority areas should approach or reach the national average level and gradually realize the equalization of basic public education services. Our ability to serve ethnic minority areas in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects has been significantly enhanced. As the Party and the state constantly adjust and improve the policy of ethnic education, it provides a solid policy foundation and a good policy environment for the sustainable development of ethnic education, and effectively guarantees the sustainable, healthy and stable development of ethnic education. To sum up, we believe that ethnic education is the education of ethnic minorities and ethnic areas, and ethnic education plays a significant role in promoting economic development, cultural inheritance, social stability, unity and harmony in ethnic areas. The concept of ethnic education adopted in this paper is Wang Xu’s, that is, “Ethnic education is the abbreviation of ethnic minority education, which refers to the education of 55 ethnic groups except the Han nationality. Ethnic education is an important part of China’s overall education module and plays an indispensable role in the development of China’s overall education cause. The purpose of ethnic education is that children of ethnic minorities can also enter the mainstream society. It is not only to cultivate more ethnic knowledge groups through education, but also to realize the Party’s line and principles through them, spread scientific, cultural and technological knowledge, inherit ethnic culture, and maintain the stability and ethnic unity of the border areas” (Chen et al., 2017; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Liu, 2002; Wu, 2015).

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2.2.2 The Emerging Concept of Sustainable Education Development Since the concept of sustainable development was put forward, it has been continuously developing and evolving, and gradually becoming more and more rich and specific. According to some materials and information of the United Nations, this paper combs the changes of the concept of sustainable development. At the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000, world leaders agreed on a set of time-bound goals and targets for the eradication of poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are to be completed by 2015. On September 25, 2015, the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development formally adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS), aiming to completely solve the social, economic and environmental development problems in a comprehensive way from 2015 to 2030 and turn to the path of sustainable development. On the road to sustainable development, a virtuous cycle should be the top priority. These two changes of development concept reveal the progress and new development needs of the world. To sum up, according to the request of the summit on sustainable development of a series of changes, the essence of the sustainable development can be drawn which is to promote the harmony of man and nature, to realize economic development and population, resources and environment in harmony, to promote the whole earth a healthy developed production, affluent, benign development path, to ensure no damage to the earth and to ensure generations’ continuous development. In 2015, the United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development set the goal of sustainable development in education, which is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and ensure lifelong learning opportunities for all. Therefore, the sustainable development of ethnic education is to ensure that ethnic areas have inclusive and fair quality education, so that ethnic minorities can enjoy lifelong learning opportunities. The sustainable development of ethnic education can reduce or even eliminate the inequality among all ethnic groups and achieve common prosperity of all ethnic groups. “It is an inevitable requirement to realize the virtuous cycle of education and economy and the dual development of material civilization and spiritual civilization in ethnic areas”. Ethnic education itself is a kind of education, and education has the function of cultural dissemination and reconstruction. It can guide people to correctly understand the harmonious relationship between man and nature, society and man himself, to form a cultural atmosphere conducive to the realization of sustainable development strategy. And education is the primary productive force, which can promote sustainable development and progress. To sum up, we believe that the sustainable development of ethnic education plays a significant role in promoting the sustainable development of ethnic areas and is of great benefit to the material and spiritual development of ethnic areas. They all suggest that the sustainable development of ethnic education should be vigorously promoted. According to the UN commission on sustainable development put forward the education of sustainable development goals, sustainable development of national education in minority nationality regions

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is to ensure that the people enjoy the high-quality preschool education, compulsory education, vocational education and higher education, make the people of the ethnic minority areas in education learning the knowledge of sustainable development and form a harmonious cultural atmosphere and productivity. Pushing sustainable development of the national education, because it is able to deal with the relationship between national education and economic and social development, build good development operation mechanism, to make the education always maintain the vigor and vitality of sustainable development, to cultivate talents with sustainable development ability and to promote the advancement of material and spiritual civilization in ethnic minority areas. The purpose of the sustainable development of national education is to train the students with the consciousness of sustainable development and make them understand that the culture of national areas is precious and unique. Ethnic areas have important political status in our country, we should cherish and pay efforts to build. The economic development of minority areas should not only meet the needs of contemporary people, but also enable future generations to live and work in peace and contentment. The purpose of sustainable development of ethnic education is to achieve sustainable development in all aspects of ethnic areas where ethnic education plays a role. The essence of current international competition is a contest between economy and science and technology, which undoubtedly depends on education. Facing the new era, the development of ethnic education is facing new tasks, and the sustainable development of ethnic education is a good direction. Persisting in the sustainable development of national education is helpful to realize the Chinese dream and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation (Chen et al., 2017; Guo & Sun, 2019; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Liu, 2002; Wang, 2006; Wang & Huang, 2018; Wu, 2015; Zhou & Liao, 2018).

2.3 Challenges and Problems in Practice 2.3.1 Separation of Teacher Education Practice from Basic Education in Minority Areas Based on education stage in the development of local curriculum in ethnic minority areas, many scholars have advocated the exchanges and cooperation between the school and school, thus to put heads together and share resources, so as to improve the quality of local course construction, but also save a lot of humans, physical and financial resources to contribute to the development of teacher education local curriculum in ethnic minority areas. The educational cooperation between teacher education practice curriculum and kindergartens, primary and secondary schools in minority areas can not only solve the problem of finding practice units caused by lack of social communication between teachers and teachers, but also establish education with cooperative schools. Deepening the connection between teachers’ educational practice courses and ethnic community activities in ethnic areas can

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be found from investigation and interview; however, the current teacher education practice curriculum in ethnic minority areas is not included in the national community practice, and the lack of corresponding practical guidance, which teachers’ education in national regions suffers from some kindergarten, primary, secondary education and training institutions, to expand the width of the education practice. Therefore, it is not involved in the “foundation” and “life” field of ethnic students’ growth. To sum up, the practice curriculum of teacher education in minority areas lacks educational contact and cooperation with kindergartens, primary and middle schools, families of ethnic students and ethnic communities. The practice curriculum of teacher education is confined to some kindergartens, primary schools, middle schools and educational training institutions, which restricts the breadth and depth of the practice curriculum of teacher education. To a certain extent, it affects the teachers in minority areas to acquire multi-ethnic cultural knowledge, to develop multi-educational ability and the educational belief of the unity and unity of the Chinese nation (Chen et al., 2017; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Liu, 2002; Wu, 2015).

2.3.2 Teachers in Minority Areas Lack Cultural Consciousness in Education Teacher education is an important part of minority higher education, which undertakes the educational mission of training kindergarten, primary and secondary school teachers for the development of basic education in minority areas and is an important support for the modernization of minority education and society. Based on the unique system of heaven and earth and humanistic environment, compared with teacher education in areas where Han people live in concentrated communities, teacher education in minority areas not only trains excellent teachers and educational administrators for the development of regional economy, society and educational undertakings, but also undertakes the important task of inheriting excellent traditional culture of the nation. From the perspective of teacher education model, teacher education in minority areas almost copies the existing model of teacher education in Han areas and fails to take care of its own nationality, subjectivity and local knowledge inheritance mission. Professor Teng Xing once pointed out: “After modern times, the Han nationality areas were influenced by Western education, especially under the influence of the Soviet Education model, and formed modern education, while the modern education in the minority areas was completely transplanted from the modern school education in the Han nationality areas around 1950”. During long-term development, teacher education in minority areas has also formed the dependence and replication of modern teacher education mode in Han areas. This mode of running a school without subject consciousness will inevitably neglect the national and local characteristics of teacher education in minority areas in the aspects of training objectives, curriculum setting and knowledge selection, thus neglecting the development and integration of local knowledge. It is precisely this homogenous teacher education model that makes most of the teacher education subject courses in

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ethnic minority areas show obvious homogeneity characteristics. Practical courses show the phenomenon of separation from the ethnic life world, and campus culture construction lacks the organic integration of excellent cultural elements of ethnic minorities. In view of the public’s demand for teacher education in minority areas, there are also widespread phenomena such as inadequate understanding of the subjectivity and nationality of teacher education in minority areas and biased understanding of the educational value of local knowledge. Driven by the great benefits and convenience brought by modern science and technology and scientific knowledge to the production and life of ethnic minorities, ethnic minority groups gradually accept and practice instrumental rationality and modern value system, reflecting strong pragmatism and utilitarianism. In most people’s eyes, “excellence in study leads to official” is their view of education. They put the relationship between teacher education and career seeking in the first place and put the relationship between teacher education and the inheritance and innovation of excellent traditional culture in minority areas in the second place. The deviation of the value rational understanding of teacher education by the public in minority areas will inevitably affect the curriculum construction, knowledge selection and the development of subject consciousness of teacher education in minority areas. In national regions, therefore, teacher educators, educated, and ethnic groups lack subject consciousness and cultural consciousness, neglect the value of local knowledge education related subject, teacher education in national regions alienation long-term national life world, and make the local knowledge of teacher education curriculum, the teacher education curriculum in ethnic minority areas and subject of cultural alienation, thus restricting the development of local curriculum of teacher education. In the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the ethnic education foundation bequeathing to us was extremely backward, and some ethnic groups were still in the primitive stage of tying ropes and keeping records. After the founding of new China, the party and the government respect the legitimate rights and interests of ethnic minorities, attach great importance to the ethnic education, always consider that the development of national education is to realize ethnic equality and eliminate the gap and the gap is one of the key, and have adopted a series of special policies and measures, making national education get a rapid development. At present, compared with the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, China’s ethnic education has significantly improved and multiplied in terms of the number and scale of schools, as well as the quality and efficiency of running schools. The ethnic education system has also been formed and increasingly improved. But from the development of global education, national education no matter from scale, speed and level of development, as well as the guiding ideology of education, education system, educational mode, teaching content and so on various aspects still seriously lags behind the overall development level of education, cannot satisfy the request national economy development to talented person and the worker quality (Chen et al., 2017; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Liu, 2002; Wang, 2006; Wu, 2015). Ethnic education is the inner power of social and economic sustainable development in ethnic areas. Education not only acts on human “natural”, but also indirectly on “external nature”. Through education, human beings can improve the

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level of understanding of the natural environment, master various means of transforming the natural environment and influence the value concept and behavior mode of transforming the natural environment. Human destruction of the natural environment development and unreasonable consumption in today’s world population explosion, resource depletion, ecological imbalance, environment pollution and so on series of ecological crisis are the consequence of that modern education doesn’t deliver proper values, course content and education method to develop its natural and human nature “outside”, education should concern and improve the human’s living environment. We must pay attention to the natural existence of human beings and make contributions to solving the natural crisis faced by human beings in the development and reform of national education. There is an obvious gap between the educational level of ethnic minority areas and the average educational level of the whole country. In addition to the existing gap, there are still many serious problems and difficulties in the development of ethnic education, mainly as follows: the influence of exam-oriented education is still very serious in ethnic areas. People generally place the expectation of education on the change of status, and the rural population regards education as a steppingstone to realize the migration of non-agricultural population out of the agricultural gate, while ignoring the improvement of the overall quality of the nation. There is a disconnection between the educational development of human resources and economic development; the combination of ethnic education and national economy is low, especially vocational; technical education has not been paid enough attention to in many ethnic areas; the input-output mechanism of vocational and technical education is very unreasonable, cannot relate to the market and combine with production practice. The main body of running schools in ethnic education is relatively single, and there is basically only one kind of public education run by the state. The educational structure and mode of running schools are also relatively single, which cannot well adapt to the requirements of diversified and multi-level economic and social development in ethnic areas. Fourth, the low level of productivity and backward economic foundation still have a great restriction on the development of ethnic education. It is difficult to support the development of ethnic education and form a virtuous circle of mutual promotion between economy and education in ethnic areas due to the unitary industrial structure, small economic aggregate, local financial constraints and poor life of farmers and herdsmen (Chen et al., 2017; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Liu, 2002; Wang, 2006; Wang & Huang, 2018; Wu, 2015; Zhou & Liao, 2018).

2.3.3 Highlighting Deep-Seated Contradictions in Ethnic Education Along with the historical process of globalization, marketization, informationization and internationalization, ethnic education is faced with a series of deep-seated contradictions, among which the most prominent contradictions are the contradiction between the productive and ecological nature of ethnic education, the contradiction

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between the scientific and humanistic nature of ethnic education, and the contradiction between the materiality and the spirit of ethnic education. First, the contradiction between production and ecology of national education. This refers to the one-sided pursuit of the productive value of education while ignoring the ecological value of education, the emphasis on the social and spiritual attributes of the ethnic population, and the pursuit of the possession and consumption of natural resources. The neglect of the natural attribute of ethnic population and the protection of ecological environment lead to the production value and ecological value of ethnic education, the social attribute, spiritual attribute and natural attribute of ethnic population, the conflict and imbalance between social development and natural environment, which brings serious consequences to the survival and development of ethnic population. Second, the contradiction between science and humanity in national education. This refers to that under modern historical conditions, one-sided pursuit of scientific value of ethnic population education and neglect of humanistic value leads to science and technology controlling and controlling the whole society, abnormal development of cognitive psychology and scientific rationality of ethnic population, resulting in imbalance and conflict between cognition and emotion, will, scientific rationality and humanistic feelings. It poses a serious threat to the overall development of ethnic population and the overall progress of society. Third, the material and spiritual contradiction of national education. If the contradiction between productivity and ecology of national education is the reflection of the relationship between national population and nature, and the contradiction between science and humanity is the reflection of the relationship between national population and science and technology, then the contradiction between materiality and spirit of national population education is the reflection of the relationship between national population and modern material production and life. Contradiction between national education material and spirit refers to the ethnic population in modern education, one-sided pursuit of education of material value (or economic value) and ignore the spiritual value (or cultural value), emphasis on material wealth growth, consumer demand and the utilitarian consciousness and the development of production and living skills, disregard for ethnic education in the construction of spiritual civilization and culture in the development of duties and functions, play down the spirit of the national population needs, social responsibility, moral self-discipline, beyond consciousness and the ultimate concern, causing the imbalance and conflict of the ethnic population of material existence and spiritual existence, reality and ideal pursuit, materialistic satisfaction and humanistic care, cause of national education material value and spiritual value (or economic value and cultural value. Perhaps the most serious consequence is cultural poverty. Cultural poverty refers to the lagging and lack of a certain social group’s lifestyle, way of thinking and values, as well as knowledge, customs and skills, which is manifested as monotonous life, slow pace, narrow vision, being content with the status quo, lack of ambition and inertia of thinking. Cultural poverty, rooted in the soil of traditional small-scale peasant economy, is the inevitable result of long-term regional closure and isolation, backward cultural and educational development, and low population quality (Guo & Sun, 2019; Wang, 2006; Wang & Huang, 2018; Zhou & Liao, 2018).

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2.3.4 The Educational Approach of Marxist National View Is Single In the frontier ethnic areas of our country, the education of Marxist national concept, as the basis of the sustainable development of ethnic education, has appeared the phenomenon of unitary educational approaches and not obvious educational effects in the process of practice. First, the party and the government carry out the education of Marxist national concept in the frontier minority areas which is a theoretical indoctrination mode relying on schools. To a certain extent, theoretical indoctrination is necessary to help people form a scientific logical system and understand knowledge more systematically and deeply. However, excessive indoctrination theory will cause people’s disgust and antipathy. Boring and single theory indoctrination method lacks the education method of infectious and emotional communication, and it is difficult to arouse interest in learning and meet the cultural needs of the people. Second, the ethnic areas in the border areas are broad and vast, with low population density and scattered residents. Therefore, it is difficult to carry out and cover the education of Marxist ethnic concept in an in-depth way. The education of Marxist national concept in frontier ethnic areas still relies on traditional media such as newspaper, which are backward in The Times and hardly attract people’s attention. Although some places have also developed Internet propaganda, but the audience is limited to party officials and some interested intellectuals, it is difficult to really achieve the popularization of Marxist national concept education. With the rapid economic and social development of China’s ethnic areas, the people’s attention to education is also increasing, but affected by various factors, “reading useless theory” still exists in a certain market in the society, especially in remote ethnic areas or poor areas. Some students enter the society at an early age and begin to work. The reason is that parents despise current education, pay more attention to money than education and ignore the investment in their children’s future education. Affected by the labor wave, some parents think that going out to work is more useful than studying, and they can earn thousands of yuan a month, which is several times better than studying. As a result, many children follow their parents into society at an early age, and even though some students are encouraged to go back to school, their academic performance is not satisfactory. In addition, the overall education concept of the people in poor ethnic areas is relatively backward, and they do not pay enough attention to education. Most parents, especially those live in rural and remote areas with backward economy, less contact with the outside world, have low level of knowledge and culture, and lack of understanding of the importance of education. Some parents think that if they send their children to school for school discipline, they fail to realize the importance of family education and do not play a positive role in guiding their children’s study and life, or parents want to discipline their children, but do not know how to discipline and do not have the right knowledge and methods of family education (Chen et al., 2017; Guo & Sun, 2019; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Liu, 2002; Wang, 2006; Wang & Huang, 2018; Wu, 2015; Zhou & Liao, 2018).

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2.4 Countermeasures and Suggestions The lack of teachers’ educational practice in minority areas is the result of many subjective and objective factors in the process of sustainable development of education. In the Book of Rites, the Doctrine of the Mean, there is a saying: “Everything is done beforehand, and nothing beforehand is done”. Based on the main line and direction of China’s ethnic education, the construction of teacher education practice curriculum in ethnic areas must rely on correct theoretical guidance and scientific practice strategies. China is a unified multi-ethnic country. Based on the sustainable development of ethnic education, the main line and direction of education of teachers’ sense of Community of the Chinese nation in the new era should be forged, and the faith of education of unity and unity of the Chinese nation, the ability of multi-ethnic education and multi-ethnic cultural literacy of teachers in ethnic areas should be cultivated. Teacher education in minority areas must change the traditional idea of teacher education modernization and adapt to the multiple needs of teacher education diversification, localization and transformation of local colleges and universities with self-consciousness, autonomy and active subjectivity. Strengthening the subjectivity of teacher education in minority areas is mainly reflected in the following aspects: from the point of view of concept, we must correctly understand the nationality and particularity of teacher education practice in minority areas. From the point of view of curriculum construction, it is necessary to improve teacher education curriculum cultural consciousness, further develop and scientifically integrate local knowledge, and lay the curriculum foundation for the diversification and development of teacher education in minority areas.

2.4.1 Strengthening the Link Between Teacher Education and Basic Education in Ethnic Minority Areas It’s essential to strengthen teachers’ understanding of local culture and local cultural knowledge, acquire local knowledge, undertake the subject consciousness and cultural concerns of inheritance and development, and facilitate teachers and teachers in minority areas to obtain common national memory and improve their recognition of local culture and local knowledge. In the modernization process of teacher education in China, influenced by the value orientation of knowledge and ability, people “compare the nature of teacher education to technology or science, and regard teacher training as the process of professional mechanization”, which is more obvious in the field of teacher education in ethnic minority areas. Due to the needs of educational modernization in minority areas, teacher education in minority areas focuses on the training of modern kindergarten, primary and secondary school teachers, which does not reflect due to local and national characteristics in the concept of running schools. The reform of teacher education paradigm in minority areas is a practice, a fundamental change in learning, teaching and running a school. In terms of training

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objectives, teachers’ education in minority areas must change the teaching objectives that paid too much attention to teachers’ modern knowledge, mainstream cultural knowledge learning and teaching skills training. It is necessary to help teachers and teachers in ethnic areas to develop the professional knowledge and ability needed to recognize, identify, practice and realize the value of ethnic education on the premise of forging a strong sense of community of the Chinese nation. This requires teachers’ education in minority areas to strengthen the inner connection with kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, and minority communities in minority areas and to enhance the appropriateness of their education and teaching. In the ideological concept, through home-school communication, change the parents “study and excellence is an official” “reading to become an official” old concept. Convey the idea that parents and teachers work together to promote the healthy growth of students (Chen et al., 2017; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Liu, 2002; Wang, 2006; Wang & Huang, 2018; Wu, 2015; Zhou & Liao, 2018).

2.4.2 Improving Teachers’ Cultural Consciousness of Education Curriculum in Ethnic Minority Areas Based on the essential and special attributes of teacher education in minority areas, in the selection of teaching knowledge, teacher education in minority areas must consider the dual needs of nationality and state, and promote the integration of mainstream cultural knowledge, universal knowledge and national knowledge in the curriculum. During curriculum implementation, teacher education in minority areas must carry out the principle of linking theory with practice, fully combine the cultural background of the educational object and its development needs to carry out teaching, develop and integrate local knowledge, construct local curriculum of teacher education and embody the national and local character of teacher education in minority areas. Thirdly, teachers’ education in minority areas must create multi-ethnic cultural harmony. The symbiotic campus cultural environment enables teachers and prospective teachers in ethnic minority areas to acquire the necessary cultural immersion and edification of the Community of the Chinese nation. The reason why environment becomes one of the conditions for consciously improving curriculum culture is mainly based on the national needs of teachers’ education in minority areas and the open characteristics of curriculum itself. From a diachronic point of view, local knowledge is the basis of traditional minority education, and it can still be the basis of modern teacher education in minority areas. From the perspective of synchronic, local knowledge is an organic part of Chinese national culture, and it is one of the sources of knowledge for the education of unity and unity of Chinese nation, as well as the basis of diversified and connotative development of teacher education and curriculum in minority areas.

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2.4.3 Strengthening the Development of Ethnic Education We will focus on rewarding teachers with good teaching quality in ethnic townships and villages and aiding poor college and secondary school students and high school students. We will guide superior educational resources to be invested in ethnic minority areas, mobilize cadres and the masses in ethnic minority areas to start with preschool education, stimulate the enthusiasm of ethnic minority people to go to school and comprehensively improve their cultural quality. Any period of economic development cannot be separated from the middle and senior technical personnel with special skills. The popularization, development and perfection of vocational and technical education play a direct role in the development of national economy. The 14th Five-Year Plan proposes to “build a high-quality education system” and “improve the quality and level of education in ethnic minority areas” which is listed as a key item of reform. To solve the problem of relatively backward social development in minority areas, it is necessary to give play to the basic, guiding and long-term role of vocational education in minority areas. The vocational and technical education is an effective method to cultivating talents of ethnic minority areas, so the vocational schools at all levels for different ethnic minority areas of the specific conditions to set different specialized subject to directionally recruit students in the minority areas such as involving sideline and fishery management, and the government’s job offer for the graduation is preferred to the poor areas of professional and its counterpart. In order to drive the development of poor areas, improve the management and operation level of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and sideline fishery in poor areas, and then improve their ability to rely on agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and sideline fishery to obtain economic income, promote the economic development of minority areas and finally achieve the goal of education development. It’s also important to improve their quality, update their ideas, transfer new knowledge and technology, promote social development and progress through the adult labor force training, literacy and other education methods,. Adult education in China’s ethnic areas mainly includes three aspects: first, the training of ethnic cadres. Ethnic cadre training is the political theory and professional ability training for the cadres in service; through training, improve their political theory level, governing level, management level and knowledge level, the improvement of cadres’ quality will inevitably promote scientific decision-making and democratic management. The transformation of the main social contradiction of socialism with Chinese characteristics into a new era has made us more aware of the importance of addressing the imbalance and insufficiency in the process of development. The purpose of strengthening the education of Marxist national concept in the frontier ethnic areas is to unify the thought and strengthen the national cohesion and centripetal force, to narrow the gap of economic development in the ethnic areas and enhance the sense of national identity and belonging (Chen et al., 2017; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Wu, 2015).

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2.4.4 Improve the Management System for Ethnic Education To reform and optimize the administrative system for ethnic education, we must, in accordance with the provisions on ethnic education in the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy, strengthen unified leadership of the central government, delegate most of the power over the development of ethnic education to the health, autonomous and autonomous regions in the ethnic minority areas, and implement a hierarchical management system. At present, China’s national education department in addition to the Ministry of Education and the state education department, 11 provinces and autonomous regions in provincial education institutions set up a national education, and on some level, county has set up a corresponding national education institutions or designated persons responsible for national education work, which provides a strong support for the development of national education. In the future, the focus of the reform and optimization of the national education management system will be to train high-quality educational leading cadres. While promoting some teachers who have been struggling in the front line of ethnic education for many years, we should also assign some ethnic cadres with high political quality, knowledge of management and education, and high cultural and knowledge level, and who are young and vigorous, to strengthen leadership over ethnic education. The insufficiency of educational funds is mainly manifested in the low total amount of educational funds, narrow sources of educational funds and lower per student educational expenditure than the average level of other regions. This has directly affected the development of education in minority areas. It is the main reason why dilapidated primary and secondary schools in minority areas cannot be completely eradicated, and the reason why students from poor minority families drop out of school and the school loss rate is high. Moreover, the educational fund difficulties directly affect the implementation of ethnic education care policy. Thus, resulting in the lack of educational resources in minority areas. To better solve these problems, the gap of educational funds is huge, the contradiction between the variety of special funds for ethnic education and the small amount is prominent, and the policy of “three exemptions” deviates from the reality of ethnic education. Drawing on the experience of foreign countries, China should establish a system of “central finance as the mainstay” and “allocation system according to students” and other relevant measures.

2.4.5 Relevant Enrollment Policies Should Be Implemented The competent education departments should listen to opinions and suggestions extensively, adhere to the combination of blocking and thinning, guide schools to refine the relevant regulations and management methods of mobile phone management, and timely study and solve the difficulties and problems existing in the management of mobile phone among school students. We will actively strive for the “smart campus” project and set up public telephones in primary and middle schools with

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more than 200 students. The educational supervision department shall incorporate the management of mobile phones of school students into the scope of daily supervision to ensure that the relevant requirements of superiors are fully implemented and promote the healthy growth of students. Schools should strengthen education and guidance through speech under the national flag, class and team meeting, psychological counseling, school rules and discipline education and other forms, so that students can treat and use mobile phones scientifically and rationally, improving students’ information literacy and self-management ability, and avoiding simple and rude management behavior. The school shall incorporate the management of students’ mobile phones into the daily management of the school, formulate specific measures, clarify the unified storage place, method and responsible person, and provide necessary storage devices. It is necessary to set up a public telephone in school and a communication hotline for the head teacher to meet the needs of students and their parents. If students are found to be carrying smart phones, teachers can be authorized to collect them and conduct unified management, and the carriers will be punished according to the situation. Classroom teaching and homework management should be strengthened, and teachers should be prohibited from assigning homework on mobile phones or requiring students to complete homework on mobile phones (Chen et al., 2017; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Wu, 2015).

2.5 Conclusion The sustainable development of ethnic education since the founding of the new China, after years of efforts, has made remarkable achievements, initially formed with ethnic characteristics, characteristics of The Times ethnic education system; training a certain quantity of minority teachers with high quality, various forms of education have been adopted based on reality. The cultural quality of the ethnic minority population has significantly improved. The rule of law in ethnic education has been constantly improved. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, with a view to the economic and social development of ethnic minorities and ethnic minority areas, we have gradually achieved equal access to basic public education services, served to build a moderately prosperous society in ethnic minority areas and further improved the overall level of education development in ethnic minority areas. For a long time, the party and the government attach great importance to the national education, in order to promote the development of education in ethnic minority areas; in addition to the general policy, the education development of ethnic minorities and national regions has staged a series of special development policy and has held six times of the nation’s national education conference, in which the policy of ethnic minority education work and the development of ethnic minority education measures were discussed. With the continuous adjustment and improvement of ethnic education policies by the Party and the state, strong policy support and favorable policy environment are provided for the sustainable development of ethnic education. It effectively guarantees the long-term, stable and

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healthy development of ethnic education (Chen et al., 2017; Guo & Sun, 2019; Li & Wei, 2019, 2020; Liu, 2002; Wang, 2006; Wang & Huang, 2018; Wu, 2015; Xue & Li, 2020; Zhou & Liao, 2018).

References Chen, H., Xu, D., & Yang, Z. (2017). Neuroticism and mobile phone dependence in college students: A sequential mediating effect analysis. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 20(5), 888–892. Guo, L., & Sun, Z. (2019). On ethnic thoughts in ethnic education research from the perspective of “Chinese Ethnic Community.” Journal of Yunnan Minzu University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 36(1), 18–23. Li, H., & Wei, Y. (2019). Research on the status quo and countermeasures of family education of left-behind children in China. Education Review, 20(10), 53–57. Li, X., & Wei, Y. (2020). The legal dimension of educational governance modernization in ethnic areas: Value, Status quo, and reform. Research of Ethnic Education, 20(5), 34–41. Liu, Z. (2002). Some thoughts on the development of ethnic education. Frontiers of Theory, 20(5), 33–35. Wang, W. (2006). On the development of China’s ethnic education in the new century. Journal of Wuhan University of Science and Technology, 20(4), 85–88. Wang, X., & Huang, Y. (2018). In 40 years of reform and opening-up leap-forward development of national education. China’s National Education, 20(11), 28–32. Wu, A. (2015). Countermeasures and suggestions on strengthening the education of Marxist national concept in colleges and universities in minority areas in the new period. Journal of Hetao University, 20(4), 56–60. Xue, E., & Li, J. (2020). Top-down education policy on the inclusion of ethnic minority population in China: A perspective of policy analysis. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(3), 227–239. Zhou, Z., & Liao, S. (2018). Try to talk about solving unbalanced education development in national regions is not fully. The Basic Way of Guizhou Minorities Research, 33(7), 203–208.

Chapter 3

Sustainable Development of Vocational Education in China

This chapter concentrates on sustainable development of vocational education in China. In recent years, the development of vocational education has been widely concerned. China’s vocational education can be traced back to the 1860s, after more than 100 years of history. Until the reform and opening 30 years ago, China’s vocational education has developed rapidly. China’s vocational education has the characteristics of value purpose, history of development level, restriction of development conditions, time of development content, regularity of development process and so on. The sustainable development of China’s vocational education plays a very important role in the development of our country. The curriculum system of China’s vocational education has formed three major courses in the long-term teaching practice: public courses, basic technical courses and specialized technical courses. Since the reform and opening, the development of vocational and technical education has gone through the period of rapid development, the period of falling back and the current period of development opportunities, which has made an important contribution to the economic and social development. Since 2013, the State Council and the Ministry of Education have issued several decisions, plans and opinions, indicating that China attaches great importance to the sustainable development of vocational education. However, the sustainable development of vocational technology in China is still facing many challenges and problems. It is necessary to deepen the reform in the aspects of changing the development mode, policy inclination, improving conditions and improving quality, to ensure the development of vocational education.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 J. Li, Sustainable Education Policy Development in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-1191-2_3

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3.1 Introduction 3.1.1 Vocational Education Is an Important Part of China’s Education System and Plays an Important Role in Promoting China’s Economic Development The sustainable development of vocational education is conducive to adapting to the development requirements of The Times, providing strong talent support and intellectual guarantee and supporting the cultivation of high-quality innovative and technical talents. The vocational education in our country has formed distinct characteristics, and the policy of vocational education has undergone constant changes. At present, China’s vocational education is developing rapidly, but the development is not smooth, there are joys and sorrows, still facing a lot of problems and challenges, so the efforts of all sectors of society put to make China’s vocational and technical education sustainable development to achieve greater progress. “Education” comes from Mencius’ idea that “to acquire the world’s talents and educate them”. Education itself is sustainable development, and the daily vocational education refers to the education that enables the educated to acquire the professional knowledge, skills and professional ethics needed for a certain occupation or production and labor, which will play an irreplaceable role in promoting China’s rapid economic development and boosting the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure. According to China’s national education development program, the next development route of higher vocational education is to take the road of sustainable development. Sustainable development was first defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their needs”. And the sustainable development of vocational education ability refers to base on sustainable development, adhere to the people-oriented guiding ideology, reform education scale, structure, quality and benefit as motivation, build systems and mechanisms for sustainable development of vocational education, the formation and the economy, the coordinated development of social operation pattern, and develop socially useful talents with sustainable development ability. Vocational education has distinct historical inheritance in the process of social development, but also inevitably makes the development in the pursuit of perfection dynamic because of the historical limitations. For China’s vocational education, the development background of China’s modern history determines the ups and downs of the development of China’s vocational education, which needs to seek development on the premise of respecting the historical basis of vocational education. The development of vocational education should consider both immediate and long-term interests and coordinate the development relationship between the present and future generations. New concepts and paths of development will always be subject to many subjective and objective conditions. Social conditionality is an important attribute of vocational education purpose. The purpose of vocational education is to focus on reflecting the dominant needs of economic, political, cultural and other social fields in a certain period. It has obvious

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characteristics of The Times and adaptability, and has relative stability, continuity and moderate foresight, to provide talents for the current economic construction and the sustainable development of adapting to the society. Reform and development is the basic state policy of our country at present stage; social reform must involve vocational education reform (Huang, 2019; Li, 2020; Li et al., 2020; Liu, 2020; Su & Sun, 2022; Sun, 2020; Tang, 2015; Xue & Li, 2020, 2021; Yu, 2019; Yuan, 2012; Zheng, 2013).

3.1.2 Vocational Education Is to Develop Production, Technology, Management, Service the First Line of the Applied Talents Education It requires vocational education must pay close attention to production technology, timely update the development of production technology and make positive reflection in a timely manner in the aspects such as training goal, curriculum development and professional settings, making the professional education has the distinct characteristics of The Times. Therefore, vocational education should give prominence to new knowledge, new technology and new craft in teaching content. At the same time, vocational education must also pay attention to the modern education concept, especially in accordance with the requirements of lifelong education, assume the responsibility of training modern people, not only pay attention to the production function of people, but also pay attention to the sustainable development of people and strengthen the training of their learning ability, adaptability and ability to further improve development. The establishment of the concept of sustainable development in vocational education reflects the regularity of development and the coordination between the development of vocational education and the external development and the unity of the goal of talent training. When formulating the development guidelines and strategies for the sustainable development of vocational education, we should combine the current situation of national economic development, the ideological and learning characteristics of the new generation of young students, and the current teaching resources of vocational education and strive to run schools and innovate around the law, so that the development of vocational education truly reflects the law. The talent training specification of vocational education requires students to have a reasonable knowledge structure, including the application of relevant knowledge, practical professional knowledge and adequate basic knowledge and at the same time requires students to have the basic professional quality, including professional ethics, professional awareness, professional behavior habits and so on. Curriculum is the basic basis for schools to carry out educational practice activities and also an important guarantee to achieve professional education targets. The former emphasizes the study of basic theory and ignores the cultivation of practical ability. The latter strengthens the skill training of vocational posts but weakens the study of culture and basic professional courses. The curriculum

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system of modern vocational and technical education should aim at adapting to the actual situation and development trend of regional economy and agriculture, take comprehensive vocational ability as the center, cultivate technical application ability as the guidance and emphasize the occupation of educational goal, the application of technology and the sustainability of development. The cultivation of basic professional qualities means that students should learn to be dedicated, honest, express, cooperate, be pragmatic, take initiative, persist, control themselves, innovate and learn. Therefore, the cultivation of basic professional literacy is an all-staff job, not a single course can be completed independently, which requires the creation of a technical application-oriented curriculum system corresponding to the professional technical composition and development needs. This course can be roughly divided into three parts: public courses, basic technology courses and professional technology courses. General course is the basic knowledge, ability and quality education, should include the ideology and moral character, professional ethics, legal basis, the market economy, ecological environment knowledge, foreign language and computer basic courses, avoid vocational education tendency of pragmatism and meet the needs of student’s all-round development and lifelong education, in order to reflect the value of the sustainable development of vocational education. The basic technology course mainly emphasizes the study of basic theoretical knowledge, mainly lays the foundation for learning technology course, grasps the necessary and sufficient principle and does not overemphasize the system of the course. The specialty technology course is the key course of the specialty. It should have strong pertinence, according to the periodicity of talent training, the complexity of modern vocational positions and the variability of industrial technology. It should not only learn general technology, but also master characteristic technology, and consider expanding technology and advanced technology. The curriculum should be developed according to the needs of modern vocational positions, the structure should be optimized, the content should be integrated, and the adaptability and technical content of the curriculum should be improved. Only start from the individual personality growth and long-term development and life attitude and train talents based on the requirements of the modern enterprise development, so that students can know how to create opportunities for their own development and create maximum value for the enterprise; thus, students can grow up healthy. So creating a more adequate knowledge base for sustainable development of students and creating more adequate conditions for students’ further education are the attraction and guarantee for the sustainable development of vocational education (Huang, 2019; Li, 2020; Li et al., 2020; Liu, 2020; Su & Sun, 2022; Xue & Li, 2020, 2021; Yuan, 2012; Zheng, 2013).

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3.2 Historical Development of Vocational Education in China Reform and opening especially since the beginning of the new century, the Party and the government have put the development of vocational education in a more prominent position, established the policy of vigorously developing vocational education and adopted practical measures to speed up the development of vocational education, especially secondary vocational education, so as to achieve significant progress in the adjustment of the macrostructure of education. Vocational education follows the educational policy of “catering to everyone and the whole society”, “serviceoriented” and “employment-oriented”. Secondary vocational education has developed rapidly, and higher vocational education has risen rapidly. In 2009, the total enrollment of secondary vocational education and higher vocational education in China exceeded 11 million, with more than 30 million students in schools. They account for half of high school education and half of higher education, respectively, forming the ability to cultivate skilled personnel on a large scale. The development of vocational education, for all walks of life in China, has cultivated a large number of high-quality technical and applied talents, greatly improved the technology of personnel structure, effectively supported the adjustment of economic structure, industrial upgrading and the improvement of national competitiveness, made great contributions to the country’s economic development, the elimination of poverty and improvement of people’s livelihood, social stability and vigorously promoted the socialist modernization construction. Over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, China’s vocational education has provided a large number of high-quality and highly skilled personnel for the country’s modernization drive in production, service and management. This 30-year process can be divided into three phases: the first stage is the rapid development of vocational education; the time span is roughly from 1978 to 1998. At this stage, China’s vocational education has three distinctive features: first, the proportion of secondary vocational education in senior high school reached a record 58% in 1996; second, higher vocational education began to sprout in this period, and the first vocational universities began to be established. Third, China’s first Vocational Education Law was promulgated and implemented in 1996. The second stage is the falling period of vocational education, which spans from 1999 to 2002. During this period, the proportion of vocational education in China’s senior high school dropped from a record 58% in 1998 to 38% in 2002, a decrease of 20% points. The third stage is the development opportunity period of vocational education, and the time span is from 2003 to 2010. In this period, especially after the implementation of the 11th Five-Year Plan, China’s modernization has entered a new period of development, and the state attaches great importance to vocational education directly related to economic development. In 2005, the State Council held another national Conference on Vocational Education and issued the Decision on Vigorously Developing Vocational Education. In addition, the state has adopted a series of measures, such as the “four plans” and “four projects” and introduced policies such as subsidies for rural poor students to receive vocational education. Through

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the baptism of three development stages, China has learned from the strengths of various vocational education models, such as “dual system” vocational education in Germany, continuing and technical education in Australia, community college education in Canada and the United States, and gradually developed a road of vocational education with Chinese characteristics. After 30 years of reform and opening up, China’s vocational education ranks first in the world in terms of speed, scale and system of development. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), especially since the State Council issued the “National Vocational Education Reform Implementation Plan” (referred to as the “20 Articles on Vocational Education”), the reform and development of China’s vocational education has embarked on the fast track of improving quality, training excellence, adding value and enabling capacity, and the appearance of vocational education has undergone structural changes. Today, China has 11,300 vocational colleges and 30.88 million students, forming the world’s largest vocational education system and training many technical and skilled personnel to support economic and social development (Li, 2020; Li et al., 2020; Liu, 2020; Xue & Li, 2020, 2021; Zheng, 2013).

3.2.1 From “Hierarchy” to “Type”: Breaking the “Ceiling” of Vocational Education Most people think that vocational education means that they do not have the ability and level to receive general education and choose vocational education for future development, which is the lowest choice in educational choice. However, this is not the significance and value of the existence of vocational education; vocational education is to cultivate applied talents—more comprehensive training of talents in different fields. At present, there are 32 colleges and universities providing vocational undergraduate education in China, with 129,300 students and 41,400 students in 2021. The guideline on Promoting the High-quality Development of Modern Vocational Education stipulates that vocational undergraduate education will be no less than 10% by 2025. In recent years, vocational education has trained a large number of technical and skilled personnel to support economic and social development and played an important role in serving national strategy and regional development. The country’s vocational schools offer more than 1,300 majors and more than 120,000 specialized points, basically covering all areas of the national economy and strongly supporting China to become the only country in the world with all industrial categories.

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3.2.2 Improve the System: The Level of Serving the National Economy and People’s Livelihood Is Improving Day by Day It serves local development and is backed up by solid numbers. In 2019, higher vocational enrollment will be expanded by 1.165 million, in 2020 by 1.574 million and in 2021 by 1.394 million, among whom are retired military personnel, laid-off workers and migrant workers. The expansion of higher vocational enrollment not only cultivates high-quality technical talents for the society, but also effectively alleviates the severe employment situation. “Double High plan” is the vanguard leading a new round of major reform of vocational education. Each year, the central government directs over 2 billion yuan in funds, attracting many resources and funds to vocational education. Among them, 253 high-level professional groups under construction are targeted at strategic emerging industries and advanced manufacturing, giving strong support to China’s modern economic system and regional economic and social development. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China has established and improved the “dual track” operation of vocational education and general education as the symbol, with vertical connection and horizontal integration as the core, in line with economic and social development and deepening education reform. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to vocational education. China’s vocational education policies closely follow the main line of serving the national strategy and promoting economic and social development. With accelerating the construction and improvement of modern vocational education system as the core and deepening the integration of industry and education and schoolenterprise cooperation as the focal point, the top-level system design and policy system are constantly improved through the construction of standard system and the formulation of rules and documents. Guide the development of China’s vocational education toward standardization and high quality. In 2014, with an eye to the “Four Comprehensives” strategy, the State Council and the Ministry of Education issued the Decision on Accelerating the Development of Modern Vocational Education and the Plan for the Construction of Modern Vocational Education System (2014–2020). On May 2, the Decision on Accelerating the Development of Modern Vocational Education issued by the State Council stated that “a number of world-class vocational colleges and key majors should be built to form a talent training highland with international competitiveness”. Article 7 clearly points out that colleges and universities should appropriately increase the proportion of vocational school graduates and gradually expand the proportion of personnel with practical experience. On June 16, 2014, the Ministry of Education and other six departments issued the Plan for the Construction of Modern Vocational Education System (2014–2020) and proposed: “Accelerate the reform of higher vocational schools. We will deepen reform in key areas such as the governance structure, professional system, training model and enrollment system of vocational schools, and improve the vitality of schools and the quality of personnel training”. On August 25, 2014, the Ministry of Education issued

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the Opinions on Carrying out the Pilot Work of Modern Apprenticeship, which clarified the importance of practicality in higher vocational education (Huang, 2019; Li, 2020; Li et al., 2020; Liu, 2020; Su & Sun, 2022; Sun, 2020; Tang, 2015; Xue & Li, 2020, 2021; Yu, 2019; Yuan, 2012; Zheng, 2013). On July 27, 2015, several Opinions on Deepening Vocational Education and Teaching Reform to Comprehensively Improve the Quality of Talent Training issued by the Ministry of Education stated: Higher vocational education should adhere to the road of connotation development, strengthen ideological and moral education, humanistic quality education and technical skills training, and comprehensively improve the quality of talent training. On October 19, 2015, the Action Plan for Innovation and Development of Higher Vocational Education (2015–2018) issued by the Ministry of Education proposed the construction of 200 high-quality vocational colleges. On September 24, 2017, the State Council issued the Opinions on Deepening the Reform of education System and Mechanism, highlighting the system and mechanism of “three-inclusive” education and focusing on cultivating students’ craftsman spirit, professional ethics, vocational skills, employment and entrepreneurship ability. On January 31, 2018, the Ministry of Education put forward the plan to launch the construction of high-level vocational schools and majors with Chinese characteristics in the Key Points of Work in 2018. On February 5, 2018, the Ministry of Education and other six departments jointly issued the Measures for Promoting School-Enterprise Cooperation in Vocational Schools, including the forms of cooperation, promotion measures and supervision measures in school-enterprise cooperation in higher vocational schools. On January 24, 2019, the State Council issued the Implementation Plan on Printing and Distributing the National Vocational Education Reform, pointing out that “the development of higher vocational education should be taken as an important way to optimize the structure of higher education and train craftsmen and skilled craftsmen in China, so that newer urban and rural labor force can receive higher education”. “Perfect the modern vocational education system that attaches equal importance to academic education and training and smooth the channels for the growth of technical talents”. In the field of higher vocational education, the postgraduate-level vocational education is put forward, that is, professional postgraduate training. “Pilot vocational education at undergraduate level” was clearly required. In 2020, the Ministry of Education and other nine departments issued the Action Plan to Improve the Quality and Quality of Vocational Education (2020–2023), which clearly emphasized the steady development of high-level vocational education and the development of undergraduate vocational education as a key link to improve the modern vocational education system. Vocational education was promoted to a new height. In October 2021, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Opinions on Promoting high-quality Development of Vocational Education, proposing to accelerate the establishment of a modern vocational education system, build a skill-based society, promote the spirit of craftsmanship and provide strong talent and skills support for comprehensively building a modern socialist country. It makes clear that by 2025, vocational education will have more distinctive features, a modern vocational education system will be basically in place, and the building of a skill-based society will be comprehensively promoted. The pattern of running schools has been

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optimized, the conditions for running schools have been greatly improved, the enrollment of vocational undergraduate education is no less than 10% of that of higher vocational education, and the attractiveness and quality of vocational education have been significantly improved. On June 7, 2021, the Vocational Education Law ushered in the first overhaul for more than 20 years, which clearly stipulates that vocational education and general education are equally important, and a modern vocational education system with equal emphasis on vocational school education and vocational training, universal vocational integration and effective connection between middle and higher vocational education should be established and improved. With the vigorous promotion of national policies, the development of vocational education has made remarkable achievements and cultivated hundreds of millions of technical and skilled personnel (Huang, 2019; Li, 2020; Li et al., 2020; Liu, 2020; Su & Sun, 2022; Sun, 2020; Tang, 2015; Xue & Li, 2020, 2021; Yu, 2019; Yuan, 2012; Zheng, 2013).

3.2.3 The Needs of the Society to Maintain Adaptation Vocational education, as an important part of China’s education system, should be in line with China’s overall educational development ideas and direction, and should keep up with the changes in the needs of economic development, adapt to social development and progress and maintain the value of its own existence. This requires that vocational education should constantly be reformed in the process of development, adapt to the impact of social and economic development and change, adjust teaching content, teaching methods, teaching management and other aspects in real time, so as to ensure that the students can apply what they learn. Vocational education pedagogue comes from all walks of society, in all areas and at all levels, in terms of the different motivation and purpose of different learners, educators should not only according to their aptitude pay special attention to the cultural cultivated and skill, but also the spirit of moral education as the teaching emphasis throughout, to form its continuing influence, contributing to the training of more and more professional talent. To build their own brand advantages, attract more excellent talents to enrich the teaching staff, ensure more stable and efficient talent output, and form a virtuous cycle. Vocational education is a continuous educational activity, which has no strict age limit for the trainees and can affect the trainees at different stages of development. Vocational education is a specific practice of the flexibility, comprehensiveness and diversity of lifelong education. The starting point and the foothold of education should focus on individual people, embody humanistic care, inspire potential, release personality, make each educator, have not only the survival capital, but also the confidence as a professional person, fundamentally breaking the inferior status of vocational education in the traditional concept. “Vocational education refers to educational activities carried out in order to equip the educatees with professional ethics, professional knowledge, technical skills and abilities necessary for a certain occupation or career development”, the draft revision of the Vocational Education

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Law said. Vocational education is collectively referred to as “technical and vocational education and training” in the world, including technical education, vocational education and vocational training. Vocational education can be understood as the education and training of different forms and levels to meet the needs of learners in a particular industry or field to engage in the knowledge and skills needed for a particular job. Broadly speaking, including all the technology that could satisfy the requirement of professional skills training, pre-job training, on-the-job training, such as shift work from other related training, usually by specialized organization learning and training in which the groups or individuals can participate. After the training, one get qualified corresponding professional skill and then can be engaged in work. In a narrow sense, it refers to the form of education with vocational schools as the main body, which is an indispensable part of school education. It is composed of secondary vocational school education and higher vocational school education. Generally, schools funded by the government undertake the teaching task, and it is one of many academic educations. We will improve the system of vocational education and training, and deepen the integration of industry and education and cooperation between schools and enterprises. We will speed up the development of first-class universities and disciplines and realize the connotative development of higher education. We will improve the student financial aid system to ensure that most of the new urban and rural workforce receive senior high school education and more of them receive higher education. In 2019, the State Council issued the Implementation Plan for the Reform of National Vocational Education, pointing out that vocational education and general education are two different types of education with equal importance. In 2020, the Ministry of Education and other nine departments issued the Action Plan for Improving the Quality and Quality of Vocational Education (2020–2023). Again, it points out that vocational education and general education are different and equally important. In 2021, the General Offices of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of Modern Vocational Education. By 2025, vocational education types will have more distinctive features, a modern vocational education system will be basically in place, and the building of a skill-based society will be comprehensively advanced, the guideline said. By 2035, the overall level of vocational education will rank among the top in the world, and a skill-based society will be basically completed. Before that, the “14th Five-Year Plan” has taken “developing vocational education” as an important direction of future development, requiring all departments to implement it earnestly. The country attaches great importance to the development of vocational education, and the reason lies in the importance of developing vocational education for the development of China. Moreover, the state not only defines the status of vocational education in terms of policies, but also vigorously promotes the reform of vocational education in terms of actions, providing a series of policy support and path guidance to promote the sustainable development of vocational education. Vocational education is an important part of the modern national education system and is the most direct type of education that has the closest relationship with economic society and production practice in the whole education system, and is the main force to promote economic and social development. China’s economy needs to be supported by the

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real economy, which requires many professional and technical personnel and many craftsmen from major countries. Therefore, vocational education is promising. With the promotion of the country, people pay more attention to the development of vocational education and vote more human resources to develop vocational education and promote the sustainable development of vocational education (Huang, 2019; Li, 2020; Li et al., 2020; Liu, 2020; Su & Sun, 2022; Sun, 2020; Tang, 2015; Xue & Li, 2020, 2021; Yu, 2019; Yuan, 2012; Zheng, 2013). Sustainable development of vocational education, it is to point to vocational education adhere to the people-centered, following the law of education development, correctly handle development of vocational education and the relationship of the economic and social development, the development of the construction of a harmonious mechanism, make the professional education always maintain the vigor and vitality of sustainable development, cultivating higher vocational talents with sustainable development ability. The development of vocational education not only needs the support of the state, but also needs to explore more feasible paths based on the current situation of the development of vocational education in China. To promote the sustainable development of vocational education, we need to set up the view of vocational education facing the twenty-first century. Only with the correct concept as the premise guidance, we can guarantee the sustainable development of vocational education. It is necessary to build a perfect vocational education system. The premise of establishing a perfect vocational education system is to make a systematic and scientific positioning, face up to market demand, analyze the difference between vocational education and other education systems, and make an accurate positioning. So we need to speed up the deep fusion of production and vocational education; in a variety of education form, the relationship between vocational education and economic and social development is very tight, so the vocational education can’t be run “behind closed doors”, should take the initiative to adapt to the economic development of the new situation and technical skills talents grow up new requirements, perfect fusion between production and education cooperation education mechanism. It is necessary to establish a strong contingent of teachers, optimize the allocation of educational resources, establish a sound talent mechanism, fully absorb advanced experience, establish a perfect and complete vocational education system and realize the comprehensive and long-term sustainable development of vocational education.

3.3 Challenges and Problems in Practice Although China’s vocational education has made great progress and development, but there are still many tough problems to solve, developing the vocational education rapidly, vigorously training skilled personnel is still urgent. In recent years, the number and quality of students in vocational schools are decreasing year after year, which makes the survival and development of vocational education face new

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problems and severe challenges. How to correctly view the difficulties faced by vocational education will determine whether we can take active and effective measures to get rid of the difficulties, meet the challenges and make the healthy development of vocational education.

3.3.1 The Vocational Education Enrollment and the Number of Students Declined Year After Year In recent years, under the influence of economic restructuring, increasing social employment pressure, college enrollment expansion and low attraction of vocational education, the number of junior middle school cattle industry students who apply for secondary vocational schools has decreased significantly, the number of secondary vocational schools’ enrollment and number of students has decreased continuously, and the quality of students has decreased. In 1999, the number of secondary vocational schools enrolled 460,000 fewer students than the previous year, and the number of enrolled students decreased by 130,000. In 2000, the number of secondary vocational schools enrolled 610,000 fewer students and the number of enrolled students increased to 1.1 million. Compared with 1996, the proportion of secondary vocational education in the enrollment of senior high school students and students in schools decreased by 17.4% points and 11.1% points, respectively. In addition, some schools have a low enrollment rate of new students, and some majors cannot open classes because there are too few students enrolled. The main reasons for this phenomenon are as follows: first, in cities, with the development of science and technology and society, the income gap between low-skilled occupations and other occupations is widening, employment opportunities are reduced, and the career stability is poor after employment, which makes parents of students shy away from secondary vocational education. In the poverty-stricken rural areas, the level of economic development is very low, and the agricultural cultivation and breeding industry are basically in the extensive stage. Therefore, the main purpose of sending their children to school is to make them get rid of the countryside and realize the transformation from agriculture to non-agriculture (Li, 2020; Li et al., 2020; Liu, 2020; Xue & Li, 2020, 2021).

3.3.2 The Quality of Vocational Education Students Decreased Year by Year Under the influence of the “general business fever” and the insufficient number of secondary vocational enrollment, some secondary vocational schools have repeatedly lowered the enrollment score to complete the enrollment task. The minimum enrollment score of vocational high schools and technical schools has been lowered again and again, some schools have dropped to more than 100 points, and some

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even implement registration without scores. Due to the slippery slope of students’ quality, the image of secondary vocational education is affected, and the motivation of vocational school students to learn is also affected.

3.3.3 Conditions for Running Vocational Education Are Not Optimistic Due to the poor foundation of the original running conditions of vocational education, coupled with the expansion of enrollment in the past few years, the pressure of running schools is heavy, the investment cannot keep pace with the development of vocational education, and the running conditions of secondary vocational schools have not been completely changed. In 2000, there were 281,800 full-time teachers in vocational high schools, of whom 44.33% were qualified, far lower than the 68.43% of teachers in ordinary high schools. The percentage of laboratory area reaching the standard in vocational middle schools is 44.5%, lower than 67.6% in ordinary high schools. The percentage of science experiment equipment reaching the standard is 38.93%, lower than that of science experiment equipment reaching the standard in ordinary high schools, 35% level, which are in conformity with the characteristics of vocational education and training target is extremely, because the vocational education is to cultivate applied talents for production line and wants to cultivate talents with strong manipulative ability and clinical working ability, this will inevitably require schools to offer students close to the production line of teaching environment and practice environment, and the requirements to the standard of the experimental equipment are higher. The reality is on the contrary, which to a considerable extent leads to the unsatisfactory quality of vocational schools training; the number of qualified books in vocational high schools was 46.46%, far lower than that of ordinary high schools (64.3%). In addition to the late start of vocational education, the main reason for the huge gap between vocational schools and ordinary senior high schools is that vocational education’s due status has not been really implemented, and vocational education funds cannot be guaranteed.

3.3.4 The Funding of Vocational Education Is Insufficient For many years, the lack of funds has been an important factor restricting the development of vocational education in China. The proportion of the funds for vocational education in the financial budget in the whole financial budget has been declining, from 11.5% in 1996 to 8.4% in 2000. In 2000, China’s GDP was 8,940.4 billion yuan, and the proportion of state financial expenditure on education in GDP was

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2.87%. However, in the Paper on Education Reform and Development in China, the target of 4% by the end of the twentieth century has long been proposed. It seems that this target has not been achieved, let alone vocational education. The majority of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China have not formulated the per student funding standards for vocational schools as required; the educational surcharge has little funds for developing vocational education; the mechanism for enterprises of all kinds of ownership to bear the funds of vocational education is generally not established; and the proportion of the funds of enterprise vocational education in the total funds of vocational education dropped from 11.3% in 1996 to 7.5% in 1999. The enthusiasm of social organizations and individual citizens in running vocational education was not fully aroused. In 1999, the funds for running vocational education by social forces accounted for 1.57% of the total funds for vocational education. Most places in China have not implemented the policy of using bank loans to set up vocational schools, nor have they set up special funds or used student loans to subsidize vocational school students. In recent years, local finance has been divided into two lines of revenue and expenditure. Some localities regard tuition and miscellaneous fees of vocational schools as extra-budgetary revenue and must regulate 15–20% of tuition and miscellaneous fees to be used in other areas of fiscal expenditure, thus making it even more difficult for vocational schools that are already underfunded. The main reasons for the shortage of funds for vocational education are as follows: first, vocational education is basically in a state of self-receipt and self-expenditure, with very limited state funding. China’s vocational education is neither in the priority of basic education, nor in higher education, which is mainly supported by the state. Therefore, in the case of almost no state funding, the funding must be mainly dependent on tuition fees. China’s vocational education emerged in the 1980s when the tertiary industry was developing rapidly. As the tertiary industry was eager for many talents at that time, vocational school graduates could quickly get higher returns, so vocational schools could charge higher tuition fees to support the development of schools. However, since the late 1990s, China’s economy has been in a downturn, the labor market of the tertiary industry has been basically saturated, and the attraction of vocational schools has been reduced. The self-supporting policy generated in the 1980s has made it difficult for vocational schools to continue. Second, to varying degrees, decision-makers at all levels have the idea of emphasizing universal education over vocational education, which is finally reflected in the financial allocation decisions. On the one hand, this thought is influenced by cultural tradition; on the other hand, it is also caused by the fact that the political achievements of local education leaders are mainly reflected in high education enrollment rate. Third, the reform of government institutions and enterprise management system makes the secondary professional, technical education, and enterprise technical education lose the corresponding financial support. Fourth, with the development of science and technology, the cost of secondary vocational education increases synchronously with its technological content, aggravating the financial crisis of vocational education. The serious shortage of funds has affected the healthy development of vocational education. The improvement of the running

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conditions of most vocational schools is slow. Many experimental bases and facilities of schools cannot meet the needs of educational work, and some schools cannot guarantee the necessary teaching links (Li, 2020; Li et al., 2020; Liu, 2020; Xue & Li, 2020, 2021; Zheng, 2013).

3.3.5 The Employment Rate of Vocational Education Graduates Tends to Decline In the process of social and economic structural adjustment, due to the advantages of policy orientation and low labor cost, many laid-off workers and migrant workers have replaced part of the jobs that should be secondary vocational students’ employment, making it difficult for secondary vocational graduates to recommend employment in recent years, and the phenomenon of non-use of education is also more prominent. The main reasons for this phenomenon are as follows: First, the current social employment pressure is increasing, enterprises are in the period of restructuring and transformation, and their ability to absorb labor force is weakened; second, the employment concept of vocational school students still needs to change, many graduates, when choosing a job, just pursuit of high pay, large enterprises, comfortable, not interested in the grassroots front-line work in small and medium-sized enterprises, private enterprises are not willing to set foot in, and there is fear of difficulties of trans-regional employment; third, three is the existence of employing units of talent “high consumption” phenomenon and blindly requires high education and high-level talents; fourth, the quality of vocational school graduates cannot meet the requirements of employers, and their specialty, knowledge structure, ability and qualification do not adapt to the real needs.

3.3.6 It Is Urgent to Improve the Teaching Quality and School-Running Efficiency of Vocational Schools At present, vocational schools are not closely linked to the job market; the school’s speciality setting and layout are unreasonable, and the school-running mode lacks flexibility; the content of course teaching materials cannot be updated in time, which is disconnected from the updating of production technology. The number of teachers of specialized courses is insufficient, and many teachers, especially young teachers, do not have strong professional skills and practical ability. In terms of teaching methods and contents, vocational schools, especially quite several technical secondary schools, due to the influence of historical reasons such as the word “technical secondary school”, lay more emphasis on theoretical teaching, pay attention to the memory of knowledge, rely on books teaching, not enough contact with reality and theoretical teaching content and strengthen vocational skills. All these

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lead to the low quality, lack of characteristics and lack of attraction of vocational education. The characteristic, function and influence of vocational education; many people, even some leading comrades, are often unclear about the status of the modern national education system. In the eyes of some people, vocational education is low, ineffective and undignified. At present, there are some radical and one-sided public opinion propaganda, which has a negative impact on the development of vocational education in China. According to China’s current industrial policy, there should be more people to love agriculture, engineering and labor, determined to contribute to the modernization of agriculture and industry, which is the requirements of The Times, the needs of the country. But the burning is, our country’s young students, parents and society in the idea of choosing a career, but with the reality of serious dislocation, there are quite several students no longer choose agricultural and engineering majors and have flocked to some popular majors in the tertiary industry, showing the idea of choosing future career. “He who rules lives by mental perplexity, physical labor person” hand “all is inferior, the study concept deep-rooted penetration in our culture, the serious influence public ahead of the concept of social work is the direct consequences of predominantly agricultural professional rural secondary, agricultural and technical secondary school is given priority to with engineering mechanic school, secondary school admissions sharp decline with a serious shortage of students. The major is difficult to continue, and the school is facing the crisis of closure or diversion” (Huang, 2019; Li, 2020; Li et al., 2020; Liu, 2020; Su & Sun, 2022; Sun, 2020; Tang, 2015; Xue & Li, 2020, 2021; Yu, 2019; Yuan, 2012; Zheng, 2013). The late 1990s is the transition period of our country’s economy, namely from planned economy to market economy, from the release of economic philosophy to intensive economic back change. Because of the economic system reform, the economy development would transfer to a more in-depth direction, and productivity would get great liberation and can activate our country’s economy more. However, the economic transition also has its negative impact, that is, enterprises to release the surplus labor force, resulting in many social unemployment; in 1998, the number of unemployed in China reached 14 million, resulting in the unemployment rate reached 3.1%. Many unemployed enterprise personnel, indicating that enterprises absorb labor capacity is not strong. For example, during the ninth Five-Year Plan period, a total of 72 million new workers were recruited in rural areas, including 18 million in urban areas and 54 million in rural areas. Yet the number of jobs available is clearly inadequate. Therefore, labor employment has become a prominent contradiction in social life during China’s economic transition. Vocational education is the vocational preparation education for the employment of workers. The employment form of the school graduates will directly affect the enthusiasm of the students’ professional learning and the future enrollment of the school. In the past two years, the number of unemployed people has increased sharply, and the employment of enterprises is weak. The professional posts that the society can provide are limited. Therefore, it will inevitably lead to employment difficulties for unemployed school graduates.

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3.4 Countermeasures and Suggestions To ensure the healthy development of vocational education in China, it is necessary to carry out strategic adjustment and deepen reform in changing development mode, policy inclination, perfecting conditions and improving quality, to ensure the development of vocational education. In view of the challenges brought by vocational education, the number and quality of students in vocational schools are decreasing year after year, which makes the survival and development of vocational education face new problems and severe challenges. The following measures can be taken to solve the problems.

3.4.1 Change the Development Mode and Realize the Sustainable Development of Vocational Education The development of vocational education in China, especially in its early stage, mainly adopts the extensive development mode. It is an objective necessity for vocational education to adopt extensive development mode, which is in accordance with the background and characteristics of the initial stage of vocational education in China and the recovery stage of vocational education in the early 1980s. Therefore, it is urgent to accelerate the development of secondary vocational education from the perspective of adjusting the educational structure. After the third Plenary Session of the eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, China entered the fast track of economic development, and the demand for middle-level technical and managerial talents increased sharply. The primary task of vocational education is to expand the scale of talent training as soon as possible.

3.4.2 Establish a Scientific Outlook on Development and Correctly Deal with the Relationship Between Various Factors in the Development of Vocational Education As vocational education enrollment and the number of students continue to decline, the government can take certain measures, such as increasing investment in vocational education, recruiting vocational teachers with higher professional level and improving the level and efficiency of vocational development. First of all, we should set up a scientific outlook on development and correctly understand and deal with the relationship between vocational education and economic development. Reviewing the development of vocational education in China, it is not difficult to see that vocational education fluctuates with economic ups and downs. From liberation to 1965, China’s economy was in a period of development, and vocational education was

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developing well overall. During this period, there was the phenomenon of largescale agricultural middle schools following the “Great Leap Forward”: from 1965 to 1978, the economy was in a stagnant or semi-stagnant stage, secondary vocational education was seriously affected, and vocational schools were almost out of existence: from 1978 to the present, the whole economy is in a period of rapid development, and vocational education also develops rapidly. The synchronous fluctuation phenomenon of vocational education and economic development, on the one hand, shows that the economic base determines the superstructure, and vocational education is subject to the general law of economic development: on the other hand, it reflects that some people in the educational circle do not have a profound understanding of the relationship between vocational education and economy, with one-sidedness. Vocational education should adapt to the needs of economic development, but vocational education has the characteristics of a long period of training talents, so if we simply and mechanically follow the rhythm of economic development to train talents, it is inevitable to stumble and make ourselves into a passive embarrassing situation. Therefore, the correct understanding and understanding of the relationship between vocational education and economic development will help us to avoid or reduce decision-making mistakes and effectively curb the enormous tension brought by the extension development of vocational education.

3.4.3 Strengthen Vocational Quality Education and Improve the Quality Level of Vocational Talents In order to further develop vocational education on the existing basis, it is necessary to strengthen the recruitment of high-quality students and enhance the attraction of vocational education, which can be implemented through the following way. First, national education policy continues to incline to vocational education. It’s essential to attract the attention of parents and students by reducing tuition fees, granting scholarships and grants, and increasing school subsidies. Second, the enrollment department should optimize the source of vocational education as much as possible in the distribution of students. Third, vocational schools should make great efforts to build the characteristic brand of the school, so that it has a greater regional influence, so that it is favored by students and enterprises. Fourth, for vocational education graduates, local governments should introduce some relevant policies to provide methods to retain talents, such as hukou, rental subsidies, continuing education and training. In this way, secondary vocational graduates can get psychological attention, so as to better play their intelligence and constantly improve their ability. Vocational education resources should be integrated, all vocational schools in this area should be managed in an overall way, and private vocational schools should be treated equally. Special funds for vocational education should be established to help vocational schools improve their facilities, train vocational school teachers and reduce or exempt the related fees of poor vocational students. International experience shows

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that the fundamental driving force for the reform and development of vocational education does not come from within the education sector, but from the economic sector and employment sector. At present, there is little cooperation between vocational colleges and industries and enterprises in our country, and the talents trained by schools often do not meet the requirements of the society, resulting in a serious waste of educational resources. Therefore, perfecting the industry-school cooperation system and strengthening the relationship between schools and enterprises are the important measures of China’s vocational education reform at present. The state should not only encourage and guide enterprises to actively participate in the talent training of vocational education in terms of policies, but also clarify the rights and obligations of schools and enterprises in talent training through legislation and bring school-enterprise cooperation into the national legal guaranteed system. To enhance the vitality of schools, vocational education should start from the standpoint of employers, not only on examination, but also adapt to the needs of society and professional development, and highlight professionalism and practicability in education, to realize the rational use and smooth circulation of skilled talents. Vocational education will get the attention and support of the whole society. Vocational preparatory education should be implemented in ordinary primary and secondary schools, and courses with vocational and technical orientation should be included in the curriculum plans of primary and secondary schools. Primary school set up labor technology courses, mainly to train students’ labor concept, labor emotion and attitude, labor values education. In junior middle school, vocational guidance courses are offered to enable students to understand the social economic structure, industrial structure, the general situation of occupation and the development level of technology, and guide students to choose a career suitable for their own characteristics. In ordinary senior high schools, vocational and technical elective courses can be added, allowing students to choose according to their personal preferences. As far as possible, the standard of vocational and technical elective courses is the same as that of secondary vocational schools, and once a student becomes interested in such courses, it is possible to transfer to the corresponding secondary vocational school for further study. Of course, the precondition for such communication is that students receiving both types of education have equal opportunities to enter the society and seek further development through education and corresponding supporting reforms. As China’s vocational education system is multi-headed, one of the current important tasks is to break departmental boundaries as soon as possible, simplify and straighten out the relationship, and establish a technical management agency with authority, strength and coordination ability. Under the unified leadership of this agency, mobilize the whole society and all walks of life to formulate several different types of professional and technical qualification standards for post-junior high school education that are mutually integrated, effectively implement the employment system of “no training, no employment without a license” and promote the coordinated development of vocational and technical education (Huang, 2019; Li, 2020; Li et al., 2020; Liu, 2020; Su & Sun, 2022; Sun, 2020; Tang, 2015; Xue & Li, 2020, 2021; Yu, 2019; Yuan, 2012; Zheng, 2013).

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3.4.4 Replenishing the Vocational Education System at the Undergraduate Level and Above The lack of vocational education system above the undergraduate level makes the vocational education hit the ceiling; the following measures should be taken to establish and perfect vocational colleges above the undergraduate level education. Select strong vocational colleges to carry out undergraduate education and postgraduate education. We will transform some application-oriented universities into vocational education, provide undergraduate education and master’s education, and select some 211 universities with strong strength to provide doctoral vocational education. According to the current situation of vocational colleges, 100 demonstration schools identified by the Ministry of Education are allowed to carry out undergraduate education, and vocational colleges identified by the Ministry of Education as “reform pilot areas” are allowed to carry out postgraduate education. We will guide applied technology universities (not necessarily local universities) that focus on applied technology education and have strong industrial characteristics to develop vocational education for undergraduate and master’s degrees, and guide 211 universities to develop doctoral vocational education. The entrance examinations for master education and doctor education are carried out separately to reflect the characteristics of vocational education and cultivate real vocational talents. Society and enterprises should create a better employment environment for vocational school graduates. The school should strengthen the collection and release of employment information. As an enterprise, it can fully communicate with the school and cooperate with the school. It can not only reach an employment agreement with the school in advance, but also carry out training and order training in advance, so as to cultivate good employees who are suitable for their own enterprises and have enterprise loyalty. Efforts should be made to improve the overall social status of skilled talents and form a good social atmosphere conducive to the growth of skilled talents. To give full play to the radio, television, newspaper, network transmission function of the news media, such as publicity of skilled talents especially high-skilled talents in economic and social development and the contribution and the important role of promoting skilled talents in such aspects as culture, use and treatment of policies and measures, in the whole society to build a real respect for persons with a good environment. All in all, there still are some problems in vocational education, such as the system is not sound, teachers don’t adapt to science, cooperation between colleges and professional construction problem. To solve these problems, vocational colleges need to carry out the transformation of undergraduate course and graduate student education, improve the professional education of undergraduate course colleges and universities, strengthen the construction of teaching staff, strengthen the construction of professional construction, enhance university-enterprise cooperation system mechanism and promote health and vigorous development of vocational education (Li, 2020; Li et al., 2020; Liu, 2020; Xue & Li, 2020, 2021; Zheng, 2013).

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3.5 Conclusion The development of vocational education in China has experienced a long history. The development of vocational education in China started in the 1860s, but it developed slowly in the old China. After the founding of New China in 1949, a large number of vocational and technical schools were established. It was not until the reform and opening up in 1978 that the Party and the government established the policy of vigorously developing vocational and technical education that China’s vocational education ushered in a new situation of vigorous development of education and formed a road of vocational education development with Chinese characteristics. China’s vocational education has the characteristics of value purpose, history of development level, restriction of development conditions, time of development content, regularity of development process and so on. Vocational education is to cultivate talents with sustainable development ability for the society. The development of vocational education will be restricted by history and various subjective and objective conditions, so it is necessary to establish a correct concept of occupation. The sustainable development of vocational education must adapt to the development of The Times, and the law is to develop vocational education for the demand. The sustainable development of vocational education should follow certain rules, which should be combined with the state of national economic development, students’ learning characteristics and teaching resources of vocational education. To develop vocational education, it is necessary to maintain adaptability, stability and humanism. To develop vocational education, we should keep up with the demand of economic development, constantly innovate ourselves and adjust teaching contents, teaching methods and teaching management in real time. To develop vocational education, we should not only cultivate students’ culture and skills, but also their moral spirit. The education should embody humanistic care, not limit the age of the students and highlight the concept of lifelong learning. While the development of vocational education in China has made great achievements, it also faces huge problems and challenges. Our country, government, society, schools and students themselves also need to take corresponding measures to improve these problems. The state should take strong measures, formulate relevant laws and regulations, establish and perfect the employment access system. The government should increase the investment of vocational education funds, recruit teachers with higher professional level and improve the professionalism level and efficiency to improve the problem of decreasing enrollment and number of students in vocational education. The public opinion should guide vocational education actively and provide posts for students in vocational schools. Schools should strengthen management, standardize the order of running schools, improve the quality of teaching and enhance students’ awareness of quality and accomplishment. Students should establish a correct outlook on employment, pay attention to basic courses and master professional skills. It needs the support of the state, society, vocational schools and enterprises to promote the sustainable development of vocational education in China (Huang, 2019; Li, 2020; Li et al., 2020; Liu, 2020; Su & Sun, 2022; Sun, 2020; Tang, 2015; Xue & Li, 2020, 2021; Yu, 2019; Yuan, 2012; Zheng, 2013).

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References Huang, H. (2019). How to achieve sustainable development of modern higher vocational education. China Adult Education, 20(4), 9–11. Li, J. (2020). Improving teacher development in rural China: A case of “Rural Teacher Support Plan”. Beijing International Review of Education, 2(2), 301–306. Li, J., Shi, Z., &Xue, E. (2020). The problems, needs and strategies of rural teacher development at deep poverty areas in China: Rural schooling stakeholder perspectives. International Journal of Educational Research, 99, 101496 Liu, F. (2020), Chen Fan. Reflections on the sustainable development of higher vocational education. Charm China, 20(12), 303–303. Su, B., & Sun, F. (2022). The Communist Party of China’s hundred-year vocational education policy: History, great achievements and future prospects. Continuing Education Research, 20(2), 7–12. Sun, L. (2020). Vocational education policy analysis of China since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Vocational Education Forum, 20(8), 70–76. Tang, M. (2015). The policy changes and enlightenment of higher vocational education in China from the perspective of new institutionalism. Education and Occupation, 20(28), 5–8. Xue, E., & Li, J. (2020). Exploring the macro education policy design on vocational education system for new generation of migrant workers in China. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(10), 1028–1039. Xue, E., & Li, J. (2021) Exploring the type-based vocational education system: Insights from China. Educational Philosophy and Theory. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2021.1934668. Yu, H. (2019). Yang Yunlong. A study on the policy changes of higher vocational education in China during the 40 years of reform and opening. Vocational Education Research, 20(2), 11–16 Yuan, G. (2012). The development path of China’s vocational education. China Vocational and Technical Education, 20(16), 61–62. Zheng, Z. (2013). Research on the sustainable development of vocational education in China for 20 years: From macro guidance to Micro practice. Journal of Guizhou Normal University, 37(10), 44–51.

Chapter 4

Sustainable Development of Higher Education in China

This chapter explores the sustainable development of higher education in China. The sustainable development of higher education is closely related to our country’s social economy and people’s life, so the sustainable development of higher education should be coordinated and adopted with social and economic sustainable development to a maximum extent which acts as the guideline. The sustainable development of higher education should be evaluated by the principles of sustainability, integrity and fairness. Considering China’s national conditions, “fairness” is more instructive for the development of higher education in China at present. “Equity in higher education” means that everyone can receive education, and everyone is equal before education. However, in the aspect of higher education, higher education also faces many problems and challenges, which are the opportunities of higher education. This paper mainly explains the main contents, characteristics, scholars’ viewpoints, problems encountered in practice and countermeasures and suggestions for the sustainable development of higher education.

4.1 Introduction Our Common Future, published by the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987, promoted the term “sustainable development” and contributed to a massive global effort to disseminate and develop the concept. Since the mid1990s, researchers have conceptualized sustainable development as a concept and a way of thinking in universities. Since then, research has matured on the role of universities in supporting sustainable development, particularly in terms of their ability to meet future challenges. Education for sustainable development is part of the Sustainable Development Goal: quality education. Since then, the sustainable development of colleges and universities has been widely concerned. The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) and increasing awareness of climate change have prompted universities to integrate sustainable development into their © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 J. Li, Sustainable Education Policy Development in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-1191-2_4

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actions. Since the founding of the Communist Party of China 100 years ago, successive leaders have consciously applied the basic principles of Marxism, especially Marxist education theory, and put forward a series of important thoughts and theoretical views on higher education based on scientific reference to history, profound analysis of China’s national conditions and accurate understanding of international trends. The ideological system of socialist higher education with Chinese characteristics has been gradually constructed. These have always been the guiding ideology of the development of contemporary higher education and the theoretical principles we have been following.

4.1.1 The Sustainable Development of Higher Education The sustainable development of higher education refers not only to the sustainable development of economy and society promoted by higher education, but also to the healthy and sustainable development of higher education itself. To solve all kinds of challenges and problems arising from the development of higher education, on the one hand, it is necessary to correctly handle the relationship between reform, stability and development, and promote higher education to adapt to The Times and advance continuously. On the other hand, it should promote the coordinated development of higher education teaching, scientific research and social service. The position and function of higher education in the sustainable development of economy and society are determined by the special function and historical mission of higher education itself. The degree of sustainable development of economy and society determines the policy direction, economic security, cultural environment and educational direction of sustainable development of higher education (Chen & Su, 2021; Cui & Duan, 2021; Jing, 2022; Li, 2020; Liao, 2020; Ma, 2020; Wang, 2008, 2018; Yao, 2011; Zhang, 2019, 2021; Zhao, 2020).

4.1.2 Characteristics of the Sustainability of Educational Development The sustainable development concept of higher education includes the following two aspects: first, from the content of education, in the process of education, the knowledge and skills taught by teachers to students are unlimited and shared. Secondly, it shows that the education scale, development condition, education means and forms of education can adapt itself to the requirements of the future society to talented person’s comprehensive, namely in the current education system, education method, education organization and education guiding ideology, education can cultivate talents to meet the demand of development of society in future, that is the problem of the sustainable development of the education process. Higher education should regard

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future development as the main premise of current development and have a long-term vision. The formulation of development strategies and plans should not only be based on reality, but also start from sustainable development in future. The development of higher education must be based on long-term development, not just short-term action and not just the pursuit of quick success and immediate profits. Practice has proved that the development of some newly industrialized countries and regions in the world generally has a proper education ahead of the economic take-off stage. The proper advance development of education has laid a solid foundation for the rapid development of economy. At the same time, China’s national conditions also require higher education to enhance the awareness of advance development of education. The strategy of advanced and priority development of higher education is an important part of the sustainable development strategy of society. In our country, “science and education to rejuvenate the country” strategy has a decisive position. Colleges and universities are the cradle of cultivating high-quality talents. They shoulder the responsibility of cultivating young people with innovative and creative abilities in the new era and are also important bases for scientific research. Therefore, the sustainable development of higher education will greatly improve the overall level of science and technology of the country (Chen & Su, 2021; Li, 2020; Wang, 2018; Yao, 2011; Zhang, 2021; Zhao, 2020).

4.1.3 The Balance of Education Ecology When we introduce ecology into pedagogy and establish “ecology of education”, we can understand the sustainable development of higher education more easily. From the viewpoint of ecology of education, higher education is how to coordinate the development of higher education with the internal and external environment, and how to balance the social ecology externally and the educational ecology internally. Higher education is in a multi-digit network, and its ecological environment includes not only natural, social, humanistic, economic, physiological and psychological factors, but also basic education, vocational education, adult education and other educational ecological factors. To achieve sustainable development, higher education must balance with the environment composed of these ecological factors. In other words, only when higher education develops in harmony with economy, politics, culture, science and technology, health and other educational sectors, and balances with one’s own “internal environment”, can it be healthy and sustainable. Society must provide sufficient quantity and quality resources for higher education. Obviously, the use and allocation of resources in education should also follow the principle of “meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the development of future generations to meet their needs”. In the process of popularization of higher education, we must attach great importance to the coordinated development of the scale, structure, quality and benefit of higher education. We should handle the relation of scale and benefit above all. Secondly, we should pay attention to the balance of discipline construction. With the development of modern

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science and technology, new disciplines are emerging constantly, and the original division of labor is becoming finer and finer. At the same time, interdisciplinary penetration, especially between natural science and social science, is becoming more and more obvious. Strengths in a discipline are built up over decades or even longer. Therefore, the discipline construction must consider the balance and coordination. We should not only give full play to the advantages of the original characteristic disciplines, but also strive to develop and support new disciplines and majors with promising development prospects. Integrity refers to paying attention to the overall situation in the development process of things. All elements in the composition of things are interdependent, mutually prerequisite and mutually promoting, forming the integrity of development. The education system includes the higher education system and the basic education system. These two systems must coordinate with each other to form a whole from the aspects of school-running ideology, school-running goal, school-running scale and educational content. According to the current situation, compared with the huge basic education, the scale of higher education needs to be further expanded. The development of basic education is in proportion to that of higher education. In terms of higher education system, it is necessary to realize the sustainable development of each function according to the division of higher education functions. Only when the sustainable development of personnel training, scientific and technological development and service is realized, can higher education be regarded as a complete and sustainable higher education. From the internal point of view, the sustainable development of higher education can be called as the whole sustainable development of higher education only when the construction of teaching staff, the construction of intellectual ecological environment, and the construction of internal school-running mechanism and school-running conditions are realized. The content of sustainable development education in higher education is based on the rapid change of knowledge and the focus of lifelong learning, so that the educates can actively and independently practice the concept of sustainable development in various fields. Its content mainly includes: to train students to evaluate political, economic, ecological and social values and their benefits, and to be able to take action. It’s essential to develop students’ ability to view global challenges from multiple perspectives, obtain and process information about globalization and informatization. Recognizing sociocultural and natural diversity, analyzing global change from the perspective of globalization, thinking about the relationship between political, economic and social globalization and development and environmental processes, understanding the conflicts among the principles of politics, economy, sustainable ecology and social interests from multiple perspectives and predicting future risks all critically reflect on the relevant aspects of sustainable development, understand the internal trends, and form personal cultural concepts and sustainable consumption habits and lifestyles (Chen & Su, 2021; Cui & Duan, 2021; Jing, 2022; Li, 2020; Liao, 2020; Ma, 2020; Wang, 2008, 2018; Yao, 2011; Zhang, 2019, 2021; Zhao, 2020).

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4.2 Historical Development of Higher Education in China Higher education is the core field for a country to realize talents’ training, scientific research, social service, cultural inheritance and other functions. The development level of higher education is an important symbol of a country’s development level and development potential. Reviewing the practice of the CPC in establishing and leading higher education, it can be roughly divided into four stages: the initial stage of the new democratic revolution, the exploratory stage of the initial stage of socialist construction, the great development stage since the reform and opening and the conserved development stage since the 18th National Congress of the CPC. After the founding of New China, with the development of socialist construction, China’s higher education stepped into a period of exploration while establishing the basic framework pattern. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the people’s government took over, transformed and upgraded the higher education in old China. Due to the special historical background and the needs of national construction, China has adjusted and reformed the system of schooling, courses and departments of higher education nationwide in imitation of the Education system of the Soviet Union. By 1965, the number of institutions of higher learning had increased from 205 in the early years of the People’s Republic of China to 434, with the number of students on campus rising from 117,000 to 674,000 and full-time teachers from 16,000 to 139,000. The practice and exploration of higher education carried out by the Communist Party of China during this period made the basic framework of higher education in our country preliminatively established and the cause of higher education achieved steady development (Chen & Su, 2021; Cui & Duan, 2021; Jing, 2022; Li, 2020; Liao, 2020; Ma, 2020; Wang, 2008, 2018; Yao, 2011; Zhang, 2019, 2021; Zhao, 2020). Since the reform and opening, China’s higher education has experienced a period of restoration and rectification, with the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on education System Reform issued in 1985 as the branching point, gradually opened the prelude of higher education reform exploration in the new period. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, higher education has carried out a series of beneficial reforms and explorations in school-running system, quality assessment, enrollment and graduate distribution system, ushering in a period of rapid development. To this end, the Party and the state have issued a series of important documents, such as several Opinions of the Ministry of Education on Comprehensively Improving the Quality of Higher Education, Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of High-level Undergraduate Education to Comprehensively Improve Talent Cultivation Capacity, Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Modernization of Education (2018–2022) and China’s Education Modernization 2035. The fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee put forward the theme of “promoting high-quality development” and emphasized the construction of “high-quality education system”, which indicates that China’s higher education is moving from maturity to excellence. By the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan, China has built the world’s largest higher education system, with the Maoist rate of higher education reaching 51.6, 21.6% higher than in 2012, and the total number of students studying

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in higher education reaching 40.02 million. For the college graduates from this year, there is a phenomenon of increasing number, which can also be seen as: the rapid and strong development of higher education in China. Higher education has entered a new stage of universal access. The higher education system has become more complete, comprehensive reform has been deepened, and the quality of personnel training and scientific research has been steadily improved. All this has provided important support for economic and social development (Li, 2020; Wang, 2018; Yao, 2011; Zhao, 2020).

4.2.1 The Policy Change of Higher Education Opening to the Outside World In the early founding of the People’s Republic of China, the “one-sided” diplomatic strategy is fundamental to foreign policy, focusing on exchanging students with the Soviet Union and other countries. The third Plenary Session of the eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made a major decision to implement reform and opening. Since then, the opening up of higher education has become an important part of the national development strategy. Relevant policy documents have been publicly released to the public in the form of plans, systems, regulations and methods, and the policy framework has been basically determined. First, we will improve the policies for government-sponsored overseas study, increase the number of students studying abroad at their own expense and strengthen the return of students studying abroad. Second, the education policy for studying in China has changed from “regulatory” to “developmental”. Third, the introduction of foreign teachers, Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools and international promotion of the Chinese are explored. In my opinion, this is the progress and development of an era. Whether we study abroad in open or in other countries, it reflects the exchange and collision of cultures and helps us learn the spirit and culture of other countries. At its 16th National Congress in 2002, the CPC emphasized that it should actively participate in international economic and technological cooperation and competition and constantly improve the level of opening up to the outside world. During this period, the main line of the party and the state was to expand overseas education and Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools, to expand the connotation of higher education opening to the outside world and to standardize the management of running schools opening to the outside world. First, the “going abroad” policy focusing on studying abroad is supplemented and adjusted and then strengthened along with the policies of studying abroad and returning to China. Second, the policy of studying in China focuses on standardized management and quality improvement. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012 emphasized “adhering to the basic state policy of opening up” and guided the in-depth development of higher education opening to the outside world, forming a new pattern of all-round, multi-level and wide-ranging opening up. During this period, the policy

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of opening to the outside world of higher education increased the policy strength in traditional fields such as overseas education, opened up new policy fields such as international scientific research cooperation and international governance of higher education, and promoted the high-quality development of global higher education to become the main line of policy innovation. The income level of natural resource rent is not the only indicator to predict the development of higher education; the rent increase of natural resources will reduce the enrollment rate of higher education and negatively affect the development of higher education. The rent of natural resources may not be conducive to increasing the relative level of university expenditure per capita and reducing the ratio of students to teachers. Therefore, to realize the virtuous circle between economic development and higher education, it is necessary to promote high-quality economic development, stabilize the expectations of market subjects, strengthen active employment policies and constantly create more highquality employment opportunities for college graduates (Chen & Su, 2021; Cui & Duan, 2021; Jing, 2022; Li, 2020; Liao, 2020; Ma, 2020; Wang, 2008, 2018; Yao, 2011; Zhang, 2019, 2021; Zhao, 2020).

4.2.2 Three Dimensions—Digitalization, Modernization and Internationalization The internationalization of higher education should be regarded as a worldwide phenomenon. At the same time, the internationalization of higher education has not been determined. International Globalization and its Ideas: Globalization and internationalization—To view the nationalization of higher education in the context of globalization is to serve and build a community of shared future for mankind based on globalization and to promote the solution of global problems facing mankind. The internationalization of higher education is based on the concept of internationalization of higher education (namely, systematic thoughts and concepts about the purpose, content, approach and method of internationalization). A worldwide phenomenon of higher education is led by purposeful international action. Thus, two dimensions of internationalization of higher education are obtained: dimension 1: to produce universal knowledge and promote the progress of human knowledge through international academic exchanges; dimension 2: to provide service for national development and international competition. The dilemma of modernization of higher education: the rationalization of modernity hinders the development of modern higher education. This is manifested in the lack of humanistic care in human cultivation, academic evaluation and policy making.

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4.3 Challenges and Problems in Practice 4.3.1 The Development of Knowledge Economy and Learning Society Will Make the Function and Function of Higher Education in China More Obvious and Prominent Higher education not only shoulders the task of developing human resources in an allround way, but also trains many technical application-oriented and innovative talents in line with the development needs of modern manufacturing and service industries. Moreover, it should play a more important role in the system of scientific and technological innovation and development and strive to become the catalyst and booster of regional knowledge economy and scientific and technological innovation, so as to improve the ability of scientific and technological innovation and development in China.

4.3.2 The Content of Higher Education Should Meet the Needs of Sustainable Development With the development of modern science and technology, not only have many new techniques and technologies appeared in the field of material production, but also a large number of new economic departments and production fields. This requires higher education to reform the curriculum and teaching content quickly, timely eliminate the old content and add new content, with advanced to replace the old on the one hand; on the other hand, we should reform the curriculum structure, adjust the direction of curriculum setting, highlight the contents of economic construction, production development, and scientific and technological innovation, enrich the educational content with advanced scientific and technological knowledge, and make the educational content always take the most advanced scientific and technological achievements as the starting point. Modern science and technology should be constantly armed with educational organization forms and means to meet the needs of sustainable development of higher education and the requirements of economic construction and modern production. We should make extensive use of modern science and technology such as electronic technology, information technology, computer technology and network technology to develop modern educational technology. We should make use of the achievements of modern scientific research, constantly reform the teaching organization form, change the past single teaching organization system characterized by standardization and synchronization, actively open up the form of after-school education and develop to the form of diversified education organization. The situation that educational resources cannot be shared should be overcome.

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4.3.3 The Increase of Educational Funds Must Ensure the Sustainable Development of Higher Education Due to the implementation of the strategy of developing the country, the education in the position of priority development is pointed out by “education law” Article 55 Regulation: “the education of the people’s governments at all levels of the regular financial allocation should be higher than the growth of revenue growth, and according to the gradual increase of average cost of students in school education, ensure gradual increase teachers’ salaries and the average public expenditure per student.” Article 24 of the Decision of the CPC Central Committee and The State Council on Deepening Educational Reform and Comprehensively Promoting Quality-oriented Education points out: The central government has decided to increase the proportion of educational funds in the central government’s financial expenditure by one percentage point every year in the five years from 1998 to 2002. The Outline of China’s Education Reform and Development has similar requirements. From the financial implementation in 1999, although the total investment in education by governments at all levels in China has increased, the proportion of educational funds in the budget in financial expenditure has decreased, which has not met the requirements of the education law and other relevant provisions. Moreover, this provision itself has a big gap with developed countries. This investment situation is not conducive to the sustainable development of higher education, so the country must establish a system of financial allocation as the main, supplemented by other channels of raising funds for higher education, so as to make the development of higher education adapt to the level of economic and social development. The state shall formulate corresponding policies to encourage enterprises, public institutions, social organizations, other social organizations and individuals to invest to higher education (Li, 2020; Wang, 2018; Yao, 2011; Zhang, 2021; Zhao, 2020).

4.3.4 The Popularization of Higher Education Will Bring About Profound Changes in China’s Higher Education From the perspective of the development process of the popularization of higher education in western developed countries, the popularization of higher education shows the following characteristics: it takes social demand as the leading direction and focuses on the vocational education of employees from all walks of life; the diversity features of a flexible and diverse higher education system for lifelong learning of all the youth and adults of society. There are also two main characteristics of schoolrunning force, that is, the state-owned characteristic mainly relying on government power and the private characteristic mainly relying on social civilian power. The mass development of higher education has a long period of rapid development. In the process of popularization, there are still differences in regional development, urban and rural differences, and social class differences. In the process of the popularization

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of higher education, China’s higher education also faces the universal problems and contradictions encountered in the process of the popularization of higher education in other countries. The ability of mass education and elite education to expand the scale of higher education and economic bear is limited, so that when increasing the number of students and ensuring the quality of education, the equality of education opportunity and demand differences in ability and qualification surge. And the number of graduates and employment market absorption capacity limited all sorts of problems, such as the development of higher education in China is facing severe challenges. The imbalance of the development of higher education in China not only exists in the imbalance of regional development, but also in some parts of the same region, as well as among different universities. There are obvious differences in the scale and quality of universities among different regions. Taking “211 universities” as an example, there are 105 “211 Project” universities in China, including 58 in the east and only 17 in the west, showing a decreasing trend from east to west. Obviously, the development of higher education is greatly related to the level of economic development in this region. A region with a high level of economic development is more able to invest more in higher education, such as good teachers, assistance from central and local governments, and more social donations. However, the unbalanced development pattern of higher education has greatly occupied the development space of other institutions of higher learning, so that although China’s higher education has made a great breakthrough in quantity, it cannot make a qualitative breakthrough in education quality. Training objectives are the starting point and end result of higher education, which play a guiding, encouraging, supervising and coordinating role in the whole educational process. Educational concepts and school-running concepts are the leading factors affecting the training objectives of higher education. On the one hand, due to the influence of many limitations such as the level of running schools, the region where they are running schools, transportation, information and so on, some local higher education has a low degree of openness and lagging education concepts, which are far from meeting the needs of the reform and development of higher education. On the other hand, due to the constraints of school-running conditions, teachers’ level, professional structure and other factors, some colleges and universities are limited to a single, counterpart training goal, and there is still a big gap between them, and the interdisciplinary talent standards required by regional economic and social development. Most of these colleges and universities lack the concept, ability and power to actively serve the social economy. In addition, there are great defects in the target orientation of higher education in China. Colleges and universities still take the cultivation of comprehensive and research-oriented talents as the main goal, but the rapidly developing economic society needs more innovative, practical and university-specialized talents. As a result, some college graduates cannot quickly respond to the requirements of work after they start to work, thus bringing adverse effects to the career development of enterprises and students. In addition, most college teaching is still based on knowledge education, ignoring the training of students’ practical skills, which is in contradiction with the goal of cultivating comprehensive quality talents in social development, and is not conducive to improving China’s core competitiveness in international competition. The direction

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of talent training in colleges and universities has a profound influence on the level of social construction and development in China. The educational management in colleges and universities should always adhere to the goal of sustainable development and innovate the educational route according to the social needs, so as to realize the development of college education advancing with The Times (Li, 2020; Wang, 2018; Yao, 2011; Zhang, 2021; Zhao, 2020).

4.3.5 Excessive Expansion of the Scale and Insufficient Educational Resources Affect the Quality of Education College enrollment expansion needs sufficient educational resources to support. The contradiction between the expansion of school-running scale and the shortage of school-running resources is the most intractable contradiction in the enrollment expansion of higher education in China, which is mainly reflected in the following aspects: with the rapid expansion of the enrollment scale of higher education, the basic construction such as teaching experiment room, student living room and logistics service facilities is unprecedentedly tight. The proportion of teaching resources such as experimental equipment and books is constantly decreasing, and the conditions of running schools show signs of retrograde to a certain extent. On the other hand, in recent years, some colleges and universities rarely build teaching buildings, with less capital investment in laboratory construction, laboratory opening rate and books, and materials that cannot meet the requirements of teaching needs and national regulations. The emergence of the above problems is bound to affect the quality of student training to a certain extent. The source of education funding is single and insufficient. China implements the educational operation mechanism of “whoever runs it pays for it”. Schools run by the Ministry of Education are funded by the central finance, while schools run by provincial and local governments bear their own expenses. The implementation of compulsory education is mainly undertaken by county-level governments. Compared with other countries, China’s education expenditure accounts for less than 4% of fiscal revenue. It was not until 2012 that the Chinese government achieved the first financial investment in education accounting for 4% of GDP, which is also quite low. The quality of higher education is declining day by day. Among the practical problems brought by the expansion of college enrollment, the most controversial one is the decline of teaching quality. China’s enrollment expansion policy adopts the connotative development strategy, that is, to fully tap the potential of existing universities to develop higher education, by expanding the enrollment scale of existing universities to accept the rapidly expanding enrollment population, causing the poor teaching resources for the huge number of students. In addition, the diversion of front-line teachers leads to a serious shortage of front-line teachers and many teachers are under full load of teaching pressure for a long time, so it is impossible to improve teaching and update knowledge. In addition, because of the “lifetime system” of teachers’ professional title

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evaluation and the school ownership under which teachers belong, there is no fundamental breakthrough, and with the lack of incentive competition mechanism, the whole teacher team is not energetic enough. The unsound evaluation and assessment system of teachers has directly caused the decline of the quality of higher education. In the curriculum setting of various universities in China, especially non-key universities, the proportion of public courses, specialized basic courses and specialized courses are not optimized enough, which results in the situation that undergraduate graduates have no professional characteristics and narrow caliber. Starting from the traditional pattern of “course standard” is the most traditional characteristic of university education, which reflected in completing the subject system of thinking of curriculum development, laying particular stress on integrate, systematic and rigor theoretical knowledge and lacking of mastery of social needs, which tend to be the fact that what kind of teacher and what kind of school conditions will produce what kind of person. Therefore, there are more theoretical teaching and less practical teaching in the curriculum setting. More compulsory courses, less elective courses and other phenomena, and professional settings also adhere to rules and lack of innovation that cannot adapt to the development of society. When choosing a career, graduates have a narrow range of adaptation, thus losing many valuable employment opportunities. With the transformation of China’s economy and enterprise reform, the talent market has changed from short supply to oversupply, and the distance between the requirements of employers and the training goals of colleges and universities has widened. At present, with the rapid development of small and medium-sized enterprises and the expansion of private enterprises in various fields, the requirements of enterprise managers for talents are also gradually changing. They generally require graduates to have high professional knowledge, vocational skills and social skills. Therefore, as far as the current curriculum of colleges and universities is concerned, it has not adapted to the development of society and must be adjusted. Practical teaching links are seriously weakened, and theory is divorced from practice. In the teaching reform, while strengthening the teaching of foreign language and computer courses, experiments, practice, design and social practice have been severely squeezed and reduced. In the past two years, because of the sharp increase in the number of students, experimental facilities and places which are obviously insufficient, many students can not only personally participate in the test practice, but some experimental class were even canceled, the experiment and learning time pressure again increased, the content were cut time by time and requirements repeatedly reduced, resulting in the fact that practical link of teaching was further weakened. In this way, students’ understanding and mastery of theoretical knowledge are seriously affected, and their business skills, independent work ability and innovation ability are not properly cultivated and trained.

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4.3.6 The Quality of Teaching Management Personnel Restricts the Improvement of Management Level Teaching management positions are basically complete, and the teaching management team is basically stable, but there are still some defects in the quality of teaching management personnel, especially the defects of some teaching management personnel directly restrict the improvement of teaching management level. In terms of concept and consciousness, the teaching concept and modern education consciousness of the teaching management personnel in colleges and universities need to be updated, and they also need to be further strengthened in terms of fully adjusting their position in management, clarifying their role consciousness, improving their management level and strengthening their service consciousness. In terms of professional quality, some teaching managers still lack a comprehensive understanding of the current teaching situation and the existing teaching management system of the school. In addition, the reform of teaching management lacks scientific research on the work at hand and only stays in the passive mechanical operation with low level of management, so exploring management innovation and improving management level need to be further strengthened.

4.3.7 The Evaluation System of Higher Education Quality Needs to Be Perfected At present, China’s higher education has shifted from elite education to mass education, and the number of students has increased significantly. But it shows up. Teaching quality is the lifeline of the development of higher education. If there is no breakthrough in education, it will be difficult to learn. Even if students receive higher education, they will not become useful talents to the society. The sustainable development of China’s higher education will be affected if the quality evaluation caused by the popularization of higher education cannot be properly handled and controlled. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, imitating the higher education model of the Soviet Union experienced two large-scale national adjustment of colleges and departments, and basically constructed the higher education system and institutions that were compatible with the highly centralized socialist planned economy. After the reform and opening up, building the socialist higher education system with Chinese characteristics on the basis of learning from others is put on the agenda of course. However, up to now, there has not been a fundamental breakthrough in the management system and operation mechanism of colleges and universities. On the one hand, the disadvantages of the management mode formed under the planned economy system have not been eliminated, and the administrative management and academic management are still mixed and indistinguishably. On the other hand, the system and mechanism that are compatible with the socialist market economy

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system and follow the rules of higher education have not been formed, which seriously restricts the productivity of higher education, hinders the release of the vitality and creativity of universities, and makes it difficult for excellent talents to stand out, let alone enable them to give full play to their strengths (Chen & Su, 2021; Cui & Duan, 2021; Jing, 2022; Li, 2020; Liao, 2020; Ma, 2020; Wang, 2008, 2018; Yao, 2011; Zhang, 2019, 2021; Zhao, 2020).

4.4 Suggestions and Countermeasures 4.4.1 Optimize Regional Allocation of Higher Education Resources We should recognize China’s vast territory and different levels of economic development between regions, such as some relatively backward economic development of the province, in which funds trading for investment will be relatively reduced and will feel overwhelmed to a larger investment of higher education. So higher education is increasingly localized today, and regional unbalanced development of higher education is the norm; we should realize that the unbalanced development of higher education is reasonable and inevitable for developing countries like us, but it does not mean that we should ignore it. Therefore, strong support from national and local governments in various ways is clearly necessary. At present, with the continuous increase of China’s economic aggregate, the country has the ability to meet the support for the weak areas of higher education, and the country should consider overall, and make corresponding institutional arrangements to promote the development of higher education in outlying and backward areas. At the same time, local government should also according to the actual needs, actively overall planning, opens up a sustainable development of local colleges and universities. On the one hand, it actively promotes the local colleges’ and universities’ cooperation, borrows the key school of famous brand effect, the use of talent and technology advantages and experience of running schools, jointly, or leverage the power of building schools, or branch. On the other hand, effectively introducing the private capital to create private higher school so that to make up for the lack of technology, capital and management experience.

4.4.2 Formulate Clear Objectives for Personnel Training In the historical orientation of socialism with Chinese characteristics entering a new era, higher education should aim at cultivating talents with all-round development of morality, intelligence, physique, esthetics and labor, pay attention to the coordinated development of knowledge, ability and accomplishment, achieve all-round education

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of all personnel, the whole process, and pay attention to personalized development. It is embodied in education system, teaching concept, training program, curriculum system and evaluation system. First of all, we should formulate diversified training programs according to the types of higher education. Based on the orientation of talent training, China’s higher education can be divided into research universities and applied universities (higher vocational colleges). Application-oriented colleges and universities should conduct guided teaching on students’ professional skills according to their own orientation. The training program pays more attention to the cultivation of students’ professional skills and practical ability to improve their professional skills. Secondly, students should be taught according to their aptitude and a diversified curriculum system should be constructed. Classroom teaching is the main channel of higher education. The curriculum design of university should reflect the concept of taking the development needs of students as the starting point, and the curriculum should adapt to the diversified development requirements of students in terms of type, form and content. To improve classroom teaching effect, coordination among general education modules, professional modules and innovative modules should be fully considered in curriculum system design: advocating small-class teaching, strengthening teacher-student interaction, giving play to students’ initiative and creativity, and stimulating their interest in learning; advocating the tutorial system, in which students participate in the supervisor’s research and undergraduates join the supervisor’s research team in advance; and advocating new learning modes such as MOOCs to improve students’ learning initiative and cultivate their independent learning ability. Finally, attention should be paid to coordinate development and improve the multi-dimensional evaluation system. In the traditional evaluation system of talent cultivation, only students are evaluated, which seriously hinders students’ enthusiasm and initiative. We should let students participate in each link of talent cultivation and evaluation, which can not only fully reflect students’ dominant position, but also promote teachers’ enthusiasm in teaching. In addition, the content of the evaluation and criteria should also break the scores as the only evaluation standard which can appropriately increase the weights of innovation, perfect personality, firm faith, the correct values, good moral character and other elements, adjusting and optimizing training target, scheme and system through the feedback, thus to achieve optimization of personnel training and better realize the talents’ training goal of higher education (Chen & Su, 2021; Cui & Duan, 2021; Jing, 2022; Li, 2020; Liao, 2020; Ma, 2020; Wang, 2008, 2018; Yao, 2011; Zhang, 2019, 2021; Zhao, 2020). The reform of the training mode of talents in colleges and universities should keep pace with The Times and be constantly updated. The training of talents should meet the phased needs, and the formulation of development goals should meet the comprehensive development needs of students as far as possible. Although in the development of the current, in the teaching form is limited by certain conditions, but still need within its available resources in colleges and universities to promote the all-round development of students, promote the concept of talent training updates, this concept has become the global concept of development, which reflected in various countries around the world. Regarding this request in higher education talents’ cultivation, we should not only promote the development of

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students’ professional ability, but also promote the development of college students’ personal comprehensive ability, including the development of innovation consciousness and professional ability, strengthen the optimization design of teaching process and pay attention to the overall development of students. In addition, attention should be paid to the training of talents. On the one hand, to cultivate applied talents, under the teaching system of quality education, colleges and universities for training of higher education pay more attention to the improvement of practical ability and strengthen the cultivation of applied talents. The key is to make people have a skilled professional knowledge and practical skills. Let students leave school and can be directly engaged in production and practice; in this way, it is of positive significance to both the development of talents themselves and the employers. The employment rate of graduates can also be greatly improved, and the comprehensive competitiveness of enterprises can also be significantly improved. The setting of teaching goals in colleges and universities should also be based on the reality of social development and attach importance to the combination of educational goals and social reality. For this requirement, in the process of education in colleges and universities, as well as towards attaching great importance to the education of common attributes, we should attach great importance to the unique characteristics of the teaching professional, constantly improve the overall teaching ability, train more high-quality practical talents for the enterprise, make the development of talent to meet the needs of the development of the enterprise, for the local economic and social services, promote the employment of college students, promote the continuous improvement of educational ability and cultivate compound talents. On the other hand, the development of diversified economy mode needs more complex talents as support, because there are many possible ways, and only talents of diversified economic development can meet the demand of the development of economic diversification; the specifications of the talent and hierarchy of the cultivation of interdisciplinary talent needs are complex, and we should broaden students’ development field of vision, let students form the values of diversified development, respect the law of development and meet the possibility of employment, so making the personal development needs and social development needs in line (Chen & Su, 2021; Cui & Duan, 2021; Li, 2020; Wang, 2018; Yao, 2011; Zhang, 2019, 2021; Zhao, 2020).

4.4.3 Formulate Measures to Coordinate the Construction Scale with the Interests of Faculty and Staff The construction and development of colleges and universities in China are unprecedented in scale and speed. In order to speed up the infrastructure construction of colleges and universities, improve the teaching conditions and beautify the teaching environment, the investment in the construction of colleges and universities has increased year by year, and the construction of disciplines and specialties has made

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remarkable progress. First, we should fully promote democracy and follow democratic procedures. To the major decision-making problems of colleges and universities, we should not only consult the opinions of relevant experts, but also listen to the opinions of the teaching and administrative staff congress, so that decision-making can avoid blindness, tend to be more scientific and reduce the loss caused by decisionmaking mistakes as far as possible. With the rapid development of various undertakings in colleges and universities, the material treatment of faculty and staff should be improved accordingly. In addition to extracting the necessary administrative expenses and assuming the basic salary of the staff of each department, as well as setting up some large special construction funds, schools and departments can independently carry out salary incentive for teachers. Secondly, the vast majority of teachers and staff undertake arduous tasks of teaching and scientific research. Colleges and universities must think of all kinds of difficulties encountered by teachers and solve them. Great efforts should be made to improve the material treatment of faculty and staff, care for their lives, provide more humanistic care and fully mobilize their enthusiasm for the development of colleges and universities. Thirdly, the basic construction of colleges and universities should reflect environmental protection and humanistic consciousness. The construction of campus in colleges and universities is related to the study and life of students, faculty and staff, as well as their vital interests. The construction of campus should increase the cultural landscape, add the carrier of campus culture and add solidified teaching materials for the education of students in colleges and universities. It is necessary to change the educational idea of developing intelligence as the center and establish the educational idea of coordinating the development of intelligence and non-intelligence factors. From education to the teaching which is to train and develop students’ intelligence factors such as attention, memory, observation and thinking ability as the center, we should also pay attention to cultivate and develop the students’ motivation, interest, emotion, will and personality non-intelligence factors, and make them equipped with mutual promotion and coordinated development. The future society is a highly competitive and interdependent society, requiring people to constantly improve the psychological quality of being fearless, solidarity and cooperative in the face of crisis, and enhance the ability to understand, care, coexist and communicate. To realize the coordinated development of intelligence and non-intelligence of higher education subjects, make people have a deeper understanding of the society, and thus promote the development of social production and social relations, in this way, we can not only improve the level of material production of society and greatly enrich the material life of mankind, but also greatly enrich the spiritual life of mankind. Not only can people get rid of the attachment relationship between things, but also can get rid of the attachment relationship between people, and establish a really fair and equal social order, so that individuals not only get the means of all-round development of talent, but they also truly get personal freedom. In addition, in the teaching process, attention should be paid to the shaping of students’ healthy personality, the cultivation of thinking mode, the improvement of students’ application ability and innovation ability, and the cultivation of students’ independent growth atmosphere, so as to ensure the cultivation of qualified graduates who adapt to the needs of society and make contributions to

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the overall development of society and people (Li, 2020; Wang, 2018; Yao, 2011; Zhang, 2021; Zhao, 2020).

4.4.4 Improving the Quality of Teaching Management Personnel While paying attention to the improvement of teachers’ professional and academic level, we should also pay attention to the improvement of education, teaching and research level, which is one of the necessary qualities of college teachers. Nowadays, except normal colleges and universities, teachers generally lack this quality. The second is in line with the idea of people-oriented, to maximize the development of teachers to provide a place for use and good living and learning conditions. To give teachers pressure, including teaching reform, scientific research and teaching research, we should incline to teachers in terms of salary and provide them with good working conditions, research conditions and living conditions. Third is the establishment of relatively stable and reasonable flow of management methods. For the country, remote areas and underdeveloped areas should make tilt policy to attract and stabilize the talent, and each school should also formulate corresponding measures to ensure sufficient quantity of talent, better quality and relative stability. Quality management of higher education is a complex system project, involving politics, economy, science and technology, culture and other areas. Therefore, in the process of strengthening education quality management, we should build a system engineering model. In terms of personnel training, colleges and universities should not only pay attention to the study of professional knowledge and vocational skills, but also adhere to the basic task of moral education, help students to realize the comprehensive improvement of morality, intelligence, physique, beauty and labor, and guide students to establish a correct world outlook, outlook on life and values. In the aspect of higher education benefit, colleges and universities can introduce economic model to quantitatively analyze the input, output and benefit of teaching reform. Higher education resources are scarce resources, and only by allocating them effectively can we reduce the waste of resources, meet the needs of economic development, and improve economic and social benefits. Colleges and universities can use the results of quantitative analysis to reorganize and optimize the allocation of educational resources in time, improve the efficiency of resource utilization and education quality, and achieve the ultimate goal of higher education. In the aspect of knowledge management, universities have abundant knowledge resources, which is also its core resources. The core of higher education is the inheritance and innovation of knowledge, so knowledge management plays an important role in improving the quality of higher education. Colleges and universities should integrate internal and external scientific knowledge, attach importance to the role of teachers in knowledge transmission and speed up the transformation of knowledge into productive forces.

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4.4.5 Promote Classroom Teaching Reform and Strengthen Interdisciplinary Integration Students are the main body of education. Education and teaching reform should always focus on students, fully respect students’ physical and mental characteristics and learning rules, constantly enrich teaching content, improve teaching methods, pay attention to the expansion of students’ thinking and skills training, strengthen the interaction between teachers and students, students and students, and comprehensively adopt heuristics and discussion, inquiry-based and other teaching methods to enhance the vitality and motivation of teaching and learning, and build high-quality and efficient university classroom. Discipline is the organization cell of higher education and the foundation of improving the quality of higher education. Colleges and universities should innovate the discipline classification system, put the interdisciplinary and traditional disciplines in the same position, and further promote the development and research of interdisciplinary science. At the same time, colleges and universities should make an overall plan for the development of interdisciplinary integration, optimize, and condense the interdisciplinary direction and effectively integrate human resources on the basis of analyzing the overall development of the discipline and its own characteristics, material resources, financial resources and other resources, pay attention to the construction of interdisciplinary teaching staff and explore the innovative development path of disciplinary characteristics (Li, 2020; Wang, 2018; Yao, 2011; Zhang, 2021; Zhao, 2020).

4.4.6 Strengthen Education Quality Diagnosis and Establish Quality Evaluation System One of the important ways to improve the quality of higher education is to change the development mode of education from the extension to the connotative development. Connotative development is to pay attention to the improvement of quality and efficiency of educational elements. Colleges and universities should improve and perfect the relevant management system according to the various elements of education, and regularly check and diagnose the various elements. We will promptly correct educational links and management systems that do not conform to the law of education or are not conducive to the development of students, and continue to improve the quality of education by adhering to the law of education and the development of students. The system of education quality evaluation is the key to ensure the quality of education. Colleges and universities should focus on the overall development needs of students, establish a scientific evaluation system of education quality and evaluate the education process and effect. Schools can introduce third-party evaluation agencies to ensure the specialization and fairness of education evaluation. In addition, the establishment of quality evaluation system should be clear quality evaluation standards, object, procedure, evaluation index and weight distribution, etc.

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4.4.7 Lack of Institutional Innovation Is the Bottleneck of China’s Higher Education Reform During the future development of colleges and universities, institutional innovation is an important basis for solving the above two problems. In order to make full use of teachers’ abilities in colleges and universities, the key lies in the establishment of personnel system. The problems of personnel system in colleges and universities mainly include three points: first, the reform of teacher salary system; second, deal with the flexibility and stability of teachers. Colleges and universities employ talents with their own talents, so as to improve the flexibility of the system. Thirdly, institutional innovation of institutions of higher learning should break the rigid consciousness in two aspects: first, as long as they are experienced in foreign institutions, they cannot be changed; second, as long as it serves socialism with Chinese characteristics, it cannot be changed. Taken apart, these two views have some truth, but they are one-sided and do more harm than good, if the experience of other countries remains unchanged.

4.5 Conclusion In general, higher education has always been the focus of China’s development. From the 1960s and 1970s, the university was proud of that most people can receive higher education, which is not only the development of social economy, but also the change of ideology. Since 1840, when the first Opium War opened China’s door, the top-down reform movement began, from the technical level to the institutional level and then to the profound ideological level, which was the first ideological change, and the development of higher education under the current situation is another profound ideological change. This chapter explains the sustainable development of higher education from the following aspects: the definition, characteristics, main contents, historical development, policy changes, scholars’ views, challenges and problems encountered in practice, as well as countermeasures and suggestions. Sustainable development is a new concept of development put forward in the 1980s. It is proposed in response to the changes of The Times and the needs of social and economic development. The concept of “sustainable development” was first put forward by the World Commission on Environment and Development chaired by Mrs. Brundtland in 1987, but its ideas can be traced back to silent Spring, the Space Shuttle Theory and the Club of Rome in the 1960s. Looking forward to the future, we will, based on the successive leaders of higher education thoughts of the heritage and development, grasp the world’s higher education development trend, to encounter new problems faced by higher education in our country, further deepening the reform and innovation, in the modernization of higher education and the construction of the higher education world powers in the new journey; new era continues to compose the new chapter in the development of higher education (Chen & Su, 2021; Cui & Duan, 2021; Jing,

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2022; Li, 2020; Liao, 2020; Ma, 2020; Wang, 2008, 2018; Yao, 2011; Zhang, 2019, 2021; Zhao, 2020).

References Chen, J., & Su, L. (2021). Do natural resource rents inhibit higher education? Journal of Central China Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciences Edition), 60(5), 178–188. Cui, Y., & Duan, Y. (2021). Higher education theory and practice of the communist party of China one hundred years of history of basic experience. Journal of Southwest University (Social Science Edition), 47(3), 38–48. Jing, A. (2022). Analysis of the historical development and guiding Ideology of China’s higher education. Public Relations World, 20(3), 92–93. Li, X. (2020). Modernity dilemma and breakthrough of modernization of higher education in China—Based on the perspective of “human”. Nanjing Social Science (8), 152–156. Liao, X. (2020). Strategies and actions for sustainable development of higher education—A case study of Tongji University. Journal of Hubei Open Vocational College, 35(1), 15–17. Ma, G. (2020). Sustainable development education in higher education. Modern Rural Science and Technology, 20(12), 68–69. Wang, Z. (2008). On sustainable development of higher education. China Adult Education, 20(18), 14–15. Wang, Z. (2018). Review and prospect of 120 years of development of Higher education in Anhui province. University (Research Edition), 20(4), 19–29. Yao, K. (2011). Problems and countermeasures of sustainable development of higher education in China. Journal of Haiyan Normal University (Natural Science Edition), 10(2), 138–141. Zhang, X. (2019). The change and prospect of higher education curriculum policy in 40 years. Education and Teaching Forum, 20(4), 223–224. Zhang, Y. (2021). Internationalization of higher education in the context of globalization (a worldwide phenomenon)—A reexamination of research institutions, regions, countries, and international concepts. Education Development Research, 9(23), 1–11. Zhao, Q. (2020). The sustainable development of teachers is the key to the sustainable development of higher education. China Higher Education Research, 20(4), 11–19.

Chapter 5

Sustainable Development of Basic Education in China

This chapter examines the sustainable development of basic education in China. Basic education as an important stage of China’s education system, of course, has also synchronously made great achievements. Education for sustainable development is a new educational idea put forward by the international community. This paper analyzes the problems and challenges existing in current education from the current problems and challenges in China’s basic education. There are many problems in China’s basic education, which make it difficult to focus on sustainable development education and lack of special funds for sustainable development education. This chapter will introduce the sustainable development of basic education in detail from the aspects of research review, problem status and countermeasures.

5.1 Introduction 5.1.1 The Sustainable Development of Basic Education in China Sustainable development of education is regarded as an important goal in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) from 2000 to 2015 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals from 2015 to 2030. The sustainable development of international society is inseparable from the sustainable development of education. These sustainable development concepts have a positive impact on China’s education reform and development, but also play a positive guiding role in China’s basic education reform and development; for the realization of China’s basic education, sustainable development has laid a certain concept foundation. Since the reform and development, China’s education has made great achievements. Before the reform and opening up, our country was large with illiteracy and poor education—our big country with high worship of literature and education was at such a © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 J. Li, Sustainable Education Policy Development in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-1191-2_5

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level in that era. Forty years have passed, and the overall level of China’s education is among the highest in the world. The popularization of compulsory education has reached the average level of high-income countries. The gross enrollment rate of senior secondary education is close to 90%, exceeding the average level of middleand upper-income countries in the world. The gross enrollment rate of higher education exceeded 45%, and government spending on education accounted for more than 4% of GDP. This historic change has never happened before 40 years. Foundation education is the people to accept the early stages of lifelong education, the education object is children and adolescents, including primary and secondary school education; the broad sense also includes the preschool education basic education in the early period, the main role of which is to contribute to student’s body growth, world outlook formation, personality development, accept the basic knowledge and lay the foundation for life development period. The education received at this stage is the starting point, growth point and premise of everyone’s future development, and the foundation for the development of one’s whole life. The achievements in the reform and development of basic education in the past 70 years are reflected in the following four aspects: first, the scale of basic education has expanded unpretendingly, and the number of students has increased year by year. Second, the level of basic education and the quality of education and teaching continued to improve. Third, funding and resources for basic education were firmly guaranteed. Fourth, the basic education management system has been improved, forming a basic education system suited to China’s national conditions, and the basic education administrative and school management systems have been constantly improved. While China’s basic education has made great achievements, it still faces many problems and challenges. Among them, the imbalance of basic education is more serious. The imbalance of regional basic education is bound to cause the imbalance of human resources, which has become a factor affecting the unfair development of economic society. In addition, the proposal and the implementation of the “double reduction” policy in the field of basic education is an important education reform initiated by the state in the new era to deepen the reform of basic education, improve the quality of school education and teaching, and ensure the physical and mental health of students. This puts forward higher requirements for the sustainable development of basic education. Facing the problem and solving the problem, we should have a firm belief and stride forward toward the goal of sustainable development of basic education. This study puts forward corresponding countermeasures and suggestions on how to solve the problems and challenges faced by China’s basic education from a macro point of view, which has certain reference value for realizing the sustainable development of China’s basic education. The sustainable development of basic education needs the state, government, society, schools and teachers’ continuous efforts, the parties of the CPC Central Committee and the government’s correct leadership, policy and continuously deepening the reform of basic education, and real constant practice and reform in basic education stage, basic education in China can realize the sustainable development the goal (Cao, 2016, 2017; Liao & Guo, 2022; Liu & Zou, 2021; Luo et al., 2020; Pu, 2019; Song & Jia, 2021; Sun & Xu, 2019; Zhang & Ji, 2013; Zhang et al., 2022; Zhao, 2020; Zheng, 2014).

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In 2016, the United Nations changed Our World: the “2030Agenda for Sustainable Development” was launched, calling on all countries to work toward the realization of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) in the next 15 years. Goals 4 and 8 are “to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all”. Many countries have reviewed their education development plans and have begun to integrate some of the Sustainable Development Goals into their national education development plans. In order to implement the education goals of the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda, China is also taking continuous actions. This study reviews the development course of elementary education in China in the past 70 years, which is both splendid and difficult. From 1949 to 2019, there are three major historical stages. The first period, from the founding of the People’s Republic of China to 1966, is often referred to as the “seventeen Years” period, which is also the foundation period of basic education. The second stage was the period of the “Cultural Revolution”, which lasted from 1966 to 1976 and encountered setbacks and difficulties. The third stage is from 1977 to now, basic education has entered the strategic development period since the reform and opening up. In these three stages of development, although China’s basic education has made great achievements, it still faces many problems and challenges. China is confident in the sustainable development of basic education. Mohamed Bandi also praised China’s achievements in education. “There is certainly more than one reason for China’s education success,” he said. “Strong leadership, the right policies and vision at the top have played an important role.” Mohamed Bandi, president of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, spoke highly of China’s education and affirmed that our reform approach and direction are right. This study is about the sustainable development of basic education in China, which has important research significance for the current basic education in China. At the same time, in the era of global community with a shared future for mankind, the direction and method of the sustainable development of basic education reform in China can provide reference for the basic education reform in other countries and contribute Chinese wisdom and Chinese plan to the realization of the sustainable development of basic education in most countries in the world. The concept of sustainable development was first put forward in the report “Our Common Future” published by the World Commission for Environment and Development in April 1987. It is expressed as “meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the development of the ability of future generations to meet their needs”, and the concept of sustainable development has been widely quoted. Its central meaning has two: first, the goal of development is to meet the needs of mankind, especially to give priority to poverty eradication; the second is to emphasize that development should be limited by the capacity of the biosphere, and we should coordinate and restrict our development through the improvement of technology and management level. We need to coordinate economic, social, resource and environmental protection to achieve economic development, and at the same time protect natural resources and the environment to ensure sustainable development for future generations. In the narrow sense, the sustainable development of basic education refers to the education and training of the educates with the scientific

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knowledge and thoughts of sustainable development in the stage of basic education, which is the process of their formation of sustainable development thoughts, relevant knowledge and ability, and the specialized basic education of sustainable development. The sustainable development of basic education in broad sense refers to the basic education for sustainable development. From the construction of ecological civilization and implementing sustainable development point of view, abandon the traditional industrial civilization era in the history of education model, for basic education, the core is based on sustainable development as the guide, comprehensively promoting the reform and development of basic education, it is correct for the sustainable development of China’s basic education geared to the needs of strategic choice and value orientation. Generally speaking, the sustainable development of basic education in the narrow sense is the basis and important component of the sustainable development of basic education in the broad sense, and the sustainable development of basic education in the broad sense is the direction of sustainable development of basic education in the narrow sense. It can be said that “sustainable development of basic education” is to emphasize the core role of basic education in realizing sustainable development. The sustainable development of basic education is to follow the objective law of educational development and promote the healthy and orderly, quality and quantity guaranteed and sustainable development of education, which is the most closely related to deepening the understanding of sustainable development (Cao, 2016, 2017; Liao & Guo, 2022; Luo et al., 2020; Song & Jia, 2021; Zhang & Ji, 2013; Zhao, 2020).

5.1.2 Characteristics of the Sustainable Development of Basic Education in China Inquiry-based teaching method is an important method to cultivate students’ skills in the sustainable development of basic education. Through scientific inquiry, students can experience the application and cultivation of observation, thinking, listening, discussion, imagination, communication, reasoning, analysis, decision-making and other skills. Through the selection of appropriate inquiry teaching method in the activities of sustainable development teaching plan, students’ various skills can be developed. It is an important way to implement the sustainable development of basic education. The implementation of sustainable development of basic education has the following characteristics: (1) Developmental: emphasizing the role of education in the development of students and the service of education for students to form and develop their own sustainable development. (2) Inspiration: pay attention to create a democratic and open atmosphere, pay attention to mobilize students’ learning initiative, inspire and guide students to think independently, actively explore and learn vividly.

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(3) Participation: that is to create a situation conducive to students’ learning with their own personal experience, emphasizing that the experience is the content and purpose of learning. (4) Permeability: it means to infiltrate sustainable development through various teaching activities based on the reality of each discipline, and pay attention to coordination and cooperation with other disciplines, campus environment, campus cultural activities and community environment, so as to form the resultant force of sustainable development education. (5) Criticism: develop students’ critical ability through critical experience, promote students to master critical skills, develop critical consciousness, and develop understanding and attitude toward society. Education should encourage students to constantly examine their past, present and future, to think critically about the current situation of themselves and their environment, and to recognize the essential causes of development and environmental problems. (6) Integrity: integrity refers to paying attention to the overall situation in the development process of things. All elements in the composition of things are interdependent, mutually prerequisite and mutually promoting, forming the integrity of development. The education system includes the higher education system and the basic education system. These two systems must coordinate with each other to form a whole from the aspects of school-running ideology, schoolrunning goal, school-running scale and educational content. Basic education is the education for all students and should be popular education. Emphasis is placed on cultivating students’ desire and ability of lifelong learning, as well as their comprehensive ability and innovation ability, reflecting the universality and foundation of the course. Therefore, the implementation of sustainable development of basic education should have the following characteristics: the implementation of development is to respect students’ rights of independent development, respect students’ rights of learning failure or twists and turns; To carry out inspiration is to change the role of teachers from the authority of knowledge dissemination in the teaching process to the authority of promoting students’ development. The implementation of participation is to ensure that students have practical experience; consistent with the expectations of educators’ experience which naturally occurs, teachers should not directly teach their own experience to students. To carry out osmosis means that teachers should think about sustainable development education as a whole and take actions based on their own teaching. To implement criticism means to aim at real social problems, respect students’ right to criticize and the results of their criticism, allow differences in understanding and do not apply a blanket approach. The implementation of integrity is to achieve sustainable development in many aspects, such as the construction of teaching staff, the construction of intellectual ecological environment and the construction of internal school-running mechanism and school-running conditions, so as to achieve sustainable development of basic education (Cao, 2016, 2017; Liao & Guo, 2022; Luo et al., 2020; Song & Jia, 2021; Zhang & Ji, 2013; Zhang et al., 2022; Zhao, 2020).

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The sustainable development of basic education is comprehensive and transformative, including the following four aspects. In terms of learning content, emphasis should be placed on incorporating key issues such as climate change, biodiversity, disaster risk reduction, sustainable consumption and production into the curriculum, Pedagogy and learning environment: teaching should be designed in a student-centered way to make learning more exploratory and transformative, focusing on designing physical and online learning environments to motivate learners to contribute to sustainable development. Learning outcomes: students should be encouraged to develop core learning abilities, such as critical and systematic thinking and collaborative decision-making, and be accountable to current and future generations. Promoting social transformation to make the learners can participate in any age to promote more green live in a society to economic and social transformation inspires people to adopt sustainable lifestyle, making them become active agents, to create a more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, safe and sustainable development of the world.

5.1.3 Historical Development of Basic Education Sustainable Development Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, China’s basic education system has undergone 70 years of reform and development, and the level of running basic education has been constantly improved. The running system of basic education in China is developing continuously, and the main body of running school tends to be diversified and systematic. In December 1949, the first national Conference on education was held after the founding of New China, marking the transition from semi-colonial and semi-feudal education to new democratic education. According to the General Policy on Education, the Decision on Reforming the School System, the first document on the School System issued by New China in 1951, made new provisions on the status, number of years and the relationship between schools at all levels and of various types. In 1952, the Interim Regulations (Draft) for Primary Schools and the Interim Regulations (draft) for Middle schools were formally promulgated, comprehensively standardizing the education and teaching of primary and secondary schools in China, and forming the basic framework of curriculum setting for primary and secondary schools in China. According to these two documents, the Ministry of Education formulated new curricula for primary and secondary schools, and a new curriculum system for basic education was initially established in New China. From 1958 to 1965, the “Great Leap Forward” and the “People’s commune” movement were launched nationwide, and China’s economic, cultural and educational construction was relatively “aggressive”. In this social background, the field of education also began to vigorously open schools. By the end of 1965, China’s basic education had been restored in a relatively comprehensive way, increasing 6.9 times and 3.9 times, respectively, compared with 1946, which was the highest before the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The enrollment rate of school-age children had reached

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85%. From 1949 to 1965, 102.723 million people were illiterate, with an average annual rate of 6.043 million. In 1966, the “Cultural Revolution” began, proposing to reform the outdated educational system and policies, adopting measures such as shortening the length of schooling and streamlining the curriculum, and requiring students to take part in the struggle against the bourgeoisie at any time. The normal running of schools has been disrupted. In 1977, China’s education ushered in the long-awaited spring. The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China promulgated in 1982 proposed “universal primary compulsory education”, which was the first time since the founding of the People’s Republic of China that universal primary compulsory education was established in the form of the Constitution. These “three aspects” set up the navigation mark of China’s modern education and became the general policy of China’s educational reform. In 1985, the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on The Reform of the Education System was promulgated, which for the first time proposed that “nine-year compulsory education should be carried out systematically”. In order to achieve the grand goal of universal nine-year compulsory education, the state has mobilized the enthusiasm of local governments to develop basic education, while local governments rely on the people to run education. In order to ensure the smooth implementation of compulsory education, in 1986, the nine-year compulsory education was written into the newly issued Compulsory Education Law, so that the universal compulsory education has a special legal guarantee, China’s basic education on the track of legalization. In 1992, the 14th CPC National Congress set “basically universal nine-year compulsory education and basically eliminating illiteracy among young and middle-aged people by the end of this century” as an important goal for the development of China’s education cause in the 1990s. In 1993, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and The State Council issued the Outline of China’s Education Reform and Development which opened a new era of China’s education reform and development and officially set “two-basic education” as a new goal. In the national education work conference held in 1994, the “two bases” really transfer from the goal to a national action, becoming the top priority of China’s education work, and the administration set down the military decree taking 1996, 1998, 2000 as the time nodes. On January 1, 2001, the Chinese government solemnly announced to the world that China had achieved on schedule the strategic goal of basically making nine-year compulsory education universal and basically eliminating illiteracy among the young and middle-aged. In 2006, the newly revised Compulsory Education Law clarified the principle of free compulsory education in legal form, and established the main contents of the reform of the guarantee mechanism for the funding of compulsory education. In autumn 2008, compulsory education was made free of charge. From 1992 to 2009, the scale of private education in China has developed greatly. By 2009, there were 2670 private senior high schools in China, with 2.301 million students. There are 4331 private junior middle schools with 4339 million students. There are 5496 private primary schools, with 502 students enrolled. In 2011, China achieved universal nine-year compulsory education and basically eliminated illiteracy among young and middle-aged people. In September 2017, the Guidelines on

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Deepening reform of the Education System and Mechanism pointed out that education should remain a strategic priority and comprehensive reform in education should be comprehensively deepened to provide institutional support for the development of world-class modern education with Chinese characteristics. By 2019, the level of universal access to basic education had been further improved, with the net enrollment rate of primary school-age children at 99.94%, the retention rate of nine-year compulsory education at 94.8% and the gross enrollment rate of senior secondary education at 89.5%. The average length of education of the labor force increased to 10.7 years, and the average length of education of the newly added labor force reached 13.7 years. Basic education popularity reached the level of developed countries, 99.8% of the country’s compulsory education school-running conditions meet the basic requirements and 95.3% of the county units passed the evaluation of compulsory education balanced development, basic compulsory education stage to realize an exemption to the entrance, the compulsory education in our country started from the “fundamental equilibrium” into “high quality and equilibrium development stage. In 2019, the gross enrollment rate of preschool education reached 83.4%, the retention rate of nine-year compulsory education reached 94.8%, the gross enrollment rate of senior middle school education reached 89.5% and the gross enrollment rate of higher education reached 51.6%, making a historic leap from mass education to universal education. The working-age population has received an average of 10.7 years of education, 50.9% of the newly added labor force has received higher education and the average number of years of education has reached 13.7 years. The aim is to effectively reduce students’ heavy homework burden, off-campus training burden, family education expenditure and parents’ corresponding energy burden within one year, significantly reducing the burden within three years, further improving the quality of education people’s satisfaction with education. The quantity and quality of teachers basically meet the development needs of basic education (Cao, 2016, 2017; Liao & Guo, 2022; Liu & Zou, 2021; Luo et al., 2020; Pu, 2019; Song & Jia, 2021; Sun & Xu, 2019; Zhang & Ji, 2013; Zhang et al., 2022; Zhao, 2020; Zheng, 2014).

5.2 Policy Changes of Basic Education Sustainable Development in China 5.2.1 The Development Stage of Basic Education In September 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference adopted the Common Program of the Conference. In March 1951, the first National Conference on Secondary Education put forward the educational principle of all-round development for the first time. In October 1951, the State Council issued the Decision on Reforming the School System, comprehensively learning from the experience of the Soviet Union, carrying out in-depth reforms in administrative management, teaching plans, teaching methods and curriculum, and

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implementing a basic education management system under unified leadership. In September 1958, the Communist Party of China central Committee and the State Council formally established the socialist educational policy in the Instruction on Educational Work, which clarified the nature and purpose of education, reflected the requirements of the political and economic situation on education at that time, and reflected the distinctive characteristics of The Times in a specific historical period. In August 1958, the CPC Central Committee and The State Council promulgated the Provisions on Delegating Administrative Power to Lower Levels of Education, delegating administrative power to local governments and placing them in charge of running primary and secondary schools to give full play to their enthusiasm in running schools. In October 1984, the CPC Central Committee launched the reform of the education system in the new era. In 1995, the Party’s education policy was formally written into the Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, establishing the guiding principles for the Party and the state’s education work in the form of legislation. In 1986, the State promulgated the Compulsory Education Law, establishing the system of universal compulsory education in the form of national legislation. The Compulsory Education Law revised in 2006 stipulates that nine-year compulsory education is free of charge and establishes a mechanism to ensure funding for compulsory education, fully guaranteeing the implementation of compulsory education in rural areas and ethnic minority areas. In 2008, for the first time in history, free compulsory education in both urban and rural areas was realized. In 2010, the Outline of the National Medium—and Long-term Plan for Education Reform and Development (2010–2020) (referred to as the Outline of the Medium—and Long-term Plan) further proposed to consolidate and improve the level of nine-year compulsory education, promote the balanced development of compulsory education, accelerate the popularization of senior high school education and make promoting educational equity a national basic education policy. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee has attached great importance to the development of education and always placed education as a strategic priority. The allocation of educational resources is the main factor to decide whether compulsory education is fair or not, and it is also the core issue of much scholars’ research (Cao, 2016, 2017; Liao & Guo, 2022; Luo et al., 2020; Song & Jia, 2021; Zhang & Ji, 2013; Zhao, 2020). Compared with the research on the equity of resource allocation in compulsory education, so far, the empirical research on the equity of outcome in compulsory education is relatively weak, and the empirical research on the impact of equity of resource allocation in compulsory education and on the equity of outcome is very scarce. The teachers’ educational background, school buildings and equipment conditions were significantly correlated with education quality, but the correlation between per student expenditure and public expenditure and education quality was weak. The class size has a significant negative effect on the quality of education but embracing public funds has weak correlation with education quality. The results show that there are significant differences in educational quality between schools, and the allocation of human and material resources has an important impact on educational quality, while the allocation of financial resources has no significant impact on educational quality. In the analysis of the disequilibrium of compulsory education resources allocation,

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the results show that the disequilibrium degree of inter-school education resources’ allocation in the compulsory education stage in the middle and eastern China has been significantly reduced after the reform of the new mechanism (the reform of rural compulsory education funding guarantee mechanism).

5.2.2 Changes in School-Age Population (1) Plans and programs for educational development must be adjusted in due course. It requires education to change the way of development and take the road of connotation development. Due to the shrinking of school age population and shortage of education said goodbye to the age, education resources can guarantee the completion of various tasks in basic education; in addition to the popularization of high school education, the high-quality education resources can ensure the implementation of positive policies, mainly focusing on taking the adjustment, improvement and enrichment as the main development ways in compulsory education stage, and improving quality and forming scale. (2) It has become an important task to optimize the allocation of educational resources and adjust the structure of educational distribution. The relative surplus of educational resources provides practical feasibility and space for the optimal allocation of basic educational resources. (3) It poses a severe challenge to the construction of teachers. The number of schoolage population determines the size of the school, the school determines the size of the number of teachers (prepare) and level determines the level and quality of education, from a few “peak platform” step through the gradual development of basic education, one of the biggest challenges facing is the digestion and distribution of excessive teacher resources. At present, this problem is very prominent in primary and secondary schools across the country, and will become more prominent. Junior high schools have already begun to face this problem, and senior high schools will also face this problem in a few years. The flow of teachers is difficult to implement, so that the knowledge structure, age structure, quality structure and education structure of schoolteachers are difficult to improve. (4) Insufficient policy support. Although China has included “attaching importance to education for sustainable development” in its national medium—and longterm education plan, it has not yet formulated corresponding detailed implementation rules for sustainable development education guidance. Although some local government put forward the requirement of sustainable development education, but always failed to promote the sustainable development standing on the strategic height of clear understanding of contemporary education function, and thus failed to consciously and systematically include sustainable development education in local education policies. Besides, the education for sustainable development in the domestic various regions and the uneven development of each school restricted the improvement of education quality.

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(5) It is difficult to focus on sustainable development education due to the diversity of informal education and its guiding ideology. Due to the lack of national sustainable development education policies, various non-formal education and informal education lack the motivation of administrative call and requirement from the national level, so it is difficult to implement the practice of sustainable development education. In July 2021, the CPC Central Committee and The State Council issued the Opinions on Further Reducing the Homework Burden and Off-campus Training Burden of Students in Compulsory Education, and “double reduction” became the buzzword of the year. In recent years, the scale and expenditure of extracurricular tutoring for basic education students in China have shown an overall trend of fluctuation and rise. (6) Insufficient special funds for sustainable development education. Thanks to the attention and support of China’s National Committee for UNESCO and some local government officials, a large amount of funds have been provided for sustainable development education in China for more than ten years. However, due to the lack of supporting national policies, the central and local educational administrative agencies have not yet listed sustainable development education as a special work, thus lacking special funds. Due to insufficient media publicity, large state-owned and private enterprises with economic strength have not yet provided large-scale financial support for sustainable development education. Due to lack of funds, the special expenditures required for various special studies on sustainable development education in China, training of management cadres, principals and teachers, effectively experience summary, compilation and publication, and translation of Chinese publications into English, and international personnel exchanges are seriously insufficient (Cao, 2016, 2017; Liao & Guo, 2022; Luo et al., 2020; Song & Jia, 2021; Zhang & Ji, 2013; Zhao, 2020).

5.3 Countermeasures 5.3.1 Implementing the Fundamental Task of Fostering Moral Integrity and Cultivating People and Applying Core Socialist Values Throughout Education and Teaching Work In terms of the current basic education, it is necessary to educate students to establish a correct world outlook and outlook on life, and cultivate new builders and successors with international vision, patriotic spirit, firm faith and tenacious qualities. We need to implement service-oriented management and establish a management system that integrates teaching, management and service into a whole, all-round and whole-process education system, so as to raise the management level and quality of education and ensure that the people are satisfied with education. We need to fully

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implement the fundamental task of fostering morality and fostering people, relentlessly cultivate and promote core socialist values, and guide teachers and students to be firm believers, active disseminators and model practitioners of core socialist values. We should ensure that students have confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, imbue them with a brand of socialism in their minds and train new people of the time who can shoulder the great responsibility of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

5.3.2 Promote Balanced Development Among Counties, Districts and Schools, Solve the Problem of Unbalanced and Inadequate Development of Education, and Raise the Overall Level of Schools At the present stage, China has entered a new period of development, and the principal social contradiction has been transformed into one between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life. The current development of education in our province will not exceed this overall judgment. The contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate education development and the people’s desire to receive high-quality education is becoming more and more prominent. Therefore, to solve the problem of unbalanced and inadequate education development in our province and improve the quality of running schools is a problem that our education and teaching work must face. To solve this problem, first, we should improve the management mode of teachers and coordinate the allocation of teachers’ resources. The education administration should boldly explore the district system management mode of teachers “county management school hired” system, and the staff department and financial department at the county level should cooperate to confirm the scale and structure of teachers, according to the student-faculty ratios and deploy forces, and the way of combining verification county primary and secondary school teaching and administrative staff in total. In order to realize the teachers’ transformation from “unit person” to “system person”, we should start from the management system, break the school’s “one-school ownership” of teachers and establish the teacher management system with regional overall planning. Second, it is necessary to formulate standards for monitoring and evaluation of regional education and teaching quality and basic requirements for teaching work, draw a bottom line for teaching work and education quality, regularly assess school teaching work and teaching quality, and take the results as an important condition for the selection and appointment of principals. The third is to strict enrollment system and standardize school behavior. According to the Outline of the National Plan for Medium—and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010–2020), no key schools or classes shall be set up during compulsory education. Education departments should formulate regional primary and secondary school enrollment policies based on this, and strictly control the scale and scope of school enrollment. We will increase support

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for weak schools and rural schools, address the problem of insufficient student enrollment in weak schools and the large scale of quality schools, and address the current educational dilemma of insufficient resources in some schools while most of them are idle and wasted. Fourth, we need to improve the management model, try out school district-based management, explore group-based schools, and adopt flexible and diverse forms of school running, such as entrusted management, strong schools leading weak schools, school alliances and the nine-year system, so that the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development can be solved (Cao, 2016; Liao & Guo, 2022; Zhao, 2020).

5.3.3 Investment in Compulsory Education Must Mainly Be Made from Government Financial Appropriations: Separate Education Budgets and Firm Control of Extra-Budgetary Funds Are Two Important Guarantees for Increasing Government Investment in Basic Education The funding of compulsory education is mainly dependent on the government to increase investment, and other fund-raising measures can only be supplemented. Now is the time to promote the “Hope Project”, of course. However, if those units or individuals have no interest or ability to donate to project Hope, will the local primary school be built? How do those children get their compulsory education? Therefore, during the ninth five-year Plan period, we must further emphasize and reflect the main position and leading role of government allocation in compulsory education investment. It is undoubtedly important to establish a mechanism to ensure the sustainable growth, rational allocation and effective use of investment in education. We suggest that, in order to further reflect the strategic and priority position of education, education budgets should be separated from those for science, education, culture and public health, and be deliberated directly by people’s congresses. Obviously, this will increase the transparency of education funding, which will help ensure the government’s investment in basic education. Strictly implementing the Budget Law and firmly controlling extra-budgetary fund are another important guarantees to increase government investment in basic education. For years, revenue has been improperly withheld everywhere, and has been turned into off-budget funds. Moreover, the amount of non-budgetary funds in many local governments is roughly equivalent to the amount of budgetary funds. Because the local extra-budgetary funds are basically not used for education, therefore, the “two increases” in education investment cannot fully explain the importance of education and the implementation of compulsory education laws in various regions: therefore, if the Budget Law is earnestly implemented and extra-budgetary funds are kept at a reasonable and very low level, the budgets of local governments will be substantially or even doubled, and the investment in education will be correspondingly substantially or even doubled.

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5.3.4 Investment in Education Should Be Tilted Toward Schools with Weak Foundations to Create Conditions for Eliminating the Phenomenon of High-Cost School Choice In recent years, primary and secondary schools in some large and medium-sized cities charge heavy fees for students to choose schools, not thousands, but tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. This phenomenon is contrary to the nature of China’s socialist education, contrary to the principle that children receive education equally and contrary to the “Compulsory Education Law” in the nearby school and tuition exemption provisions. This phenomenon corrupts social conduct, aggravates polarization among schools, increases difficulties for weak schools with weak foundations, and affects social stability and unity. Governments at all levels have the responsibility to take a clear stand to eliminate the increasingly fierce phenomenon of high cost of school choice that the masses are extremely dissatisfied with. In the past, the phenomenon of high-cost school choice did not occur because of insufficient investment in education and the gap between schools, which shows that the essence of this phenomenon is a corruption problem under the current conditions. However, raising the level of weak foundation will undoubtedly help to eliminate this phenomenon. This requires governments at all levels to greatly tilt their investment in education toward weak schools, so that excellent cadres and teachers can flow to weak schools. It can be concluded that the adequate care and attention of governments at all levels to weak and weak schools will stimulate the enthusiasm of cadres and teachers, contribute to the comprehensive implementation of the Party’s educational policy in primary and secondary schools, and contribute to the popularization of high-quality compulsory education.

5.3.5 Increasing Total Funding for Education While giving full play to the role of the government as the main channel of financial input, the government should raise education funds through various channels to increase total input by levying education taxes, issuing education lotteries, establishing a cost-sharing mechanism for non-compulsory education, and developing private and private schools. Reforming the situation that the school system is run exclusively by the state and developing private schools is a measure to solve the shortage of educational funds. There are few private and private schools in our country. Before 1998, there were only over 3000 private primary and secondary schools, accounting for 0.5% of China’s 610,000 primary and secondary schools, 59% in Hong Kong and 24% in the United States. In 1995, private universities accounted for 73.5%, private short-term universities 83.9%, and private kindergartens 47.67%. About 73.2 and 92.4% of short-term college students and 79.6% of kindergarteners are studying in private schools. China supports and encourages individuals,

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organizations, enterprises and institutions to raise funds for running schools by themselves and can also transform part of public schools into public or state-owned private schools (fixed assets belong to state-owned or public, the government reduces or gradually stops allocating funds, and the organizers raise funds by themselves through multiple channels). The diversification of school-running subjects and investment subjects alleviates the lack of state investment in education funds (Cao, 2016, 2017; Liao & Guo, 2022; Liu & Zou, 2021; Luo et al., 2020; Pu, 2019; Song & Jia, 2021; Sun & Xu, 2019; Zhang & Ji, 2013; Zhang et al., 2022; Zhao, 2020; Zheng, 2014).

5.3.6 Giving Play to the Role of the Main Channel of State Financial Input Budgetary allocations are the main channel of educational funds, accounting for no less than 60% of the total educational funds. We will arrange education budgets in strict accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations, ensure that the increase in budgetary appropriations for education is higher than the increase in regular government revenue and make clear the proportion of education appropriations in central, provincial and county government expenditures. There is a certain economic basis for increasing the proportion of education spending in the central government budget. In addition to all levels of finance in the budget implementation process, there is a considerable amount of excess income and off-budget income every year. The excess and non-budgetary income shall be used for education at no lower than the proportion of educational appropriations in fiscal expenditures determined at the beginning of the year. Schools should make use of various forms and ways to strengthen teachers’ ideological and political work, strengthen teachers’ moral education and assessment, strive to improve teachers’ political quality, stimulate teachers’ passion for work, maintain a good ideological realm, mental state and work style, and consciously achieve teaching and educating people, as a model for teachers. The number of teachers is affected by factors such as personnel system, orientation of employing mechanism, utilization degree of teachers inside and outside the school, etc. Therefore, we should fully understand the main reasons for the shortage of teachers in the current position and formulate corresponding countermeasures. First, we should set up posts scientifically and rationally, further improve the employment system of full-time teachers, reform the employment mechanism orientation, change the current situation of the lack of full-time teachers, and encourage and guide more talents to join the full-time teacher team. Second, we should speed up the pace of training young teachers, make clear training objectives, develop training plans and provide corresponding learning and training opportunities, so as to prompt them to step onto the platform of dry training as soon as possible; Thirdly, it is necessary to fully tap the teaching potential of administrators and teachers to maximize the utilization of teaching resources and form the teaching force of all teachers. Fourthly, more experts, professors, leaders and business backbone should be recruited to serve

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the training center by employing part-time jobs, cooperative research and inviting lectures, so as to achieve greater sharing of excellent talent resources. Leaders, experts and backbone of the tax system should be further explored to give lectures in the school, targeted training programs should be formulated in cooperation with teachers, and specialized courses oriented to highlight capacity building should be developed to enhance the vitality and vitality of training. To improve the unreasonable structure of teachers’ specialty, it’s necessary to establish the development plan of individual teaching and scientific research for teachers in the university, and reasonably determine the major direction of each teacher’s specialty and other courses that can give play to his/her specialty according to his/her specialty and specialty combined with the development direction of training and teaching and put forward corresponding goals and requirements. To design feasible schemes and concrete measures of training, further study and practice corresponding to teachers’ professional planning, strengthen professional training step by step according to the plan and promote the comprehensive and coordinated development of all kinds of disciplines, secondly, we should strengthen the training efforts and process of part-time teachers in the weak links of the profession, and constantly explore the available value, so that full-time and part-time teachers can achieve the situation of being rationally matched, professional complementarity, mutual promotion and common development, and the quality and efficiency of training is also needed to be comprehensively improved. Thirdly, we should strengthen the training of young teachers, encourage them to overcome difficulties and engage in scientific research, and integrate the innovative consciousness and spirit into the training and teaching, to add vitality to the training platform.

5.3.7 Strengthening the Reform of the Curriculum System We should pay attention to the imbalance phenomenon in curriculum reform. During basic education curriculum reform, the balanced development and fairness of education cannot be avoided. We should pay attention to the imbalance between urban and rural areas, increase the investment in education in rural areas, increase the training of teachers in rural areas, and increase the development and utilization of network resources. The investigation shows that the attention of leaders at all levels and the support of school culture have an important impact on the implementation of reform. The central and local administrative departments play an important role of organization, leadership and policy guidance in the design and implementation of basic education curriculum reform in China. Educational administrators at all levels shall timely understand and effectively solve the problems and difficulties encountered by schools and teachers during curriculum implementation, and timely provide policy, material security and professional support. Education is the main means to implement sustainable development, and basic education is the main carrier of sustainable development education. Therefore, the integration of sustainable development education and basic education curriculum can not only promote the development

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of sustainable development education, but also guide the reform of basic education curriculum. The sustainable development of basic education plays an important role in the development and progress of education in China. The stage of basic education is the foundation of a person’s lifelong learning, and basic education is also the foundation of a country’s education. Sustainable development education is like a green trend of thought full of vitality, which opens up a new vision and provides a new way of thinking for the cause of basic education in China. Sustainable development can be understood as: compared with the traditional development mode of human’s predatory exploitation and utilization of natural resources, the ecological development in which human needs in a specific region do not weaken the ability of other regions to meet their needs, and the needs of the present generation do not harm the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable development is comprehensive and dynamic. The methodology and world outlook of sustainable development education also provide a unique research perspective and direction for China’s basic education reform. Basic education, based on the concept of sustainable development, can lay a solid foundation for China’s education, so as to pursue more long-term, better quality, higher level of development. Do a good job in every school, teach every student, built the basis of fair, Pratt & Whitney, high-quality, balanced education system is the comprehensive implementation of the Compulsory Education Law and national regulations, and the key of balanced development of the county area compulsory education quality is one of the important gripper. The construction of high-quality education system is to enhance people’s sense, the inevitable requirement of happiness and satisfaction, which is the bounden responsibility of education department and education workers. It is already working in Tianjin. Other regions can also learn from the successful experience and excellent measures of Tianjin to alleviate the contradiction between the masses’ demand for high-quality education and the shortage and imbalance of high-quality education resources in the new era, to meet the masses’ expectation of high-quality education and to build a higher quality and fairer basic education service system. Tianjin’s high-quality resources radiating leading project has played a huge role in the development of education in Tianjin. In general, the project of radiating high-quality resources effectively boosts the balanced development of basic education, which is manifested in five aspects: first, the group running of high-quality education resources effectively drives the overall high-quality development of relatively weak schools, rural schools and newly built schools; second, all the schools directly affiliated to the city have been paired up to promote the overall improvement of education quality in relevant districts; and third, the central city and the far city form a “regional development community” to promote the construction of “regions” (Cao, 2016, 2017; Liao & Guo, 2022; Liu & Zou, 2021; Luo et al., 2020; Pu, 2019; Song & Jia, 2021; Sun & Xu, 2019; Zhang & Ji, 2013; Zhang et al., 2022; Zhao, 2020; Zheng, 2014).

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References Cao, H. (2016). Study on the impact of school-age population change on the sustainable development of basic education. Liaoning Education, 20(12), 6–8. Cao, Y. (2017). Basic education equity from the perspective of policy tools: Review and prospect— Based on the text analysis of basic education equity policies from 1979 to 2016. Education Science, 33(4), 24–31. Liao, X., & Guo, H. (2022). Basic education research 2021 annual development report—Statistics and analysis of the republication of 2021 primary and secondary education papers. Teaching Materials Teaching Method, 42(3), 152–159. Liu, H., & Zou, H. (2021). High quality: The transformation of the development direction of basic education in China. Education Research, 42(4), 11–24. Luo, S., Zhang, H., & Song, N. (2020). On the reform and development of basic education in China. Journal of Jiangxi Normal University (Philosophy and Social Science Edition), 53(1), 123–129. Pu, R. (2019). 70 years of basic education management system of New China: History, experience and prospect. Chinese Education Journal, 20(10), 48–53. Song, N., & Jia, P. (2021). 100 years of the development of basic education in China: Towards fair and quality education—With the party’s educational policy as the logical thread. Journal of Southwest University (Social Science Edition), 47(3), 127–139. Sun, X., & Xu, Y. (2019). 70 years of basic education in China: Achievements and policies. Curriculum Teaching Materials Teaching Method, 39(2), 4–10 Zhang, H., & Ji, F. (2013). An empirical study on educational equity in China: 1982–2010—Based on the dissolving method of educational Gini coefficient. Education Science, 29(6), 1–6. Zhang, H., Li, D., & Zhao, Y. (2022). New China’s foundation education the school system development and prospect recent 70 years. China Education Science (Both in English and Chinese), 22(6), 11–19. Zhao, Z. (2020). A textual econometric study on the policy construction of China’s lifelong education system from the perspective of policy tools: Based on the policy texts of the ten years since the issuance of the outline of National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020). Journal of Higher Continuing Education, 34(4), 20–28. Zheng, T. (2014). Overview of curriculum reform of German basic education in the 21st century. Science and Technology of RTVU, 20(2), 52–53.

Chapter 6

The Sustainable Development of Lifelong Learning in China

This chapter focuses on the sustainable development of lifelong learning in China. With the rapid development of science and technology, the sustainable development of lifelong education has become a trend. The idea that a person can get through life with a set of knowledge and skills will also be a thing of the past. Traditional education will not meet the needs of human life development, but lifelong education can. Developing lifelong education toward a learning society has become the current trend of education development in the international society. Since lifelong education is the most closely related to social development, the popularization of lifelong education will surely further promote social development. After entering the twentyfirst century, the state attaches greater importance to the dissemination and practice of the concept of lifelong education, and regards accelerating the development of lifelong education, especially community education, education for the elderly and vocational education, as a major measure to promote social development, promote social equity and optimize the educational structure. This chapter systematically expounds the concept, characteristics, content and development history of lifelong education and sustainable development, and further understands the policy changes of lifelong education in China. The sustainable development of lifelong education promotes social development, but it will inevitably be challenged. In view of the main problems existing in the development of lifelong education and the analysis of the evaluation results, this paper puts forward some strategies, such as perfecting the corresponding management organization and operation mechanism, striving to create a learning society, and integrating and developing digital learning resources, so as to promote lifelong education to make greater contributions to the social development. Lifelong education promotes the socialization of education and the establishment of learning society. The old idea of school as the only educational institution should be eliminated, and education should go beyond the limitations of school education, so as to expand to human social life.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 J. Li, Sustainable Education Policy Development in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-1191-2_6

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6.1 Introduction Lifelong education refers to the sum of all kinds of education that people have received in each stage of their life, and it is the unification and synthesis of different types of education that people have received. It includes all stages and modes of education, both schooling and social education; There is both formal and non-formal education. Advocate for providing the necessary knowledge and skills for everyone in the best way at the time of need. The idea of lifelong education has become the guiding principle of educational reform in many countries. Now many governments put the lifelong education as the overall goal of the country’s education reform, take the lifelong education into the standardization of channels, reorganize and design our own national education system with the principle of lifelong education, from kindergarten to the university of old age, trying to build a lifelong education system from family education to enterprise education of full implementation of the lifelong education. Education is the fundamental way to achieve sustainable development. The foundation of sustainable development is the sustainable development of human beings, and the cultivation of people with sustainable development mainly depends on the sustainable development of education itself, while the sustainable development of education is based on lifelong education. Lifelong education not only clarifies the development direction of social education, but also raises people’s attention to social education. Lifelong education also gives education a new interpretation. Education should be throughout one’s life, which completely changes the past concept that one’s life is divided into two stages: study period and working period. The research on the sustainable development of lifelong education starts from the concept, characteristics, main content, development history and national policy to provide theoretical basis for the following research. Then, the challenges and problems faced by the sustainable development of lifelong education in practice, such as the increasing demand for personal quality development, the need to adapt to the social environment and development, the lack of learning consciousness, the urbanization process and the change of population structure, and the need to optimize the allocation of resources. The quality of resources needs to be improved, the system and mechanism are not perfect, lifelong learning is faced with the difficulty of insufficient motivation and all kinds of investment in lifelong education are not in place. Against these challenges and problems, the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions are put forward, such as: building the learning society under the system of lifelong education, vigorously developing education, strengthening propaganda to deepen lifelong education idea among the population, breaking the traditional single education pattern, realizing diversified transformation of continuing education, establishing and perfecting the guaranteed mechanism of lifelong education, etc. This paper mainly adopts the educational research method of literature analysis, that is, through consulting, sorting out and analyzing relevant papers and works related to the sustainable development of lifelong education, it clarifies the research status and direction of the research topic and straightening out the research ideas. Lifelong education as a new education idea, the education principle and education system, is the result of change and innovation.

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The nature and attribute of traditional education determines that its sustainable development is conducive to be implemented. Sustainable development also provides the material foundation for the development of lifelong education, the development ideas and scientific principles, both depending on each other and promoting each other. The goal of lifelong education “is to achieve a more effective and open society with greater respect for human nature and human aspirations” (Du, 2017; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021, 2022a, 2022b, 2022c; Xue & Li, 2022; Yang, 2018; Zhou, 2006).

6.1.1 The Concept of Lifelong Education Lifelong education was put forward by French educator Paul Langeran in 1965. He believed that it was groundless to divide life into education and work. School education is only a stage in the process of one’s education, but not the whole one. In the field of method research, the concept of lifelong education is as follows: lifelong education is a brand-new life body rooted in the new social background and a complete life body with its own life cycle; lifelong education is not an extension or component of traditional education, rooted in the soil of adult education, with learning-oriented culture as its core. As a starting point, adult education plays a key role in connecting the past and the future. It means with the birth of lifelong education, the highest structure is learning society. Its width covers formal and informal learning. Its length is closely related to the whole life of a person, and its depth is to promote the all-round development of people. Lifelong education is the complete unification of the whole length, width and depth of a person’s life in the society. The concept of lifelong education is in constant flux. In short, lifelong education is the sum total of family education, school education, social education and other education that people receive in their whole life.

6.1.2 The Concept of Sustainable Development of Education In 2003, a meeting of UNESCO’s Executive Board adopted a resolution on education for sustainable development. The resolution aims to implement the United Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable Development from 2005 to 2014 and asks governments around the world to integrate sustainable development ideas into their national education strategies and action plans at all relevant levels during this decade. At present, sustainable development of education refers to persisting in learnercentered, following the law of its own development, and cultivating more socialist builders and successors with sustainable development ability. Nowadays, sustainable development has permeated all fields in our country, but no matter what job you are in, you need to keep learning and create conditions for lasting development. We need to receive lifelong education. Lifelong learning and sustainable development

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have the identity of concept, promote and integrate each other in practice, clarify the concept logic of lifelong learning and sustainable development, and find the path of lifelong learning to promote sustainable development, which can provide more diversified development ideas for social progress. Sustainable development is inseparable from lifelong education. Sustainable development requires all-round development of human beings, which must be achieved through lifelong learning. The lifelong education system is an open system, which requires that different education forms can realize mutual integration and connection and provide diversified needs and contents of education services for social individuals. For example, libraries, multimedia, newspapers, radio and daily life events are all open resources. In order for everyone to have the opportunity to learn, our country provides learners with great convenience, so we now vigorously develop and utilize the resources of the whole society and the world, thus promoting the sustainable development of lifelong education. Lifelong education focuses on the people of all, the development of organic, promotes the organic combination of school education and family education, social education, raises people’s emphasis on informal education degree, plays the social, cultural, economic and other kinds of education function, admits that the diversity of individuals and provides people with a wide variety of education opportunities, allowing them to effectively develop, break through the shackles of traditional education, make effective use of various resources for different groups and innovate education to realize lifelong education from the realization form. Lifelong education not only emphasizes individual diversity, but also provides a variety of educational opportunities for each learner to develop and reflect their diversity. But it is worth noting that people often mistakenly think that family education is only for children, in fact, in family education, the beneficiary is every family member; the concept of lifelong education will emphasize this point of view. “Building an education system that serves lifelong learning for all people” aims to provide educational support and services for lifelong learning for all people. It not only promotes the development and growth of all people, but also implies that this system is jointly built, shared and developed by all people. Therefore, the implementation influence of family education should be extended from “children’s growth” to “all members grow together”. The sustainable development of lifelong education not only conforms to the law of human development, but also has a new definition for family education, so that people can correctly understand family education. The thought of lifelong education holds that education is needed at any stage of human life, school education is the starting point and final stage of lifelong education, and it is an important part of lifelong education. The concept of lifelong education not only breaks the original traditional education, but also deepens the connotation of school education. Our country attaches great importance to school education, and has carried out many reforms, but the effect of which is not satisfactory every time. Finally, the development of lifelong education in our country points out the right way for our country’s school education reform. Influenced by the concept of lifelong education, our country began to attach importance to quality-oriented education, and the purpose of education has become to cultivate talents with all-round development of morality, intelligence, physique, esthetics and labor. Only the integration of school education and lifelong education can change the

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current situation of exam-oriented education in our country, and also conducive to the improvement of students’ cultural accomplishment. In this era of rapid development of science and technology, old things will be replaced by new things, including knowledge, ability and technology and so on. In order to realize the sustainable development of our country, society and mankind, we must attach importance to quality education in schools and insist on the concept of lifelong learning. Before the reform and opening, China regarded social education as a subsidiary of school education and thought the education’s main role was to share the functions of schools and assist the teaching work of schools, thus neglecting the real purpose of social education. Since the reform and opening, China has a preliminary understanding of social education and established its own nature. The emergence of lifelong education theory makes the purpose of social education clearer and emphasizes that social education should select suitable and high-quality educational resources and provide systematic teaching services according to the characteristics, interests and needs of learners, to help them become what they want to be. But we need to move away from profit-seeking and utilitarian short-term thinking toward sustainable lifelong learning (Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021).

6.2 Historical Development Lifelong education has a history of nearly one thousand years in China. Lifelong education first appeared in The Analects of Confucius, he said, “I am determined to learn at 15, stand at 30, at 40 I have no more doubts, at 50 I know the destiny of heaven, at 60 I hear what I want, at 70 I follow my heart and do not exceed the rules.” However, lifelong education was still a vague concept and had not yet appeared as a proven theory in real life activities. Lifelong education as a practical theory first appeared in the 1960s, after nearly a hundred years of development from the 1960s to the present, “The historical development of lifelong education can be divided into the following stages: the birth of lifelong education from the 1920s to the 1940s, the modern revival of lifelong education from the 1950s to the 1970s, and the construction of modern lifelong education system in the 1980s. The deepening and expansion of modern lifelong education in the 1990s, the diversification and internationalization of lifelong education since the twenty-first century.”

6.2.1 1920s to 1940s: The Birth of Lifelong Education In 1929, the British adult educator, Yerxley, published the world’s first monograph on “Lifelong Education”. This book is not only the first book with the title of “lifelong education” in the world, but also the first time to explain lifelong education from the perspective of combining religion and secularity. Polish scholar Sukhodorski said

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that the “adult education” in 1919 contained the shadow of “lifelong education”, and through Yerxley’s “Lifelong Education”, the idea of lifelong education was known to people.

6.2.2 1950s to 1970s: The Modern Revival of Lifelong Education Although the concept of lifelong education is ancient. But it was not until the 1950s to the 1970s that the modern Renaissance of lifelong education really took place. The revival of the modern concept of lifelong education mainly stems from two driving forces. One is that since the twentieth century, faced with the complex challenges brought by economic, social, cultural, ecological, technological and intellectual changes, human beings have had to re-examine the whole society and the educational design of themselves. In the process of the fierce criticism of traditional education, some important thinkers, politicians, educators and social activists “revived” the concept of “lifelong education”. Second, from 1950 to 1970s, with the rise of modern adult education in the world, adult education not only became the “locomotive” to promote the development of lifelong education, but also made the connotation of the concept of lifelong education concretized and clarified.

6.2.3 1980s: The Construction of the Modern Lifelong Education System In the 1980s, although the term lifelong education was widely spread in the world, no standardized system has been put forward. At this time, international organizations and many scholars are calling for the whole educational process from preschool to higher education to be linked. This has also completed the basic construction of modern lifelong education system. Although the system of lifelong education was not perfect at that time, it already included politics, economy, culture and other aspects. It provides the precondition for future policy support. From the perspective of international lifelong education thought, lifelong education thought originated from bible, Koran and Jewish Holy Law. It has been nearly 100 years since the term “lifelong education” was first implanted into the modern education system in Britain in 1919. UNESCO believes in the “Lifelong Education” report that “lifelong education has existed since the beginning of mankind”. Plato in the republic of the concept of cultivating philosophy king, king of philosophy of culture is a longterm process, Plato attaches great importance on early childhood education, and the whole education process is divided into five stages: the stage of preschool education, elementary education stage, military education stage, preparation stage of education and philosophers’ education stage. Each stage has its learning objectives. The

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previous stage prepares for the next stage, and each stage is higher than the previous one, with continuous learning and accumulation. The highest goal is to cultivate profound knowledge and skills of philosophy king as the ruler of the country. This is the germination of the western lifelong education idea. Marx’s theory of “all-round development of man” advocates that the all-round development of individual labor ability should adapt to diversified labor needs. It is necessary to develop individual intelligence and physical strength in an all-round way and cultivate coordinated development of people. Through the exploration of the theory of lifelong education, Langeran proposed that lifelong education “includes all aspects and contents of education, uninterrupted development from the moment of birth to the end of life, including the organic connection between each juncture of education development stage”. Education includes not only the education of youth, but also adult education. It refers not only to school education, but also to family and social education. Education is a process to promote individual individuation and individual socialization. “Education is a concept with broad significance that runs through the whole life of a person”. Based on this, Langlang proposed that the content of lifelong education should permeate all aspects of every stage of life, such as life education, parent-child education, vocational education, art education and so on. In April 2001, Education Science Press published the book “Education - Where the Wealth Lies”, arguing that education must be organized around the following four basic types of learning: learn to recognize; learn to do things; learn to live together; and learn to survive. It emphasizes that education should pay more attention to people’s value, personal life and communication between people, which requires the traditional education concept to change, establish the concept of lifelong education, promote their own development and constantly adapt to the needs of the society. In general, the idea of lifelong education breaks through the traditional definition of education and expands people’s research field of education. At the same time, it has expanded and enriched the connotation and extension of education, and achieved the transcendence and reform of traditional education. Lifelong education is more important in today’s world; the modernization of lifelong education continues to develop internationally; the international competition is increasingly fierce; the development trend has made more stringent requirements for individuals; and lifelong learning consciousness has become an important factor whether a person can be based on the society, which become everyone’s basic ability and quality. The new generation is to continue to develop and improve. Lifelong learning requires individuals to change the traditional concept, change the traditional way of learning, have socialized consciousness and learn in cooperative practice. Individuals should learn for development and jointly create a learning society (Du, 2017; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021, 2022a, 2022b, 2022c; Xue & Li, 2022; Yang, 2018; Zhou, 2006).

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6.3 Challenges in Lifelong Learning Practice 6.3.1 The Demand for Personal Quality Development Keeps Increasing With steady economic growth, China has become the second largest economy in the world and its overall national strength is improving. But at the same time, China’s lifelong education and vocational re-education industry is still underdeveloped, and the overall re-education mode is still mainly in the form of school, which relatively lacks customized and inclusive services. Compared with the international level, the construction of the discipline system in Chinese universities cannot fully meet the needs of the popularization of general knowledge, and it is urgent for social forces to make a deep reform of the general education industry. On the other hand, with the continuous diversification of social division of labor and the multi-level extension of individual career trajectory, the demand for trans-major and cross-disciplinary personal lifelong learning and training continues to heat up. The advent of the era of lifelong learning has also enhanced the strong crisis awareness of enterprise employees and white-collar workers. The upsurge of comprehensive learning has been set off, and the market of sustainable development of lifelong education still has a huge space for development.

6.3.2 Identification of the Influence of Complicated Information In the “Internet + ” era background, the learners are similar in make full use of the Internet in the process of lifelong learning, lifelong education, facing the vast information; this information includes not only the authenticity of the information, but also some information regarding falsity and beguiling, which brought some challenges for people to distinguish and identify information. At the same time, with the in-depth development of Internet technology, the information in the network shows explosive growth, which also makes people spend less time to think in the process of information utilization, affecting the development quality of lifelong education. With the development of The Times, our society has entered the era of learning, which requires us to keep learning to improve our quality, so as to keep pace with the progress of The Times; in this case, lifelong education came into being. But as people’s material life condition is getting better and better, it was found that learning is not the only way to the future development, so the enthusiasm of learning changes, except for a few people who conscientiously and diligently study. For most of the people learning emphasis has changed, and the learning society has not really formed. The mission of lifelong education is to make everyone become a studious person and an active member of the future learning society. Only through learning can

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people change themselves, in order to improve themselves. Learning must be built on the basis of self-consciousness and voluntary, which is of substantial significance to human development. Only interested in learning, people can take the initiative to learn consciously. The challenge of lifelong education mainly comes from the lack of learning consciousness. In the era of very poor material conditions, people hoped to change their living conditions by receiving education. However, nowadays, with the gradual improvement of people’s material living conditions, people’s learning motivation has changed greatly, and people’s learning is more and more subject to external pressure. There are a lot of people to learn because of work pressure or employment pressure; people’s learning consciousness is reduced, and many people feel confused about their own learning, and do not know the meaning of learning. Such learning is not a happy learning, it is a kind of suffering. Nowadays, the education system is more and more perfect, and the popularization of compulsory education is more and more high. Although today’s education system advocates quality education, our country is still moving toward exam-oriented education which has led students to learn for scores. In the process of learning, people mostly just want to obtain a diploma or educational qualification. In the era that values academic qualifications, people will also study hard to change their academic qualifications. How much of this learning is due to their own self-consciousness? By this kind of passive learning, students will not only feel tired, but also not gain much after learning. In the era of advanced science and technology, the development of people’s creative potential is also affected. Some people are good at thinking and learning, so their creative ability will be improved and their thinking will be more active, while some people rely on electronic devices and do not like to use their brains, so their creative ability and flexibility of thinking will be reduced. In short, only by continuous learning, self-conscious learning, interest in learning and lifelong learning habits, can people make their lives more wonderful (Du, 2017; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021, 2022a, 2022b, 2022c; Xue & Li, 2022; Yang, 2018; Zhou, 2006).

6.3.3 Urbanization Process and Demographic Changes Most of the world’s population will live in big cities in future because it is safer and cheaper to live in big cities. Nowadays, rural areas are developing slowly, and the urbanization process in rural areas is getting faster and faster with the development of society, which is also a challenge to lifelong education. It is more necessary for people to have the concept of lifelong learning, enrich themselves through learning, improve their knowledge, and become a qualified and educated urban person. But at present, the education level of rural people is generally low, most people are illiterate, and it can be said that some people are not educated; in this case, it is not easy for rural people to establish the concept of lifelong learning as soon as possible. The change of population structure is also a challenge to the sustainable development of lifelong education. Now the with three-child policy being issued, many families will choose to have more children, and one family may have three or four children,

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but some young people don’t want to have children and want to be a dink family. In these cases, the population structure mainly lies in the elderly or young children, most of the elderly generation had not accepted education, whose thoughts are more traditional, while for younger children, parents go out to work and leave them living with grandma and grandpa, and these young people need to feed their families, who also don’t have much time to learn, which is not conducive to the implementation of the sustainable development of education for life. As the builders and successors of the future society, children should establish the concept of lifelong learning from an early age, which is closely related to parents and teachers. In a word, urbanization and demographic changes will affect the sustainable development of lifelong education, which is also a challenge for us.

6.4 Problems in Lifelong Learning Practice In the world, the concept of lifelong education has been put forward for more than half a century. Although China’s sustainable development of lifelong education started relatively late, the government attaches great importance to lifelong education and lifelong learning in China, and the importance of lifelong learning has been emphasized in many national documents. At present, the whole society has not formed a comprehensive and profound understanding of lifelong education, especially the construction of education system to serve the whole people’s lifelong learning, and the public’s demand awareness of lifelong education is insufficient. In the field of lifelong education, there exists “Matthew effect”, that is, well-educated people are more willing to participate in lifelong education and lifelong learning, and their learning ability is stronger. Those with less education are not only unwilling to lifelong learning, but may also appear to believe that learning is not a lifelong thing, but a matter of a certain period. According to the survey, by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan, China’s higher education gross enrollment rate has reached 51.6% and entered the stage of popularization; the average length of education of the newly added labor force reached 13.7 years, but the average length of education of the national workingage population is 10.7 years. But restricted by education level and economic income, many people’s idea of lifelong learning is weak; learning motivation is not obvious, for example think learning is just a teenager, the purpose is once and for all just to pass the exam for the purpose of studying diploma or obtaining a certificate. In modern society, the rapid changes in the degree of recognition and participation are low, especially for the elderly. The vulnerable groups such as patients with diseases and people in remote rural areas have low demand for lifelong learning and low expectations. Taking education for the elderly as an example, the participation rate of the elderly over 60 years old in China is only 3.3%, which is not optimistic compared with the total elderly population in China. Therefore, there are challenges and problems in practicing the concept of sustainable development of lifelong education (Du, 2017; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021, 2022a, 2022b, 2022c; Xue & Li, 2022; Yang, 2018; Zhou, 2006).

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6.4.1 The Allocation and Quality of Resources Need to Be Improved First, there are regional differences in resource coverage. The imbalance of resource distribution is one of the important factors affecting the development of lifelong education. China has a vast territory, but the regional development is very uneven. The types and quantity of high-quality lifelong education resources are unevenly distributed in the country, and there are regional differences. In particular, the vast rural areas, border areas, ethnic minority areas and special groups have limited access to appropriate learning resources. In the central and western regions, the inclusive resources of preschool education are insufficient. According to incomplete statistics from the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education, many towns and townships in China have not built kindergartens yet, and even the number of local primary schools in some rural areas is very small. But in some cities, there are almost several kindergartens around the place where you live, and it is the kind of kindergarten with very good configuration conditions. In addition, in cities, education for the elderly can be carried out through universities for the elderly, various schools for the elderly, community activities and associations for the elderly, while in rural areas, due to a wide geographical area, scattered villages and difficult concentration of personnel, the situation of low coverage of education resources for the elderly is formed. The information-based teaching mode realizes the cross-regional sharing of educational resources, but the construction of educational information-based infrastructure in poor areas is obviously weaker than that in developed areas. In poor area, the school network and teaching environment construction lag, and the security of transportation equipment and insufficient transportation maintenance technicians cannot be guaranteed. Besides remote areas and deep remote parts of the school lacking Unicom Internet by the time of the COVID-19 outbreak and the national implementation of online education, the students in remote villages have to proceed toward the hillside to take online classes because of absence Internet availability in their residence. Secondly, the quality of resources needs to be improved. China has entered the stage of high-quality development; the pursuit of education quality has become the top priority of all levels of education development. Lifelong education covers more and more areas, including preschool education, school education, adult education, education for the elderly, enterprise education, community education, family education and other forms of education, but compared with school education, the teaching quality of non-academic education teaching links just get little attention, lack of quality control mechanism. Before the outbreak, “Internet + education” teaching model has been extensively used in the large primary and secondary schools; but outside of school education, in addition to the national Open University, social education, aging education, community education and lifelong education institutions, digital resources’ accumulation and online teaching modes are relatively weak. After the normalization of outbreak, although the offline teaching is still a main form, but in the outbreak era, the quantity and quality of digital resources of the lifelong education need to be further enriched and improved, and the ability of push pertinence

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and online teaching support services need to be further explored and strengthened. In the “Internet + ” environment, the construction of high-quality lifelong learning resources cannot meet the needs of learners (Du, 2017; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021, 2022a, 2022b, 2022c; Xue & Li, 2022; Yang, 2018; Zhou, 2006).

6.4.2 The System and Mechanism Are Not Perfect Enough At present, China has not issued national laws and regulations on lifelong education. At the provincial and municipal level, except Fujian, Shanghai, Hebei, Taiyuan and Ningbo, which have promulgated local laws and regulations on lifelong education, other provinces and cities lack legislation on special lifelong education and its sustainable development. In the field of lifelong education, a complete set of policy system has not been formed, and there is no clear goal and direction of the development of the lifelong education, resource supply, institutions, faculty construction and funds investment. Policy guarantee does not reach the designated position, causing physical education agencies at various levels in the process of running school face difficulties in facilities, funds, teaching and so on, and it also brings great problems to the sustainable development of lifelong education. At present, China’s lifelong education system has not been established yet. Lifelong education system is a huge and complex social system engineering. It covers all levels of education and plays an important role in the development of China’s education level. Although the basic framework of China’s lifelong education system is relatively complete at present, there are still problems between education levels or types, and the lifelong education system to promote the connection and communication between different levels of education has not been completed.

6.4.3 Lifelong Learning Is Faced with the Difficulty of Insufficient Motivation in Learning In today’s information age, people generally feel the necessity of lifelong learning, but in Chinese society, people generally feel the lack of motivation to learn; first of all, people do not know what to learn, and do not know how to learn, so that lifelong learning shows a double mentality. On the one hand, people have realized that lifelong learning society has advanced, and without learning one cannot keep up with the changes of The Times, so lifelong learning is not only necessary, but also urgent. But on the other hand, people feel that they have not experienced the joy of learning, as if all learning is forced, which is not the result of their own active choice. So they cannot be sincerely engaged in learning. In this way, people regard learning as a burden rather than an enjoyment, and thus can’t truly engage in the era of lifelong learning. Instead, they regard lifelong learning as a lifelong burden. Therefore, it is

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impossible to really stimulate the initiative of learning. Realistically speaking, this situation is understandable, because most of people’s daily learning methods are passive, even forced, rather than active, because learning cannot be combined with their own interests, so learning only has utilitarian value or instrumental value. To some extent, lifelong learning is an active learning process, in which you need to constantly think, explore and be curious, otherwise the initiative would be difficult to achieve. Whether it’s in the near term or in the long term, one should slowly cultivate self-improvement, and refine and improve oneself in the process so that one can get more out of it. Not only in the short term, medium term or long term, the gains may not be realized at first, but over time they will add up to big gains.

6.4.4 Learning Initiative Depends on Respect for Personality Comparatively speaking, in the Western cultural circle, school education attaches more importance to the cultivation of self-consciousness of learning, so they attach great importance to the cultivation of interest in learning. The pressure intensity of curriculum in primary and secondary schools in western society is relatively low, which is easy for students to bear. Students can experience the transformation of learning from a game behavior to a conscious behavior. Influenced by the legal system, especially the cultural tradition, the awareness of civil rights in western society is generally relatively strong, and teachers generally no longer play a traditional role of authority. In the teaching process, teaching democracy is widely advocated, and students’ rights are respected, especially their individuality. Therefore, teachers seldom put forward mandatory requirements for students, which virtually forms a protection mechanism for students’ interests. However, most teachers realize that their main role is to cultivate and guide students’ interest in learning, so that it is easier for students to form a conscious belief in learning. As schools and teachers do not put forward too many compulsory requirements for students, nor do they take too many compulsory training measures, students’ inquiring nature has been more protected. Comparatively speaking, western primary and secondary school students have less basic knowledge and basic skills training, so they have a relatively lack of basic knowledge and skills. However, their interest in learning or inquiry is well protected, and there is less rebellious psychology to learning, so their initiative in learning is maintained. This potential is brought into full play after high school, and this potential can continue, and many important scientific inventions can be made in the end. On the contrary, in eastern education, high-intensity education training and exam-oriented education make people form the behavior and psychology of utilitarian learning. Learning is all about purpose, not love of learning. Therefore, in educational activities, we should realize that we should cultivate students’ inner motivation for learning. The key to cultivating interest in learning is to respect students’ personality, so that students can take the initiative to learn and be interested in learning (Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021, 2022a, 2022b, 2022c; Xue & Li, 2022).

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6.4.5 Insufficient Investment in Lifelong Education First, China’s educational investment is seriously inadequate. There are many factors that restrict the development of education in our country. Compared with foreign countries, the proportion of education expenditure in GDP in China is very low. If education is to develop well, it must be supported by funds. Our per capita expenditure on education is very low. According to the survey, China’s per capita education expenditure (including all input education expenditure) is slightly higher than the level of underdeveloped countries, much lower than the level of developing countries, far from the level of developed countries. In addition, there are still some problems in China, such as unreasonable allocation structure of education funds, unreasonable investment of education funds at all levels and of various types, regional differences in investment of education funds and low efficiency in the use of education funds. Lifelong education has a wide coverage and requires a lot of financial and material resources. Therefore, the state should seriously consider the investment in education funds to ensure the sustainable development of lifelong education. Secondly, libraries are not popular enough and books are not rich enough. According to the survey, China’s public libraries have only 400 million books, 0.3 books per person, far lower than the standard of 2 books per person of IFLA. Public libraries across the country spend less than 0.3 yuan per person on book purchase each year. An average of 459,000 people in China own a public library, far below the international standard of 20,000. In China, there are no libraries in many places, and if there are libraries, there are not enough books. In my opinion, the country can set up some small libraries in the countryside, so that those farmers who want to study but are not willing to spend money on books can see the books they want to read. In addition, the concept of sustainable development of lifelong education should be gradually penetrated to let people know the meaning of lifelong education. Through reading books or preaching activities, people’s concept of lifelong learning should be improved, and people should learn consciously and actively. In short, for a country with a large population, China’s lifelong education facilities are lagging, which is the problem faced by China’s lifelong education.

6.4.6 The Institutional Problems Facing the Development of Out-of-School Education Have Long Been Unsolved People’s life is very long, but the time to study in school is short. People are social people. They will learn some extra knowledge for various reasons to enrich themselves, and to have a better job in future. The society is complex, which is why there are other forms of education besides formal schools, such as vocational skills training, community education, leisure education and other forms of after-school education. The development of these forms of education objectively greatly promotes the development of lifelong education system. The out-of-school education satisfies people’s

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individual needs for education and is beneficial to the sustainable development of lifelong education. The utilization and integration of off-campus educational resources is the key to the success of lifelong education system. But at present, China does not pay enough attention to after-school education, and there are some problems in policies and systems. If the state and government do not pay attention to it, it will affect the development of after-school education, and then affect the implementation of the sustainable development of lifelong education. In this sense, the construction of lifelong education system needs a lot of people, financial and material support from governments at all levels, and it needs to integrate the current prosperous afterschool education system, solve the institutional dilemma through legislation, and strengthen the institutional and policy guarantee. Changing ideas is the forerunner of promoting reform and development. To construct the concept of lifelong education, it must be clear that lifelong education is a great event for every member of a country. All members of society should break through the narrow understanding of one-off education and consciously continue to learn and receive education throughout their lives. Lifelong education is not only the national will, government behavior, but also social behavior and civic behavior. The construction and implementation of lifelong education concept is a long-term process. At present, China’s economy, culture, science and technology, education and other development of regional differences, education popularization and higher education popularity are extremely unbalanced. The implementation of lifelong education system in China should be a phased and step-by-step process. The construction of lifelong education ideology and educational concept must change the traditional concept of single school education and teaching mode and establish a grand education concept that faces the whole life, the whole people and the whole society. From the educational administrative departments at all levels to all educational practitioners and theoretical workers, we must establish the great educational concept associated with modern science and technology and economic development, establish the concept of lifelong education and build a lifelong education system (Du, 2017; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021; 2022a, 2022b, 2022c; Xue & Li, 2022; Yang, 2018; Zhou, 2006).

6.5 Suggestions 6.5.1 Strengthen the Publicity of Lifelong Education Lifelong education is a new educational idea, which is the most profound and thorough reform of traditional education. In fact, the establishment of lifelong education system is a revolution of education concept. It is necessary to fundamentally change the traditional concept of one-time education and lifelong education and improve the whole society’s understanding of lifelong education. To this end, we should mobilize the public through various channels, especially through newspapers, radio, television and other mass media. The meaning and significance of lifelong education should

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be widely publicized, and the guidance of public opinion should be strengthened, so that all members of the society should establish the concept of lifelong education, and the atmosphere of advocating lifelong learning should be formed in the whole society. This is the premise of establishing lifelong education system, and also one of the measurement standards of learning society. Without the renewal of educational concept, it is impossible to realize lifelong education in the real sense.

6.5.2 Strengthen Theoretical Research on Lifelong Education At present, there is still a considerable gap between the research on lifelong education theory in China and that of foreign countries. There is still no national lifelong education research institution or group in China, and there is still a lack of overall and in-depth research on how to use the concept of lifelong education to better guide the practice of education reform in China. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the theoretical research of lifelong education, and study the emergence, development and practice of lifelong education in developed countries. This paper mainly discusses the status, function and mission of all levels of education in the lifelong education system suitable for China’s national conditions. At the same time, we should summarize the effective experience accumulated in practice from the height of theory, select some provinces and cities as the pilot and carry out lifelong education action research and practice. Theory guides practice, withstands the test in practice and constantly improves. Only if there is a breakthrough in theory, can we avoid detours in practice.

6.5.3 Establish and Improve the Guaranteed Mechanism for Lifelong Education The establishment of lifelong education guarantee mechanism should achieve such an effect: firstly, let people feel “I want to learn”, then stimulate their autonomy and upgrade to the realm of “I want to learn”, then provide an educational environment and conditions for “you to learn” and finally achieve the ultimate goal of “learning well”. And this process for every member of society is a cycle, accompanied by a lifetime. The legislation and law enforcement of lifelong education is one of the key factors to construct lifelong education system. From the practice of lifelong education abroad, many developed countries such as Japan, the United States and so on have formulated the lifelong education law accordingly, which has made systematic provisions on the status, function and implementation way of lifelong education, thus promoting the development of their own lifelong education. These laws and regulations make the implementation of lifelong education have laws to follow and greatly speed up the pace of the construction of lifelong education system

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in various countries. Although China has clearly put forward the goal of establishing lifelong education in the education law and various important policies of the central government, the strength is not enough. In general, relevant policies and regulations have not been matched and effective measures are lacking. The special historical origins and realistic differences of the social development in different parts of China determine that there are great differences in the society, economy and culture in different parts of China, so it is unrealistic to establish a lifelong education system with uniform standards. Therefore, we can take the lead in establishing local lifelong education laws and regulations suitable for local development to standardize and promote the perfection and development of local lifelong education. This has two advantages: first, it is conducive to promote the establishment and development of lifelong education system as soon as possible in the regions where conditions are available and promote the development of local economy and society; second, it is conducive to formulate lifelong education laws and regulations for other regions and the whole country, provide experience and borrow, so as to avoid determents and unnecessary waste in other regions (Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021).

6.5.4 Revise and Supplement Existing Laws and Regulations The implementation of lifelong education and the construction of lifelong education system must be adapted to the national development goals, policies and regulations, that is to say, the state should standardize, constrain and guide the development of lifelong education from the height of strategic development. It is a fundamental strategic measure to achieve this goal that the state should formulate a law of lifelong education which is widely applicable and has an overall and guiding role. With the practice of lifelong education advancing, we should put some mature and standardized practices that can stand the test of practice into law, at the same time, draw lessons from foreign advanced practices and formulate lifelong education laws and regulations suitable for China’s national conditions, so that our country’s lifelong education really do have laws to rely on.

6.5.5 Establish a Reasonably Structured, Flexible and Open Education System The construction of lifelong education system is closely linked with the development of education, education must reach a certain level, and modern distance education network needs to be formulated, to lay a solid educational foundation for the implementation of lifelong education. The system of combining pre-service education with on-the-job training, promoting both academic education and non-academic

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training, and paying equal attention to academic certificates and qualification certificates, should be implemented. Efforts should be made to build and form a modern educational structure system including school education, enterprise education, social education and network education. The basic evaluation of the development trend of compulsory education in China during the tenth Five-Year Plan period is that the expansion of quantity is still the main factor, and the improvement of quality is the main factor. The implementation of “nine-year universal education” will directly affect the construction of lifelong education system. Therefore, the following measures are suggested to improve the popularity of nine-year compulsory education in view of the current situation. First, in the name of the CPC Central Committee and The State Council, we should prepare and issue documents to re-establish universal nine-year compulsory education as the eternal priority of education. Second, it is suggested that education surcharge and village education fund-raising should be distinguished in the reform of taxes and fees, and education surcharge should be changed into education surcharge, which should be stored separately and used exclusively for education. Third, it is suggested to establish a national review system of “nine-year universal education” and strengthen quantitative evaluation in education supervision and inspection. From the perspective of internal conditions, the demand for talents in all sectors of society has changed with the change of The Times. What the society needs most now is no longer those who can read, but those with strong professional skills and high comprehensive quality. Only those who become more outstanding and outstanding in a certain field can avoid being replaced by advanced science and technology. In addition, with the progress of society, people are constantly updating their cognition. For education, people are not only satisfied with graduation, but more important is to acquire real practical knowledge, rather than fixed answer templates (Du, 2017; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021, 2022a, 2022b, 2022c; Xue & Li, 2022; Yang, 2018; Zhou, 2006). Externally, developed countries have carried out a series of lifelong education reforms, such as “people-oriented” Education in Germany, “adult education” based education in Britain, “pluralistic” education in the United States and so on. By studying the education of developed countries, we should constantly absorb excellent experience and improve our own shortcomings. Since the concept of “lifelong education” was first proposed in 1993, China has issued many relevant policy documents to advocate the development of lifelong education. However, the development situation of lifelong education is not optimistic in the past twenty years, and it still needs to be improved. It is a complex and systematic project to build a learning society in which everyone can receive lifelong education. In future, lifelong education research will be more systematic and deep, with diverse research perspectives and wider research scope. The government and academia need to work together to break through the traditional thinking of education reform. On the one hand, workers and researchers should timely investigate the actual educational problems and reveal the status quo and problems of China’s learning-oriented society with scientific empirical research. The promulgation of policies and legislation must refer to the research results of experts and scholars so as to attract researchers to actively participate in and carry out in-depth research on major issues in the practice of lifelong education. On the

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other hand, we must attach importance to the comprehensive research of lifelong education in the theoretical level. Because the basic theory research is more comprehensive, fundamental, dynamic, dialysis and direction, which could leave impact on other members of the concept and thinking methods to promote them to make new creation in their own practice to play a role. “Strengthening the basic theory of lifelong education is the fundamental guarantee for realizing a learning-oriented society.” The learning-oriented society is a learner-centered society based on the lifelong education system in which everyone can learn for life. In a learning society, learners’ basic learning rights can be guaranteed, educational opportunities can be fairly provided, learning barriers can be reasonably removed, and lifelong education system can be properly established. The purpose of building a learning society is always to provide people with a learning environment and everywhere, and to form a “learning individual, learning family, learning organization, learning community, learning government and learning network”. With the popularization of radio, television, computer and Internet, people can choose and learn independently. Now learning is becoming a new fashion, the law will guarantee the fundamental rights of individual learning, and the governments at all levels also provide quite a number of resources for the public to study, longing to meet the public’s learning need, so as to achieve “everyone is learning, everywhere is the place of learning, always is the machine of learning, learning content is everything” the learning society, but also to form a lifelong education system that we look forward to. The lifelong education system is based on a certain objective reality, which requires a great development of education in schools of all levels and types in our country. We will make every effort to make nine-year compulsory education universal, develop senior secondary education, vigorously develop vocational education and continue to expand the enrollment of institutions of higher learning. In 2005, the enrollment rate of school-age children in primary schools reached 99.15%, including 99.16% for boys and 99.14% for girls. The gross enrollment rate of junior middle school is 95%; there were 40.3 million students in senior high schools (including regular senior high schools, vocational high schools, regular specialized secondary schools, technical schools, adult schools and adult specialized secondary schools), with a gross enrollment rate of 52.7%. The total number of higher education institutions in China exceeded 23 million, and the gross enrollment rate of higher education reached 21%. According to the educational plan of our country, the educational cause of our country will be further developed in the next 10 years. According to statistics, the illiteracy rate among the young and middle-aged between the ages of 15 and 50 was 20.56% in 1982, 10.38% in 1990, 6.14% in 1995 and below 4.8% at present, fulfilling China’s goal and commitment of declaring to the world that the number of illiterate young and middle-aged people would be reduced to less than 5% by 2001. According to the Achievements and Prospects of Literacy Education in China, China has formulated a general goal and strategy for the development of literacy education: by 2015, the adult illiterate population will be reduced by more than half, and the total adult illiterate population will be reduced to less than 40 million. By around 2015, China will make nine-year compulsory education universally available, and the coverage rate of the

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nine-year compulsory education will reach nearly 100% of the population. The gross enrollment rate of senior high schools will reach about 80%. The scale of secondary vocational education will be roughly the same as that of ordinary senior high schools, and the gross enrollment rate of higher education will reach 25%. In this way, lifelong education in our country will make phased progress. Extramural education refers to education outside the school, which can be roughly divided into family education, adult education and social education. School education is certainly an indispensable part, but various forms of out-of-school education also play a very important role in the improvement of individual’s comprehensive quality. For a long time, school education has played an unshakable important role in the whole education system, but the development of out-of-school education has been neglected. For example, in terms of social education, although social education has made certain development since the reform and opening up, it has not been guaranteed by legislation and has not been formally incorporated into the national education system. There are also many loopholes in the implementation process, such as no training methods, no professional title representatives and no post restrictions. Therefore, in the development of modern education, single school education more and more cannot satisfy the requirement of the social from all walks of life to education quality, and it is necessary to promote the development of school education, improve relevant laws and regulations of the education system, and develop school education comprehensively and professionally; let people really set up the correct concept of “learning is not only in the school”, only in this way can students truly benefit, the concept of lifelong education be truly implemented and a learning-oriented society be built. All in all, the future of China’s social transformation and education needs to change “event horizon” of lifelong education; if not out of China, the Chinese society will spend a longer time to step into the stage of realization of human all-round development. We hope that with the adult education field, more and more researchers pay attention to lifelong education, lifelong education-based look at education, deepen the life education theory research together, make the lifelong education theory research out of the initial stage of adult education as soon as possible and then create the lifelong education under the guidance of the theory of comprehensive education reform practice (Du, 2017; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021, 2022a, 2022b, 2022c; Xue & Li, 2022; Yang, 2018; Zhou, 2006).

6.6 Summary Since the formation of modern lifelong education in the 1960s, the idea of modern lifelong education has been widely valued and promoted in the world, and China is no exception. At the end of 1970s, the idea of lifelong education was introduced into our country. This great historical event not only conforms to the world trend, but also meets the needs brought by the change of domestic social and economic environment, which has brought great influence to all sectors of our society. It has

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been more than 30 years since the modern lifelong education thought was introduced into China. The thought of lifelong education has gradually entered the study and life of ordinary citizens from the theoretical level, and moved from the educational decision-making level of the state to the construction of local and community learning society. The thought of lifelong education has a great and far-reaching influence on the reform and development of China’s education, especially adult education, which marks that the practice of lifelong education and learning has entered a new stage. With the deepening of the theoretical research on lifelong education and the localization, policy and systematization of lifelong education, the theory of lifelong education will become one of the important guiding principles for the development and reform of education at all levels in China, and the thought of lifelong education is constantly developing and improving. Sustainable development fully embodies the spirit of the scientific outlook on development and is an important guideline for China’s economic and social development. Schooling is key to achieving awareness of environmental theory, changing values and behavior, improving skills and ensuring informed public participation in decision-making. Therefore, school education should establish a new concept of education and pay equal attention to the new design, which is an extremely important concept of contemporary education development, and it is related to the sustainable development of education which can achieve a breakthrough. It is related to the success or failure of education and human destiny in the twenty-first century. The proposal of sustainable development has brought unprecedented impact to school education, which is both an opportunity and a challenge. The fundamental purpose of sustainable development education in schools is to make the educated form sustainable development ideas reconstruct their ethics and values in line with sustainable development. To improve the cognitive level, learning ability and basic ability of participating in regional and global sustainable development activities of the educated and develop sustainable life skills, sustainable development education aims to make every educator become a sustainable person with sustainable development awareness and ability on the one hand and through their influence on the thoughts and behaviors of people around them arouse the whole society’s sense of survival crisis and responsibility for sustainable development on the other hand. It is essential to improve the overall quality of permanent residents in the region, and further promote the sustainable development of regional, social economy and ecological environment. At present, in the popularization stage of higher education, the overall development of higher education community in China is in an ecological imbalance, which cannot effectively meet the needs of economic and social development and the learning needs of adult learners. At the same time, the continuing education opportunities of human resources in different regions of China continue, and the gap of educational resources is large, which leads to the unbalanced regional development of school-running communities and slows down the advance of higher education reform. As the popularization of higher education is approaching, China’s higher education will gradually enter the development stage of integration and unification. Opportunities and challenges coexist in the development of higher education in China. With the rapid change of domestic and foreign environment and the promotion of universalization of higher education, it has evolved. Solving the

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contradiction between supply and demand is the direct driving force of the development of higher education, and the succession led by education policy is the main way of the evolution of higher education. Enhancing the ability of sustainable development is the goal of higher education. In the new period, the main reform task of higher education in China is to improve quality, promote fairness, improve environment and optimize structure. According to the opportunities and challenges facing the development of higher education, the following suggestions are put forward for the reform and development of higher education in China. (1) Improve the autonomy of all provinces and cities in running schools, and carry out differentiated reform through regional promotion. (2) Define the ecological niche of the whole system and establish a scale ecological niche based on the teacher-student ratio in the input link of students. Thirdly, it includes implementing sustainable development strategy, adhering to the concept of sustainable development, applying sustainable development model and constantly improving the sustainable development ability of higher education (Du, 2017; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021, 2022a, 2022b, 2022c; Xue & Li, 2022; Yang, 2018; Zhou, 2006).

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