First, priority was given to improving compulsory education in rural areas and the Breakthrough Program of the "Two Basics" in Western China was carried out down-to-earth. While implementing the Decisions of the State Council on Further Improving Education in Rural Areas, governments and education authority at all levels held rural compulsory education as top priority in the all education affairs, as strategic priority in execution of the new Action Plan of The Invigoration of Education. The requirement of the Central Government on investing the majority of the increased education funds in rural education was employed earnestly. Main efforts and more financial resources were pooled to advance development of rural compulsory education. The relevant departments of the Central Government put forward a series of important policies and measures to support development of rural education, such as further perfecting the county-based rural compulsory education administration system and further increasing financial input in rural compulsory education. In 2004, all earmarked funds of the Central Government's input in rural compulsory education reached 10 billion RMB yuan, an increase of 72 percent over 2003. Governments and education authority at all local levels coordinated all efforts in improving rural compulsory education.
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In February 2004, the General Office of the State Council convened a national conference on Breakthrough of the "Two Basics" in Western China. The State Commission of Development and Reform, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Education cooperated closely and established a work mechanism. In July 2004, the Central Government signed an accountability agreement on breakthrough of the "Two Basics" individually with the People's Government of the 12 western provinces (autonomous regions and municipality) and the Production and Construction Corps of the People's Liberation Army in Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region, and kicked off at the same time the Project of Building Rural Boarding Schools. The central finance will invest 10 billion RMB yuan into this project to build 7,730 boarding schools for 2.03 millions students in 955 counties of the country (the majority in western and poverty-stricken areas) in the following four years. In the future, students in these areas will no longer walk a long way or tramp over hill and dale every day to school. They will be able to study in spacious and well-lit classrooms and stay in safe and comfortable dormitories.

The Modern Distance Education Project for Rural Schools entered into full-scale implementation after accomplishment of the pilot stage, with the purpose of constructing a modern distance education network covering all rural schools in the whole country. The central finance will invest 5 billion RMB yuan to subsidize mainly the central and western rural areas. This project aims at student application, will equip rural junior secondary school with a basic computer laboratory, rural primary school with a set of basic satellite receiving facility, and rural teaching site of primary school with a basic VCD player and a complete set of VCD teaching materials.

In addition, the second phase of the State Compulsory Education Project in Poor Areas and the Renovation Project of Dilapidated Buildings in Primary and Secondary Schools continued to be carried out. Both projects have helped building a number of well-equipped primary and secondary schools in poor and minority-inhabited areas, and have promoted change of relatively underdeveloped situation of education in these areas.

Second, the ideological and moral education of the adolescents has been strengthened. After issuance of the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Further Enhancing and Improving Ideological and Moral Education of the Minors and the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Further Enhancing and Improving Ideological and Political Education of College Students, a grand discussion on educational ideology was launched involving cadres and teachers of the country's education system; a month-long campaign of educating and carrying forward national ethos in elementary and secondary schools was carried out extensively; the Rules and Regulations of School Students and the Code of Everyday Behaviors of School Students were revised promptly. All these efforts have given full play of schools as main channel, main front and main classroom for ideological and moral education of the minors. For the purpose of promoting a healthy growth of young students and thoroughly implementing the CPC's guiding principle for education, the five requirements on alleviating too heavy homework burden of students under the new situation were put into practice conscientiously in the whole country. Great efforts were also made to carry out the piloting of new compulsory education curriculum, to promote competence-oriented education, and to facilitate an all-rounded growth of students morally, intellectually, physically and aesthetically. Up to now, new school students of compulsory education in 90 percent of the counties in the country began to use the new curriculum. In January 2005, the CPC Central Committee convened the National Conference on Further Enhancing and Improving Ideological and Political Education of College Students, which mapped out the action plan for the next stage. Higher education institutions have all launched new efforts in this regard.

Third, the teaching quality of higher education institutions has been improved progressively; continuous progress has been achieved in construction of high-level universities, key subject areas and training of advanced-level talents; higher education developed unremittingly, steadily and healthily. In 2004, higher education institutions of the country enrolled 4.473 million freshmen, an increase of 17.5 percent over the previous year; graduate programs enrolled 326,000 new students, an increase of 57,000 over 2003. At present, the total enrolment of higher education is more than 20 million, and the gross enrollment rate reached 19 percent. In the meanwhile, the career service of college graduates has been improved. By September 1, 2004, the employment rate of college graduates of the whole country reached 73 percent, a 3 percentage higher than that of the same time of 2003.

Fourth, vocational education has seen accelerated development as well as reforms, and improved capability in serving the economic growth and social development. By persisting in service-aiming and job-oriented guiding principle, vocational schools at all levels and in all localities put into practice vigorously the Project of Training Direly-needed Skilled Manpower for Manufacturing and Modern Service Industries and the Project of Training for Migrant Rural Labor, strengthened cooperation with enterprises and the labor market. Actions were also taken to further improve resource deployment and distribution structure of vocational schools, and to deepen reforms of administrative and schooling systems. A good momentum is obtained. In 2004, the secondary vocational education schools enrolled 5.48 million new students with the total enrollment reaching 136.8 million. The tertiary vocational education colleges enrolled a total of 5.957 million students, over 1 million more than that of previous year.

Fifth, great efforts were made to improve educational provision meeting the satisfaction to the people; high priority was attached to meeting special learning and living needs of students from poor families and issues of people's concern. In autumn of 2004, the central finance earmarked funds to provide free textbooks for 24 million students of compulsory education from poor families in the central and western region. Governments at all local levels adopted measures in executing the policy of "Two Exemptions and One Subsidy". All these efforts have enabled more children to feel the special care of the CPC and the government and the warmth of the grand socialist family. Actions were taken to implement the decisions made in the National TV and Telephone Conference on Subsidizing College Students from Poor Families, such as further improving the policy system of the National Student Loan Program, providing National Scholarships to excellent students from poor families, carrying out the policy of investing 10 percent of university tuition revenue in subsidizing students from poor families, so as to make sure that no student drops out because of financial difficulty of the family. In order to consolidate and further the achievements of rectifying the random charges by schools, starting from the autumn of 2004, the "One Fee for All" was put into practice vigorously in compulsory education all over China to control and regulate strictly collection of fee by schools, to really alleviate the people's, especially the farmer's, burden for education and carry out the responsibility of the government in provision of compulsory education, and to promote a healthy and sustained development of compulsory education in the country. In the meanwhile, a special rectifying campaign was conducted to improve security of schools and kindergartens with efforts made to screen the hidden security issues within the campus, to further refine the surroundings of the campus and network environment, so as to create favorable conditions for healthy growth of young students.

The year 2005 is an important year for China to march toward the lofty goal of building a well-off society in an all-rounded manner. To make the work in education conducive to the accomplishment of the goal, the most important thing for us is to undertake our work in scientific viewpoints of development. We will firmly establish and seriously implement the scientific viewpoints of development, stick to the guidelines of "consolidating, deepening, upgrading and developing", place quality improvement at a more conspicuous and important position, further push forward the implementation of the Action Plan for the Invigoration of Education in 2003-2007, aim for a balanced development of scale, quality, structure and efficiency of education, of various types of education at all levels, of education between rural and urban areas as well as among different regions in the country, coordinate the reform, development and stability of education, concretely grasp new opportunities for development, make special efforts to put forward reform and innovation, so as to promote a full-scale, coordinated and sustained development of education. We will spare no efforts to improve educational provision meeting satisfaction of the people. To this end, we will work on the following 6 priorities this year:

I. Stick to the principle of "cultivating the whole person as the ultimate goal, putting moral education as first priority", put competence-oriented education into operation in full scale.

It is one of the priorities in the year 2005 to enhance and improve the ideological and moral education of school students, and the ideological and political education of college students. At the strategic height of cultivating socialist builders and successors through education, we will fully implement the CPC guidelines for education, accelerate the establishment and betterment of a moral education system that connects schools and colleges, perfecting a moral education mechanism that links the school, family and the community so that the competence-oriented education could be further pushed forward.

Education authorities and leadership of schools at various levels should be exemplary in moral education endeavors and truly realize the "four incorporation": first, moral education should be incorporated into the agenda of educational authority at all levels to further consolidate leadership; second, it should be incorporated in all works of schools to perfect the mechanism for moral education, maintain a contingent of moral educators and guarantee the funding for moral education; third, it should be incorporated in the teachers to vigorously strengthen a contingent of chief teachers in schools and counselor in colleges, so that moral education becomes a self-conscious actions of all teachers; fourth, it should also be incorporated in the curriculum and textbooks, with compilation of a series of quality textbooks for moral and political education with concentrated efforts.

The curriculum reform in basic education is a critical link to pushing forward the competence-oriented education. We will continue to disseminate the achievements of curriculum reform in compulsory education, steadily push forward curriculum reform experiments in senior secondary schools, and truly alleviate the burden of school students. In these respects, three aspects of work stand out to be our focuses: first is to seriously study the ways to shift smoothly from the old curriculum to the new one, and find out a solution to conduct the senior secondary school entrance examinations and college entrance examinations based on the new curriculum; second is to improve and better the compilation, assessment and adoption of textbooks; third is to institute a quality monitoring system and evaluation mechanism for basic education as soon as possible. To further accelerate the curriculum reform in basic education, the Ministry of Education will commission a national steering committee for education and instruction in basic education.

To advocate the all-rounded development and healthy growth of young students, we will fully push forward a youth fitness program based on "one-hour physical exercise a day". At the same time, we will continue to strengthen arts education, advocate mental health education and extensively conduct anti-drug programs and programs aimed at the prevention of AIDS.

II. Consistently place rural education as the top priority

The strengthening of rural education is a long and arduous historic task. In 2005, we need to press forward in three aspects:

First, to exert more efforts in realization of the "Two Basics," ensure implementation of the measures stipulated in the Breakthrough Program of the "Two Basics" in Western China, guarantee funds for construction projects such as building boarding schools, coordinate the implementation of the Modern Distance Education Project for Rural Schools. Taking advantage of the measures such as Grant for Subsidy to give more support to the central region, especially the main grain-producing areas, so that the provinces in this region will provide more support to education, strengthen the quality improvement of compulsory education. Encouragement will be made to the economically developed eastern provinces to achieve a high-quality, high-level nine-year compulsory education.

Second, to adapt to the taxation reform in the rural areas and deepen the reform in the county-based rural compulsory education administration system. Efforts will be made to supervise the county government fulfill its responsibility in development planning, funds allocation and the personnel management of school principals and teachers. The method of fiscal payment transfer will be further improved and regulated to meet the requirements of "guarantee salary, operation and security," and to consolidate and improve a fund guarantee mechanism for rural compulsory education with government input as the main source. Acceleration will be achieved in the comprehensive reform of rural education to push forward "Coordination of three educations," the blending of agriculture, science and education and to make rural education better serve the countryside, agriculture and farmers.

Third, to actually strengthen the construction of a contingent of teachers for the rural areas. Local governments will be urged to make full use of the teaching positions with a strict entrance screening process, to further better the assessment and contractual assignment system for teachers in the rural areas. Endeavors will be made to actively push forward the personnel management reform in schools, rotating teachers in towns and cities to teach in rural areas to promote teacher mobility, and to implement training programs for all teachers to further improve the qualifications of rural teachers. And of course we should also rigorously strengthen the program for the improvement of teachers' ethics.

III. Advance the reform and development of vocational education in an all-round and speedy manner

Currently, as the national economy is at the threshold of another phase of rapid growth, it poses even greater demand on skilled manpower. In 2005, on one hand, we will increase the annual enrolment of new students of secondary vocational schools by another 1 million based on the 2004 figure, that is to reach 6.5 million, so as to achieve a coordinated development of senior secondary education featuring approximately equal numbers of students in senior secondary schools for general education and for vocational training. On the other hand, we must continue to enforce the Project of Training Direly-needed Skilled Manpower for Manufacturing and Modern Service Industries and the Project of Training for Migrant Rural Labor, commit more to the building of internship bases for vocational education, and support the building of at least one vocational training center in every county.

The solution to vocational education lies in reform. We will persist in service-aiming and job-orientation, so as to make vocational education more adaptable to the economy and society. In doing so, we must first step up the "three changes," that is, change our mindset of the functions of vocational schools and further clarify their positioning and orientation; change from the traditional modes of running vocational schools to a tailored one so as to better adapt to the economic and social development; and change the provision of vocational education to more open and flexible approaches. Second, we must lay more emphasis on both career ethics and skills in vocational education and quicken our paces in establishing the system of on-campus and corporate internship. Third, we must carry out the "two-dockings," that is, the docking of vocational education and training with the job market for the purpose of integrating production and learning and the smooth communication between vocational education and intermediately services, and the docking of labor-exporting areas and labor-importing areas.

A number of important strategic measures will be also formulated to speed up reform and development of vocational education. We will persist in the policies of no public secondary vocational school and tertiary vocational college being upgraded to higher level of status; tertiary vocational college offering two-year programs; encouraging urban schools to enroll students in the countryside and schools in the east to enroll students from the west and cross-region two-way cooperation and joint-running of schools; supporting and promoting reform in the introduction of academic credits system and speeding up the establishment of the "credit banks" for students to facilitate the easy transfer between work and study; promote development of non-government vocational schools and training institutions.

IV. Improve the quality of talents training, capability in technological innovation, and level of social service of higher education.

In 2005, the general higher education will enroll 4.75 million freshmen for bachelor and sub-degree programs, 370,000 students for graduate programs including 316,000 master degree candidates and 54,000 doctoral degree candidates. Higher education will continue to acquire support by rendering service and maintain development by making contributions, concert efforts in promoting reform and innovation to do a better job in talents training, technological innovation and social service. We will achieve this by focusing on the following four aspects:

First, we will further push forward the Project of Higher Education Quality and Teaching Reform to strengthen classroom instruction, to substantially raise the quality of education. Rules and regulations regarding teaching must be strictly abided by. Full professors and associate professors must offer lessons to undergraduate students. We will further promote the accumulation and sharing of quality teaching resources by focusing on compiling 300 national level model courses. Investment in teaching will also be further strengthened and it is required that 20 percent of tuition fees will be used in instruction. The five-year rotating quality assessment will be implemented so as to build a sound quality supervision and assurance system. We must also do a good job in selecting the awardees of the Fifth National Excellent Teachers.

Second, we will continue to implement the "985 Project" and the "211 Project," further carry out the University Technological Innovation Plan and the University Philosophical and Social Sciences Prosperity Plan, so as to promote the integration of production, learning, and research; to facilitate integration of higher education with economic development and technological innovation, with cultural prosperity and social progress; to train top-notch innovative personnel; to improve capability in technological innovation and level of social service of higher education; and to raise the universities competitiveness.

Third, we will make efforts to implement the strategy of strengthening universities with more talented people and the top-notch innovative talents training project. We will explore new modes of human resource management such as academic leader leading an innovative team and deepen the reform in academic staff employment; to strengthen academic staff improvement by continuing to carry out the Chang-Kieng Scholar Award Program, the Innovative Teams Project, the New Century Outstanding Talents Supporting Project and the Outstanding Young Teachers Training Project; encourage and support students with overseas learning experiences to serve for the motherland, return or not, and construct a green channel for the growth of young talents.

Fourth, we will continue to implement the Project of Innovation in Postgraduate Education to push forward reforms in graduate education. Efforts will be made to introduce reform and innovation in graduate education system; improve the system of supervisor-sponsoring and holding supervisor accountable in training of graduate students; carry out post-responsibility system of research assistant, teaching assistant, and administrative assistant; promote reform of cost-sharing in graduate education; deepen reform in enrolment and selection of graduate students; adjust and perfect the length of schooling of graduate education; support graduate students to participate in research teams and in the research innovation process, so as to raise the educational standard of graduate education.

V. Speed up educational reform and opening-up, and further improve the mechanism of financial input for education.

In terms of deepening educational reforms, the priorities for 2005 are: speeding up rural education reform; advancing the reform in schools running system, and in particular, facilitating the development and regulating the management of non-government education; continuing the efforts in outsourcing the logistic services of universities, and deepening reforms in national college entrance examinations, college student enrollment and tuition-collection; pushing forward system reforms for teacher training and human resource management; and accelerating vigorously endeavors in implementing rule of law and reforming internal administration systems of universities.

In terms of promoting educational opening-up, the focuses for 2005 are: expanding educational exchanges and cooperation, pushing forward mutual recognition of higher education credentials with foreign countries and facilitating "strength-to-strength" cooperation between Chinese and foreign universities; enhancing supervision and management of Sino-foreign cooperatively running of schools and the intermediaries for self-supporting students aspiring to study abroad; intensifying efforts to teach Chinese as a foreign language by vigorously popularizing the Chengo Chinese and the Great Wall Chinese, pushing forward establishment of Confucius Institutes in other countries and making efforts towards increasing the number and improving the quality of teachers for teaching Chinese as a foreign language; scaling up the number of researchers and students going abroad under government scholarship, especially the number of doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers.

Government expenditure on education has gained a remarkable increase in recent years, yet it still cannot satisfy the needs of education for constantly improvement of quality and for sustainable development. In 2005, we should seize the favorable circumstances of rapid revenue growth and the establishment of public financing system and push the local governments to carry out the policy of "three increases" in government expenditure on education based on the actual expenditure. Meanwhile, we should be thrifty when spending on education, manage and control financial investments, strengthen the management and ensure security of education funds, and achieve higher efficiency in use of funds.

VI. Make efforts toward equal access to education and accomplish the tough tasks

In 2005, we are going to concentrate our efforts in four areas:
1. Thoroughly carry out the policy of subsidizing and supporting students from poor families. In compulsory education, we are going to accomplish the provision of free textbooks to 24 million students from low-income families, and urge the local governments to fulfill their responsibility of "One exemption and One Subsidy" (exemption of miscellaneous fee and subsidy for boarding). In higher education, we are going to implement new policies concerning state student loan in full scale, and improve management of the state student loan funding and carry out policies on work-study programs, special aids, tuition exemption, etc.
2. Vigorously strengthen school security, explore new mechanisms to achieve this goal, further improve the surroundings of schools and refine the Internet service, so as to provide a better environment for the healthy growth of young students.
3. Spare no effort in facilitating employment of college graduates. The number of college graduates in 2005 is estimated to total 3.38 million, a 20.71 percent increase over that of 2004. This calls for more intensified efforts in this regard.
4. Continue to strengthen the efforts against random charges of schools and work on rectifying the working style of the Party and building an honest and clean government in the education sector. "One Fee for All" will be introduced to all schools of compulsory education nationwide. The policy of "Three Limits" will be applied to high schools to regulate their behaviors in enrolling students from non-designated area. Efforts will continue to be made in controlling tuition charge standard and behaviors in higher education. We will vigorously carry out the "Sunshine Project" in the student recruitment process for higher education to ensure openness and transparency as well as efficient supervision by the public and public opinion.

Another important and strategic task for the Ministry of Education in 2005 is to conduct research and draft the "Outline for the Development of China's Education 2020". In the Outline, we will define and lay out the fundamentals for educational reform and development, and frame a blueprint for a modern educational system with Chinese characteristics by taking as guidance the scientific viewpoints to development, following the requirements raised by building an all-rounded well-off society and implementing the strategy of reinvigorating the country through science and education and the strategy of strengthening the nation through skilled manpower.