Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng: Actively respond to the peak of school-age population, and pilot small class sizes in eligible areas

Wang Feng reports from Beijing for the Southern Finance National Two Sessions Reporting Group
On the morning of March 7, 2026, the Fourth Session of the 14th National People’s Congress held a press conference on the theme of people’s livelihood.

Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng introduced at the meeting that currently, China has the largest and most quality education system in the world. There are 440,000 various types of schools across the country, with 280 million students and 18.7 million teachers.

The gross enrollment rate for preschool education is 92.9%, an increase of 28.4 percentage points compared to before the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party, significantly higher than the OECD average level of 84.7%. Last year, the one-year free preschool policy benefited 14 million children.

On the basis of achieving basic balance in compulsory education across 2,895 counties nationwide, by the end of last year, 572 counties (accounting for 19.8%) achieved quality balance.

The gross enrollment rate for high school education is 92%, an increase of 7 percentage points compared to before the 18th National Congress. Last year, 1,300 new or renovated high schools were built nationwide, adding 1.49 million new places, giving more children the opportunity to attend high school.

Huai Jinpeng said that the universality of basic education and key indicators in China have fully surpassed the average levels of middle and high-income countries, with preschool education and compulsory education reaching the average levels of high-income countries.

The next step will focus on comprehensively building a fair and high-quality basic education system, implementing major projects in basic education, and expanding the coverage of quality resources at higher standards. Preschool education mainly focuses on increasing places in public kindergartens, compulsory education mainly aims to raise construction standards to meet the needs of building a strong country, and high school education primarily continues to promote the revitalization of county-level schools.

Huai Jinpeng said that in order to actively respond to the peak of school-age population, we have strengthened forward-looking research and judgment, focusing on increasing the supply of places in urban areas with net population inflow and regions with weak foundations, and strengthening the adjustment of educational resources across different stages based on local conditions. We support regions with conditions to carry out pilot programs for small class teaching, expand the implementation of the “Silver Age Plan,” and run good boarding schools in towns and necessary small rural schools.

On March 6, Zheng Zhanjie, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated at the economic theme press conference of the Fourth Session of the 14th National People’s Congress that the school-age population in China’s junior high schools, high schools, and higher education will peak in this year, 2029, and 2032, respectively.

In response to the upcoming wave of school-age population peaks, Zheng Zhanjie stated that differentiated and precise policies will be implemented for different educational stages. Compulsory education should promote balance and implement standardized construction projects for urban and rural compulsory education schools. General high schools need to expand supply, with the construction and renovation of 1,000 general high schools, increasing more than 2 million places. Higher education needs to improve quality and upgrade, supporting “Double First-Class” universities to increase undergraduate enrollment by more than 100,000, and strengthen 200 application-oriented undergraduate colleges. Vocational education needs to develop characteristics, with the establishment of 500 high-level industry-education integration training bases, allowing more graduates to master the “one skill” needed by the market.

Jinguang Primary School in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, is the earliest public primary school in Fujian to explore small class teaching. In 2024, the school began piloting small class teaching. National People’s Congress representative and secretary of the party committee of Jinguang Primary School, Zeng Xuqing, said that during the pilot process, the school focused on “caring for each one, discovering each one, and making each one happy” in the practice of educating people, customizing personalized courses for each student. At the same time, through sharing teaching resources between campuses, the school ensured teacher allocation after the implementation of small classes. The school also promoted rural schools to explore small class teaching through special classes and alliances.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China’s higher education has cumulatively delivered 55 million talents to society, with the gross enrollment rate increasing from less than 30% before the 18th National Congress to over 60% now, more than doubling.

Huai Jinpeng introduced that in the past two years, through the expansion of quality undergraduate programs, “Double First-Class” universities have increased enrollment by 38,000. In addition, 18 new general undergraduate universities and 70 vocational undergraduate schools have been added in these five years, increasing undergraduate enrollment by 700,000; promoting international cooperative education, more than 540 new cooperative education institutions and projects above the undergraduate level have been established, adding 350,000 new places.

In response to the “first increase and then decrease” trend of school-age population in higher education, National Committee member and vice chairman of the School Affairs Committee of East China Normal University, Wu Ruijun, suggested implementing a resource dynamic allocation strategy that “accurately matches the population curve”: from 2025 to 2032, “orderly expansion,” focusing on key strategic areas and graduate education; from 2033 to 2035, a “structural optimization period,” stabilizing the overall scale and systematically adjusting and phasing out backward majors; after 2035, fully entering the “connotation improvement period,” promoting high-quality and characteristic development of higher education.

Huai Jinpeng also introduced that this year will see a special action on campus safety, working with public security, health, market regulation, and other departments, to strengthen campus safety defenses with stricter and more practical measures. Continuous rectification will be carried out on illegal schooling, over-learning, campus bullying, etc., and in-depth special governance will be conducted on “campus meals,” and educational auxiliary materials ordering. This year we will continue to carry out the annual action for standardized management of basic education, addressing violations as soon as they arise, and strictly preventing issues from rebounding.

(Editor: Wen Jing)

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