A few days ago, the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Further Adjusting and Optimizing the Structure to Improve the Efficiency in the Use of Education Funds. The opinions put forward clear requirements for the investment, use and management of education funds. The Opinions pointed out that compulsory education has always been the top priority of education investment, and government responsibilities have been effectively implemented.
Summary of the main points of the Opinions:
■ Support social forces to set up education, and gradually increase the proportion of social investment in the total investment in education.
■ Strictly implement the compulsory education law, adhere to the nine-year compulsory education system, and it is strictly forbidden to arbitrarily expand the implementation scope of the free education policy.
■ Financial education funds should give priority to ensuring the payment of primary and secondary school teachers' salaries.
Strive to solve the problem of teachers' salary and treatment in compulsory education in three years. Areas that fail to meet the requirements should be rectified within a time limit, and provinces with strong financial resources should speed up their progress.
■ Financial education funds are mainly used for students with financial difficulties such as deep poverty-stricken areas and filing cards.
■ Improve the budget allocation system of colleges and universities and promote the construction of first-class universities and first-class disciplines as a whole.
■ Support the curriculum reform of ordinary senior high schools and the comprehensive reform of college entrance examination to promote students' all-round development and personality development.
Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Further Adjusting and Optimizing the Structure and Improving the Efficiency in the Use of Education Funds
Guo Ban Fa [2018] No.82
People's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, ministries and commissions and institutions directly under the State Council:
The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attached great importance to education and always put education in a strategic position of giving priority to development. In recent years, the proportion of national fiscal education expenditure in GDP has reached and remained above 4%, the investment mechanism has been gradually improved, and the expenditure structure has been continuously optimized, which has effectively promoted the all-round development of education, and education in the central and western regions and rural areas has been significantly strengthened. However, there are still some problems, such as the imperfect system of raising education funds through multiple channels, "hardware is more important than software, expenditure is more important than performance" in some places, and supervision and management need to be further strengthened. In order to comprehensively strengthen the investment management of education funds, speed up the modernization of education and run a satisfactory education for the people, with the consent of the State Council, we hereby put forward the following opinions on further adjusting and optimizing the structure and improving the efficiency in the use of education funds.
I. General requirements
(A) the guiding ideology
We will fully implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Second and Third Plenary Sessions of the 19th Central Committee, adhere to the people-oriented principle, implement the new development concept, firmly grasp the basic national conditions, unswervingly give priority to education, properly handle the relationship between changing the budget arrangement and giving priority to the development of education, reform and improve the management system and mechanism for the investment and use of education funds, focus on adjusting and optimizing the structure, highlight key points, supplement shortcomings and strengths, and strive to solve the problem of insufficient imbalance in education development and effectively improve educational resources.
(2) Basic principles
Give priority to security and increase investment. Adjust and optimize the structure of fiscal expenditure, give priority to ensuring education investment, ensure that the proportion of national fiscal education expenditure to GDP is generally not less than 4%, ensure that the general public budget education expenditure only increases year by year, and ensure that the average general public budget education expenditure only increases year by year according to the number of students in school. While continuing to maintain financial investment in education, we will actively expand social investment.
Do your best, do what you can. We will firmly grasp the most direct and realistic issues that the people are most concerned about, make continuous progress in early childhood education, learning to teach, helping the weak and helping the disabled, and strive to make every child enjoy a fair and quality education. Don't mention goals that are difficult to achieve without reality, don't make promises that are difficult to fulfill without financial resources, don't engage in "spending money to buy food" projects, and reasonably guide social expectations.
Make overall plans and give prominence to key points. Focusing on the fundamental task of cultivating moral people and the strategic theme of improving the quality of education, we should coordinate the short-term development tasks and medium-and long-term development goals, coordinate the development of education in urban and rural areas, regions and at all levels, coordinate the improvement of conditions and quality, and optimize the allocation of educational resources. Adhere to the principle of "ensuring basics, supplementing shortcomings, promoting fairness and improving quality", further tilt the use of funds to difficult areas and weak links, and use limited funds on the cutting edge.
Deepen reform and improve performance. We will promote the reform of the division of financial powers and expenditure responsibilities between the central and local governments in the field of education, and consolidate and improve the multi-channel financing system for education with government investment as the mainstay. Give full play to the policy-oriented role of financial education funds and promote the deepening of the reform of education system and mechanism. We will fully implement budget performance management, improve the incentive and restraint mechanism, encourage local governments to try first in combination with actual conditions, innovate management methods, and strengthen fund supervision.
Second, improve the investment mechanism of education funds.
(3) Continue to ensure financial input.
Reasonably divide the financial rights and expenditure responsibilities between governments in the field of education, and further improve the education transfer payment system. The people's governments at all levels shall, in accordance with the requirements of "two increases but no decrease", promote investment through policy design, system design and standard design, and implement the responsibility of financial education expenditure. Establish and improve the national education standard system, scientifically verify the basic cost of running a school, and comprehensively establish a per capita funding system. By 2020, all localities should formulate the basic standards of per capita funding and per capita financial allocation for schools at all levels in the region, and establish and improve the dynamic adjustment mechanism.
(4) Encourage the expansion of social investment.
Support social forces to set up education, and gradually increase the proportion of social investment in the total investment in education. People's governments at all levels should improve government subsidies, government purchase of services, fund incentives, donation incentives, land allocation and other policies and systems, implement tax reduction and exemption policies according to law, and guide social forces to increase investment in education. We will improve the financial supporting policies for social donation income, implement preferential tax policies for public welfare donations in accordance with regulations, give play to the role of educational foundations at all levels, and attract social donations. To improve the training cost-sharing mechanism of non-compulsory education, local people's governments should, in accordance with the prescribed management authority and the principle of localized management, comprehensively consider factors such as economic development, training costs and people's affordability, reasonably determine tuition fees (conservation education fees) and accommodation fees, and establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism for charging standards that is compatible with the level of funds and subsidies. The tuition standard for self-funded international students in China is determined by the school.
Third, optimize the use structure of education funds.
(E) Scientific planning of education expenditure
All localities should strengthen the overall integration of education development planning and medium-term financial planning. Medium-term financial planning should fully consider the demand for education funds. The development planning of education should reasonably determine the objectives and tasks at different stages, and timely adjust the policies that go beyond the development stage, violate the laws of education and are unsustainable. School construction should be rationally arranged to prevent the emergence of "empty shell schools". Strictly implement the compulsory education law, adhere to the nine-year compulsory education system, and it is strictly forbidden to arbitrarily expand the scope of implementation of the free education policy.
(6) Focus on ensuring the balanced development of compulsory education.
Always adhere to compulsory education as the top priority of education investment, and earnestly implement government responsibilities. Further improve the consolidation rate of compulsory education in the whole country, especially in the western region, increase the intensity of poverty alleviation through education, and lay the foundation for getting rid of poverty completely. We will consolidate and improve the funding guarantee mechanism for compulsory education that is unified between urban and rural areas and focuses on rural areas, and gradually implement the national unified benchmark quota for public funds for compulsory education. We will implement the policy of allocating public funds for small-scale schools with less than 6543.8+000 students in rural areas and increasing the subsidy for public funds for boarding schools according to the annual 200 yuan standard for boarding students. Independently examine and approve the implementation of public funds for special education schools in compulsory education stage and disabled students in regular classes, and ensure that the funds are implemented in schools (teaching points) to ensure the normal operation of schools. We will comprehensively strengthen the construction of small-scale rural schools and township boarding schools, improve the running level of rural schools, and revitalize rural education. We will promote the establishment of a compulsory education development mechanism that is driven by the city, promotes in an overall way, integrates urban and rural areas, and develops in a balanced way, and strive to solve outstanding problems that people care about, such as controlling dropping out of school, "large class size", schooling for children who move with them, and boarding for left-behind children in rural areas whose families cannot normally perform their educational guardianship responsibilities.
(7) Continuously improve the guarantee level of the construction of teachers.
People's governments at all levels should give priority to the construction of teaching staff, encourage attracting outstanding talents to engage in education, and strive to make teachers a profession respected by the whole society. Financial education funds should give priority to ensuring the payment of salaries for primary and secondary school teachers and promote the implementation of unified standards for the preparation of primary and secondary school teachers in urban and rural areas. All localities should strictly regulate the management of teachers' establishment, speed up the recruitment of qualified teachers in the establishment and implement equal pay for equal work. All localities should improve the funding guarantee mechanism for primary and secondary school teachers' training, and constantly improve teachers' professional quality and ability. Improve the long-term linkage mechanism of primary and secondary school teachers' salaries, and consider the salary income level of local civil servants as a whole when approving the total performance salary, so as to realize synchronous adjustment with the salary income of local civil servants, ensure that the average salary income level of primary and secondary school teachers is not lower than or higher than that of local civil servants, and let teachers teach with peace of mind. All localities should strengthen overall planning at the provincial level, strengthen government responsibilities, adjust and optimize the expenditure structure, and give priority to the implementation of teachers' salary and income policies in compulsory education. Strive to solve the problem of teachers' salary in compulsory education in three years. Areas that fail to meet the requirements should be rectified within a time limit, and provinces with strong financial resources should speed up their progress. Strictly implement the living allowance policy for rural teachers in accordance with the current policies and regulations, timely and fully distribute allowances for hard and remote areas, strengthen the construction of teachers' revolving houses, improve the working and living security level of rural teachers, and guide outstanding teachers to teach in rural areas. All localities should, according to the scale of kindergartens, innovate ways and means, reasonably equip teachers and nurses, determine wage standards according to posts, and gradually solve the problem of different pay for equal work. Support the construction of "double-qualified" teachers in vocational colleges and teachers in special education schools.
(eight) efforts to fill the shortcomings of education development.
On the premise of ensuring compulsory education, we should optimize the expenditure structure, actively support the expansion of inclusive preschool education resources, popularize high school education and develop modern vocational education. All localities should speed up the formulation of financial allocation standards for public kindergartens and financial subsidy policies for inclusive private kindergartens, gradually improve the level of financial support for preschool education, and increase the supply of inclusive preschool education resources through multiple channels. Establish and improve the average financial allocation system for ordinary high school students, and increase the improvement of education and teaching conditions urgently needed by ordinary high schools. All localities should, in accordance with the scope of local government debt resolution, issue local government bonds, and treat ordinary high school bond swap as local government debt. Gradually improve the level of financial allocation per student in secondary vocational schools and higher vocational colleges, improve the mechanism of government, industry, enterprises and other social forces to raise funds according to law, encourage enterprises to hold vocational education, and deepen the integration of production and education and school-enterprise cooperation. Support the development of rural-oriented vocational education and serve the rural revitalization strategy.
The financial education funds are mainly used for students with financial difficulties such as deep poverty areas and filing cards. Focus on deep poverty-stricken areas such as "three districts and three States" and focus on compulsory education to implement education to get rid of poverty. We will increase the transfer payments related to the central finance, strengthen overall planning at the provincial level, give priority to ensuring existing funds, use more incremental funds to support the education development in deep poverty-stricken areas and the education of children of poor families, and promote the full coverage of basic public services for the education of poor people. Improve the student financial aid system, improve the way of funding, improve the level of accuracy, and give help as much as possible. Strengthen the concept of subsidized education and build a system to improve the quality of subsidized education.
(9) Focus on the major strategy of serving the country
Improve the budget allocation system of colleges and universities, make overall plans to promote the construction of first-class universities and first-class disciplines, strengthen first-class undergraduate education, promote the connotative development of higher education, and cultivate a large number of high-level, outstanding and top-notch talents that meet the needs of national economic and social development. Continue to support the transformation and development of some local colleges and universities, implement the revitalization plan of higher education in the central and western regions, support the development of higher education in the central and western regions under the guidance of universities jointly established by the ministries and provinces, accelerate the cultivation of high-level applied talents serving regional and industrial development, and better serve the regional coordinated development strategy. Deepen the reform of scientific research system in colleges and universities, improve the stable support mechanism for scientific research, improve the talent introduction policy and incentive mechanism, and establish a "green channel" for scientific research services, so as to facilitate the smooth development of scientific research activities. Reform the enterprise system affiliated to universities, promote the deep integration of Industry-University-Research, promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and better serve the innovation-driven development strategy. Coordinate the funding policies for studying abroad and studying in China, support the "Belt and Road" education initiative, and optimize the layout of education opening to the outside world.
(ten) continue to increase investment in education and teaching reform.
While improving the necessary conditions for running schools, all localities should increase investment in curriculum reform, teaching reform and textbook construction, promote the transformation of educational methods, and strive to improve the quality of education and teaching. Ensure the input of public funds such as compulsory education, teaching and research activities and teaching reform experiments. To promote the balance of quality resources in compulsory education. Support the coordinated promotion of curriculum reform and comprehensive reform of college entrance examination in ordinary senior high schools, and promote students' all-round development and personality development. Support the development of vocational education practice, and promote the construction of the education mechanism of combining morality with technology and combining work with study. Support colleges and universities to optimize the structure of disciplines and specialties, accelerate the construction of urgently needed specialties, innovate the talent training mechanism, and promote innovation and entrepreneurship education. Support the construction of educational information platform and resources, promote the deep integration of information technology and education and teaching, and realize the sharing of high-quality resources.
Four, scientific management and use of education funds
(eleven) the full implementation of management responsibilities.
In accordance with the requirements of deepening the reform of "simplifying administration and decentralization, strengthening supervision and improving services", we will further simplify administration and decentralization, and implement the provincial government's right to co-ordinate education funds and the autonomy of school funds at all levels. Local people's governments at all levels should establish and improve the responsibility system for the use and management of educational funds. Education departments and schools are the direct users and managers of education funds, and assume the main responsibility in the use and management of education funds. It is necessary to scientifically plan the career development and the use of funds in conjunction with relevant departments, and rationally and effectively use education funds according to laws and regulations. The financial department should implement the national financial education investment and other policies in accordance with the regulations, give priority to ensuring education expenditure, and strengthen budget management and financial supervision. Development and reform departments should give priority to education development planning and strengthen cost supervision and examination according to law. The human resources and social security department should give priority to ensuring the establishment of school staff and implement and improve the teacher treatment policy.
(12) Comprehensively improve management methods.
Focus on supervision, inspection, monitoring and supervision, and establish a full coverage, whole process and all-round supervision system for education funds. Improve the budget audit mechanism and strengthen the pre-performance evaluation of budget arrangements. Gradually expand the scope of project expenditure budget review. Strengthen the monitoring in the process of budget execution, harden the constraints of budget execution, strictly control budget transfer, improve the internal control system of economic activities, monitor the whole process of large capital flow, and effectively prevent and control economic risks. Strengthen the post-event supervision of the budget and final accounts, and people's governments at all levels, education departments and schools should comprehensively promote the openness of the budget and final accounts of the education department in accordance with the requirements of the budget law. Strengthen the statistical publication of the implementation of education funds at all levels. The use and management of education funds are included in the scope of education supervision. Strengthen education internal audit supervision, improve audit quality, strengthen the application of audit results, and promote the improvement of internal governance. Promote the economic responsibility audit of the party and government with the same responsibility and trial, and realize the full coverage of the economic responsibility audit of leading cadres. Encourage all localities to explore the establishment of an economic responsibility audit system for primary and secondary school principals during their term of office.
(13) Improve the service performance in an all-round way.
Education departments and schools at all levels should firmly establish the concept of "spending money effectively and being accountable if it is ineffective", gradually cover the scope of performance management to all financial education funds, and deeply integrate into the whole process of budget preparation, implementation and supervision, improve detailed and operable performance management measures, and establish and improve a performance management system that reflects the characteristics of the education industry. Strengthen the management of budget performance targets, closely combine the development of education, optimize the setting of performance targets, and improve the mechanism of issuing performance targets with budget approval. Monitor the implementation of performance objectives and correct deviations in time. Adhere to where financial education funds are used and where performance evaluation is tracked, strengthen dynamic performance evaluation, and cut inefficient and ineffective funds in time. Strengthen the application of performance evaluation results, increase the disclosure of performance information, and regard the implementation of performance objectives and performance evaluation results as an important basis for improving policies, budgeting, optimizing structure and improving management, and as an important content of leading cadres' assessment. Insist on running schools diligently, prohibit image projects and performance projects, and prohibit the construction of luxury schools beyond the standard. Every education fund should be used in key places.
(14) Improve management ability in an all-round way.
Education and financial management departments at all levels should further strengthen service awareness, improve service ability and level, and comprehensively improve scientific financial management skills according to law. Implement and improve the system of fund allocation, use and budget management, state-owned assets management, and scientific research fund management, and improve the level of refined management. Make full use of modern information technology, establish a national education fund information management platform, and realize real-time dynamic supervision. Improve the regular training system for educational financial management cadres, realize full-time rotation training and improve professional management skills. Strengthen the staffing of accounting, auditing and asset management in schools, promote the implementation and exploration of innovative chief accountant appointment system in colleges and universities, and strengthen student financial assistance, fund supervision and foundation team building.
Verb (abbreviation for verb) strengthens organization and implementation.
(15) Strengthen organizational leadership.
All localities should further consolidate the achievements of financial investment in education, improve the working mechanism, strengthen overall coordination, form a joint effort, conscientiously implement and improve the investment mechanism of education funds, optimize the use structure of education funds, scientifically manage the use of education funds, and effectively improve the efficiency of the use of education funds. All localities should formulate specific implementation plans, refine the decomposition tasks, clarify the time nodes, and compact the responsibilities at different levels to ensure the effectiveness of the work.
(16) Strengthen supervision and accountability.
All localities should strengthen supervision over the management of financial education funds. The relevant departments of the central government should carry out special supervision on the implementation of the salary and treatment policies for compulsory education teachers in all localities, and all localities should regularly submit the implementation to the relevant departments such as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the State Council will carry out supervision in due course. For the problems found in the inspection, do a good job of rectification and accountability. Acts that violate financial discipline will be dealt with severely according to discipline and rules. Those who violate the law shall be punished in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, and those who constitute a crime shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law.