The purpose of education is the general requirement of the state for training people, which stipulates the quality and specifications of talents and plays a guiding role in the whole education process. For example, the purpose of China's current education is to "cultivate socialist builders and successors with all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique and beauty." Education in China should cultivate people with all-round development, which establishes the quality and specifications of talents from a macro perspective and is the general direction of training talents in China.

Education policy is the basic policy and guiding ideology of national education work, and it is the general direction of education work stipulated by the state according to political and economic requirements in order to achieve educational goals. It includes: the service direction of educational work, educational purpose and ways to realize educational purpose. For example, China's current education policy: "Education must serve the socialist modernization and the people, and must be combined with productive labor and social practice to cultivate builders and successors of the all-round development of the socialist cause."

Connection: define the social nature of education, which society education trains talents for, and provide macro guidance for educational activities.