The relative independence of education means that education has its own unique development laws and characteristics, but education must meet the needs of economic and social development. Because education has its own special object, it has its own stipulation, which is reflected in the fact that education is a social activity to cultivate people. Education transforms the accumulated knowledge about nature, the experience of transforming nature and the experience of social life into the wisdom, talent and morality of the educated, so that their body and mind can develop and become people who meet the needs of society.

The relative independence of education means that education has its own laws and has a dynamic role in the political and economic system and productivity. It is manifested in the following three aspects:

First of all, education is a process of reforming activities. Education is a social activity to cultivate people. The problem it wants to solve is to transform the accumulated experience of knowledge of nature, transforming nature and social life into the spiritual wealth of the educated individual and form the personality of the educated. This is the uniqueness of education.

Second, education has a historical heritage. Education in different historical periods is one after another, and the education in the latter period is the inheritance and development of the education in the previous period. Including the inheritance of educational content, educational methods, educational theories and educational management.

Third, the development of education, political and economic systems and productive forces is unbalanced. Education is not completely synchronized with the development of political and economic systems and productive forces. One situation is the lag of education, because people's ideology often lags behind existence, and the thought and content of education often lag behind the development of political and economic system and productive forces; Another situation is the predictability of education. Because we know the law of social development and predict the direction of education development according to the trend of social development, new educational ideas may appear under the old political and economic system. The third situation is that education can keep up with the development of political and economic system and productivity, which is the ideal state of education.