First of all, official education has gradually become nominal. Although it still exists in form, in all kinds of schools, except primary education and some private schools, other schools, especially official schools, have existed in name only, and even rarely engaged in teaching activities.

Secondly, the educational content is not practical. The focus of school education is the writing of eight-part essay and imperial examination, but the teaching of practical and useful knowledge is neglected. At the same time, due to the corruption of the imperial examination system, there are often off-topic and strange questions in the examination, which leads to the students' knowledge not being fully displayed.

In addition, the Qing Dynasty was stubborn and old-fashioned, carried out literary inquisition, and implemented a high-pressure policy on students and intellectuals, which led to the shackles of feudal autocracy. This made the education system of Qing dynasty not substantially changed compared with the previous period, but deepened the educational dilemma.

Generally speaking, these difficulties reflected the corruption and weakness of politics and economy at that time.