Compulsory education is a universal, compulsory and free school education for all school-age children and adolescents according to law. It is the basis of improving national quality and the starting point of realizing social equity. Receiving compulsory education is the basic right of citizens, implementing compulsory education is an important duty of the government, and supporting compulsory education is the common task of the whole society.

Compulsory education has always been the top priority of China's educational reform and development. At the beginning of this century, China achieved the goal of popularizing nine-year compulsory education, and first solved the problem of "education" for school-age children and adolescents according to law. After compulsory education is fully popularized and free, the state clearly regards the balanced development of compulsory education as the top priority of compulsory education, and strives to achieve the goal of "good study" for all school-age children and adolescents.

Compulsory education is a basic public service for all school-age children and adolescents, and it is the legal responsibility of the government to provide basically balanced compulsory education. Every school-age child should enjoy equal opportunities to receive qualified and quality compulsory education. The nature of compulsory education determines that compulsory education must develop in a balanced way.

It must be noted that the task of promoting balanced development is more arduous, complicated and takes longer than the task of achieving popularization. At present, the imbalance between regions, between urban and rural areas and between schools is still outstanding. Promoting the balanced development of compulsory education in the region will be accompanied by the whole process of narrowing the differences in running schools and improving the overall quality of education. Promoting the balanced development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas will gradually narrow the gap between urban and rural areas with the whole process of urban-rural integration development; Promoting the balanced development of compulsory education between regions will be accompanied by the whole process of solving the problem of regional economic and social imbalance and improving the education level in the central and western regions.

All localities should, in accordance with the requirements of the Outline of Education Planning and the Outline of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China, take the opportunity of signing a memorandum on the balanced development of compulsory education, clarify the timetable and road map for the balanced development of compulsory education, cheer up their spirits, work hard, and achieve the objectives and tasks of the balanced development of compulsory education as scheduled.