Since education was separated from productive labor, it has assumed an independent social function and become an activity dedicated to transmitting social life experience and cultivating people, with the ultimate goal of socializing people.

Compared with ancient education, modern education is the product of modern production from the perspective of productivity and education development history. Refers to/kloc-education after the industrial revolution began in Britain in the 0/8th century, and the machine industry replaced the original workshop handicraft production.

Modern education is based on modern large-scale machine production, and it is in a modern society based on commodity economy. Therefore, compared with ancient education, it has new characteristics.

The emergence of modern education

The emergence and development of modern education are restricted by many complicated factors inside and outside the education system, but in the final analysis it is determined by the development level of social productive forces. This is the basic viewpoint of historical materialism on the emergence and development of modern education.

Today, many years later, we can still feel the shock brought by He Ziyuan and others' modern "educational innovation" to the historical process of modern China.

He Ziyuan's "educational innovation" refers to "creating new learning, abandoning the imperial examination, paying equal attention to arts and sciences, and emphasizing the power of education."