The essence of education refers to the fundamental relationship between the internal elements of education and the fundamental characteristics of education as a social activity that distinguishes it from other social activities.

As opposed to "educational phenomenon". Education is an activity to cultivate people. Education has existed since the beginning of human society, and its function is to transmit social production and life experience, promote human development and cultivate talents needed by society according to certain social requirements. This basic feature exists in various social education activities and distinguishes it from other human social activities.

The essential feature of education is a stable and universal feature that reflects the laws of things. The essence of education is the characteristic that runs through all education. As long as educational activities exist, they will always play a role.

Education is a unique form of transmitting experience in human society. Humans have language and writing. With the help of the information carrier function of language, human experience can exist not only in the individual system, but also outside the individual consciousness and independently of each individual.

It can not only make people know the experience within the reach of the senses, but also transcend the time limit and the barriers of space and region. From the past to the present, from macro to micro, all the wealth of the whole society and all mankind can be mastered by mankind. This characteristic of human transmitting experience also proves that education is a social phenomenon.