Social education, in a broad sense, refers to social education activities that affect personal physical and mental development in parallel with school education and family education; In a narrow sense, it refers to all kinds of cultural life knowledge education activities carried out by social and cultural education institutions for teenagers and the public.

In China, in the 29th year of Guangxu reign (1903), education was divided into three categories: family education, school education and social education, and it was pointed out that "family education is weak, while school education and social education are strong". In thirty-four years, the Qing government promulgated the simple literacy school plan.

In Xuantongyuannian (1909), simple schools were formally established, and social education undertakings such as workers' half-day schools, farmers' study classes and reading rooms were set up. 19 12 the Ministry of education of the interim government established the social education department and began to formally use the term "social education".

Social education is a living education, and its profundity, richness, independence and image are far from being comparable to school education. Coordinating social education forces can cultivate students' ability to actively participate in social activities and bring scattered and spontaneous social influence on the right track. The quality of social education depends on the construction degree of national laws and regulations and the formation of the whole social education atmosphere, which requires the long-term efforts of the whole society.