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.

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. Marxist pedagogy holds that education is a social phenomenon and a unique activity of human beings.

Education is a unique social phenomenon in human society. Although there are similar phenomena of "education" and "teaching" and "learning" in the animal kingdom, especially in the higher animal kingdom, these two seemingly similar phenomena are essentially different.