For 9 consecutive years, "not less than 4%", what is the difference in this round of education funding

　　On November 30, the Ministry of Education, the National Bureau of Statistics, and the Ministry of Finance issued a statistical announcement on the implementation of national education expenditures in 2020. The total national education expenditure in 2020 is about 5.30 trillion yuan, of which the national fiscal education expenditure is about 4.29 trillion yuan, accounting for 4.22% of GDP.

　　This is the ninth consecutive year since 2012 to achieve "not less than 4%", which also means that "not less than 4%" has been continuously achieved during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period.

　　The total investment in education funds reflects the importance of education and affects thousands of households.

What key information is revealed behind the data?

What trend does the data rise and fall indicate?

The reporter sorted out this.

The highest proportion of GDP in the past four years

　　The announcement shows that the total national education expenditure in 2020 will be 5303.387 billion yuan, an increase of 5.69% over the previous year.

Among them, the state financial education expenditure was 4,290,815 million yuan, an increase of 7.15% over the previous year, and accounting for 4.22% of GDP.

　　The total national education expenditure is closely related to the national financial education expenditure.

National financial education funds exceeded 2 trillion yuan, 3 trillion yuan, and 4 trillion yuan in 2012, 2016, and 2019, respectively.

National financial education funds account for the bulk of the country’s total education funding. Driven by it, the total national education funding also exceeded 3 trillion yuan, 4 trillion yuan, and 5 trillion yuan in 2013, 2017, and 2019, respectively. Yuan.

　　4% is an iconic data. It was proposed as a national goal and included in the "China Education Modernization 2035".

In 2017, the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Educational System and Mechanism" once again clarified that "to ensure that the national fiscal expenditure on education accounts for generally not less than 4% of the GDP."

In other words, the "soft linkage" of national fiscal education funds with the proportion of GDP has guaranteed the bottom line of investment in education development to a certain extent.

　　"In 2020, the proportion of national fiscal education expenditure to GDP will reach 4.22%, the highest level in the past four years. The figures were 4.14%, 4.11%, and 4.04% respectively in the first three years." Jianguo believes that "this strongly supports the world's largest education system."

　　Facing the impact of the epidemic and the complicated economic situation, some education finance experts have expressed concern about whether the goal of 4% can be reached by 2020.

Yang Xiaomin, an associate professor at the China Education Policy Research Institute of Beijing Normal University, said that under such a complex economic situation, continuing to achieve the goal of "not less than 4%", "reflects the attention and great efforts of governments at all levels to education, and the priority of education development. The strategy has been consolidated at the level of funding security."

The fastest growth rate of indicators per student in pre-school education

　　The announcement shows that in 2020, the average general public budget for education in the country according to the number of students in school is 15,280.54 yuan, an increase of 1.89% over the previous year's 14,997.44 yuan.

Among them, the national kindergarten was 9410.76 yuan, an increase of 9.23% over the previous year's 8615.38 yuan.

The average elementary school is 12330.58 yuan, an increase of 3.19% over the previous year's 11949.08 yuan.

The average junior high school is 17,803.60 yuan, an increase of 2.80% over the previous year's 17,319.04 yuan.

Kindergartens have the highest growth rate in the country.

　　Similarly, in the growth of general public budget education expenditures and public expenditures of education students at all levels, the growth rate of kindergartens in the country also ranked first, with an increase of 9.65% and 12.49% respectively over the previous year, which was much higher than the others. Type education.

　　“At present, the funding guarantee mechanism for compulsory education and higher education is relatively complete. After years of development, the funding input in these two fields has reached a relatively high level in both relative and absolute values.” Yang Xiaomin said frankly, “In contrast, Under the influence of the organization system and management system and mechanism, the development of preschool education and corresponding investment has been relatively weak. With the implementation of the national population strategy and the three-child policy, it is necessary to further increase investment in preschool education and give full play to the public The important supporting role of financial investment."

Systematic reduction of the three per-student indicators in ordinary colleges and universities

　　Beginning in 2018, the National Educational Funding Implementation Statistics Announcement separately counted the growth of the general public budget "education funds", "education expenditures", and "public expenditures" of the average education students at all levels.

So far, only ordinary colleges and universities across the country have shown a simultaneous decrease in these three indicators in 2020.

　　Specifically, the average general public budget education expenditure for ordinary college students nationwide was 22,407.39 yuan, a decrease of 4.65% from the previous year's 23,501.26 yuan, and the average general public budget education expenditure for ordinary college students was 20,919.17 yuan, which was 5.29 yuan less than the previous year's 22,086.86 yuan. %, the average general public budget public expenditure expenditure of ordinary colleges and universities nationwide is 8119.51 yuan, which is 11.56% lower than the previous year's 9180.87 yuan.

　　"In 2019, my country's higher education gross enrollment rate reached 51.6%, and in 2020, it will further increase to 54.4%, and my country's higher education has entered the stage of popularization. Under this background, ordinary colleges and universities appear systematic in these three indicators. The phenomenon of reduction is worthy of great attention.” Wei Jianguo introduced that for comparison, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and other developed higher education Although the ratio is decreasing, in absolute terms, both public investment and private investment are increasing together.

　　Wei Jianguo suggested: "For my country's higher education entering the stage of popularization, a similar funding strategy should be adopted. State financial and non-financial funding should go hand in hand and increase together to support a high-quality development of popularization. Higher education system."

Optimize sources through multiple channels, and give full play to the leading role of fiscal funds

　　"The changes in education funding data not only reflect the funding needs of various types of education at different stages of development, but are also affected by changes in fiscal regular income." Qin Yuyou, a professor at Northeast Normal University, believes that as the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic weakens, regular fiscal revenues Normalized growth will be achieved, and there will be more room for growth in education funding at all levels and types.

　　Qin Yuyou predicts that from the perspective of trends, pre-school education and general high school education are growing in an orderly scale, the number of schools and the number of students are increasing, and the national financial education expenditure per student will maintain a relatively high rate of growth, and it is the obligation to complete the mission of popularization. The growth rate of education funding for education will slow down.

For ordinary colleges and universities with the highest level of national fiscal education funding, funding input will be more sensitive to changes in fiscal recurring income, and there will be more room for adjustment.

　　The "no less than 4% target" has been achieved, but the allocation of education funds in various types of education is unbalanced, the investment structure of hardware and software is unreasonable, and the gap between urban and rural areas is prominent.

In the "post 4% era" when the goal has been achieved for 9 consecutive years, more attention has been paid to the structural optimization of education funding.

　　“In general, we must focus on the improvement of educational software and soft power, and focus on the guarantee of funding for school connotation construction with the teaching team as the key. It is necessary to maintain the basics and make up for shortcomings, but also to strengthen the focus on efficiency and further increase Investment in pre-school education will continue to increase funding guarantees for rural education in underdeveloped areas.” Yang Xiaomin said, at the same time, to meet the needs of the implementation of major national strategies such as innovation-driven and coordinated regional development, funding must be invested in national basic research and The cultivation of talents in important areas of scientific and technological innovation and joint links will be tilted.

　　From the perspective of the sources of educational funding, the relative amount and proportion of social forces other than public financial investment in education funding are very small.

In this regard, Yang Xiaomin suggested, “In the future, education funding should be optimized through multiple channels, and fiscal funds should be used to lead the development of social capital and private capital to support the development of education, so as to form a joint force between the government and society in education funding.”

(Reporter Chen Peng)