High-Quality Implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan | 10 Key Metrics Showcasing Shanxi’s Educational Achievements

Education stands as a fundamental national priority and a matter of deep concern for every household. Since the launch of the 14th Five-Year Plan, under the strong leadership of the Provincial CPC Committee and Provincial Government, Shanxi’s education system has thoroughly implemented President Xi Jinping’s important directives on education. By fully adhering to the Party’s educational policies and steadfastly prioritizing education in development strategies, the province has successfully accomplished all targets outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan, establishing a solid foundation for building an education-leading province during the upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan period.

Shanxi has consistently increased education investment. Both total education revenue and government education expenditure have maintained annual growth exceeding 5.5%, with provincial fiscal education funding surpassed 110 billion yuan in 2024.

The province has achieved full coverage of special education schools in all counties with populations exceeding 200,000, ensuring equal educational opportunities for migrant children and students with disabilities. The student financial aid system now comprehensively supports all education levels, institutions and students, having benefited 13.73 million recipients cumulatively.

Shanxi has significantly expanded high-quality higher education resources, with doctoral and master’s enrollment quotas increasing by 165.3% and 25.5% respectively. Through the Excellence Program and Expansion initiative, full-time university enrollment has exceeded one million students, while institutions have supplied 1.4 million graduates to key economic and social sectors.

The province has established 67 practical teaching bases for “Comprehensive Ideological and Political Education,” including notable sites like the Red Army’s Eastern Expedition Memorial and Liu Hulan Memorial Hall. Through institutional partnerships, these bases have co-developed immersive “Museum-based Ideological Courses” with schools. Particularly noteworthy is the “Integrity Education Course” developed with the Provincial Party Discipline Education Base, which gained recognition from the Central Discipline InspectionCommission.

Over the past five years, Shanxi has constructed 1,286 public and affordable private kindergartens, along with over 1,700 newly built or renovated boarding schools for compulsory education in high-density student areas, markedly improving primary and secondary education facilities.

The mandatory implementation of daily physical education classes and minimum two-hour comprehensive physical activities has yielded measurable results: the excellent/good physical health rate among students has risen by 6.67 percentage points since the 13th Five-Year Plan’s conclusion, while youth myopia rates have decreased by 5.74 percentage points.

The 10-billion-yuan Higher Education Initiative has propelled four vocational colleges into the national “Double High-level Plan” (second round). Academic achievements include ten new disciplines entering ESI's global top 1%, with one breakthrough into the top 1‰. The province has also added 13 doctoral programs, 53 master’s programs, and 105 cutting-edge undergraduate programs addressing emerging needs.

This same initiative has attracted 53 national-level distinguished scholars and over 3,000 young PhDs/postdocs. Doctoral-degree holders now constitute over 40% of full-time faculty in provincial undergraduate institutions.

Responding dynamically to industrial demands, vocational institutions have added 536 high-demand programs while phasing out 437 obsolete ones. Currently, vocational schools offer 1,653 programs across 472 specialties (19 categories), with secondary vocational schools providing 2,540 programs across 189 specialties (18 categories), achieving complete coverage of economic and social development needs.

Shanxi has developed 66 specialized industry colleges through school-enterprise partnerships targeting provincial industry-specific towns and key industrial chains. Collaborative efforts among government, industry and academia have established 19 regional industry-education alliances serving economic zones, plus nine sector-specific integration communities focusing on strategic emerging industries, modern energy and modern services.