This article**: Times Finance Author: Ding Yuanhong
Spending on education has reached a new high.
A few days ago, the Ministry of Education, the National Bureau of Statistics, and the Ministry of Finance issued a statistical announcement on the implementation of national education funding in 2022. According to the announcement, the total investment in education funding in 2022 will be 61,3291.4 billion yuan, exceeding 6 trillion yuan for the first time.
From the perspective of capital investment, among the 31 provinces, Guangdong can be regarded as the one that attaches the most importance to education.
In 2022, Guangdong's general public budget education expenditure (including education expenses, infrastructure funds and education surcharges) exceeded 380 billion yuan, accounting for more than 20% of the general public budget expenditure, and the amount of funding was the highest in the country.
Guangdong is not the only province that strongly supports education, but Fujian and Shandong also account for more than 20% of the general public budget for education. In addition, the growth rate of education expenditure in Fujian and Shanxi is also quite impressive, with an increase of more than 10% over the previous year.
In 2022, the implementation of education funds in various places (Source: Screenshot of the official **).
Whether it is Guangdong, which is firmly in the top spot in education funding, or Fujian, the "dark horse" with the largest growth rate, they will focus on preschool education in 2022.
Guangdong has the highest budget.
Guangdong attaches great importance to education, and one of the manifestations of this is its willingness to spend money.
In 2022, Guangdong's general public budget for education will be 3,8631.3 billion yuan, 1266 higher than the second place Shandong1.6 billion yuan, the degree of attention can be seen.
Guangdong's high education budget is mainly due to the large number of students. According to the "2022 Statistical Communiqué on the Development of Education in Guangdong Province", there are 2,787 students enrolled in education at all levels and types of academic qualifications260,000 people, an increase of 76 over the previous year010,000 people, an increase of 28%。
Among them, the number of school-age children in Guangdong is relatively large. According to the communiqué, there are 498 children in kindergartens in the province050,000 people. According to the "2022 National Statistical Bulletin on the Development of Education", there are 4,627 preschool children in the country550,000 people. In other words, the number of kindergarten children in Guangdong accounts for more than one-tenth of the country.
Students raise their hands to answer questions in class (Source: Picture Worm Creative).
The large base of school-age children naturally requires more education spending to meet educational needs.
In 2022, the proportion of education expenditure in the national general public budget is 1507%, while in Guangdong, the proportion reached 2084%。In addition, Guangdong is known as the "largest financial province" and the largest general public budget expenditure in the country, so it is not surprising that its education expenditure can lead the country.
At present, among all levels of education, the fastest growth is in kindergartens. Last year, the per capita general public budget education expenditure for kindergarten students in Guangdong Province increased by 657%。This is mainly because, in addition to meeting basic educational needs, Guangdong is also planning to further improve the quality of pre-school education.
Teachers and students in kindergarten (Source: Picture Worm Creative).
The relevant "14th Five-Year Plan" proposes that in 2025, the gross enrollment rate of preschool education in Guangdong Province should be maintained at more than 100%, the proportion of children in public kindergartens will reach more than 50%, and the proportion of children in public kindergartens and inclusive private kindergartens will reach more than 85%.
At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that the per capita general public budget education expenditure for pre-school students only increases year by year, and promotes the proportion of county-level financial pre-school education funds in the same level of financial education funds not less than 5%.
In addition to Guangdong, Shandong and Fujian also account for more than 20% of the general public budget for education.
In fact, since 2012, except for 2021, the proportion of education funding in Shandong has been the first in the country. However, Shandong's per capita education expenditure ranks low in the country.
At the same time, compared with Beijing, Shanghai and other provinces with high per capita education expenditure, Fujian still has a lot of room for improvement.
Taking 2022 as an example, Fujian's general public budget education expenditure is 11967.7 billion yuan, slightly higher than Beijing, but Beijing's per capita general public budget education expenditure for students at all levels is basically about twice that of Fujian.
Source: Picture Worm Creative.
In addition, Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Education Sciences, said in an interview with a reporter from the Times Weekly that Guangdong, Fujian and Shandong have a large number of foreign populations and a demand for basic education, which will lead to an increase in the proportion of education funding in these places, and these three provinces also have the characteristics of relatively few universities directly under the government, so education funds will rely more on provincial finance.
The fiscal revenue of these three provinces will decline slightly in 2022, but some rigid expenditures on education will always exist, such as personnel salaries, and the proportion will naturally increase. Chu Zhaohui explained.
The growth rate of the two provinces exceeded 10%.
In addition to the "top students" who are far ahead in the amount of funding, there are also two eye-catching "dark horses" in the growth of funds.
In 2022, Fujian's general public budget education expenditure increased by 12 percent year-on-year68%, an increase of 10 percent over the previous year in Shanxi33%, the only two provinces to achieve double-digit growth.
Separately, although the proportion of education expenditure in Shanxi's general public budget is lower than that in 2021, the reason why it can increase by more than 10% in 2022 is mainly due to the growth of its fiscal recurrent revenue. In 2022, Shanxi's general public budget revenue will complete 3,453900 million yuan, an increase of 21 over the previous year8％。
Source: Picture Worm Creative.
However, Shanxi also has its own "power point".
Compared with 2021, which focused on investing in ordinary colleges and universities, Shanxi in 2022 chose to "work hard" on kindergartens, and achieved positive growth in per capita funding for all education levels.
According to Shanxi's plan, by 2025, the gross enrollment rate of preschool education in Shanxi will reach 965%, and the coverage rate of Puhui Park remained at 865% or more. As of the end of the "13th Five-Year Plan", the gross enrollment rate of preschool education in Shanxi was 908%, and the coverage rate of Puhui Park is 8483%。
In order to achieve the expected goals, Shanxi still needs to make some efforts in the future.
Like Shanxi, Fujian has also achieved positive growth in education spending per student at all levels of education, with kindergartens and high schools growing by more than 10 percent.
Children playing in the kindergarten (Source: Picture Insect Creative).
However, at the same time, there are still obvious structural contradictions in Fujian's preschool education, and the phenomenon of "few public and weak private schools" still exists.
Fujian Province in the interpretation of the "14th Five-Year Plan" preschool education development and promotion action plan pointed out that although the basic goal of preschool education has been achieved, there are still insufficient funding, teacher treatment is not in place, the level of scientific education needs to be improved, with the implementation of the three-child policy and the promotion of urbanization, the contradiction of regional and structural shortage of inclusive resources still exists.
In Chu Zhaohui's view, to promote inclusive kindergartens, it is necessary to promote the hosting of public kindergartens, and it is necessary to pay for it. "This is a rigid financial growth, and through our field surveys, we can see that there are many short-term teachers in Fujian, and these practitioners generally have low salaries and precarious conditions, and they need to invest money to improve these problems. ”
As for the education funding of ordinary high schools in Fujian, which has also increased by more than 10 percent, Chu Zhaohui believes that this is to realize the expansion and improvement of the quality of high schools and improve the quality of relatively weak high schools.
According to the Action Plan for the Development and Improvement of County-level Ordinary High Schools in Fujian Province during the 14th Five-Year Plan, all localities should actively organize high-quality ordinary high schools in the region to carry out joint school-running and counterpart support with weak counties, and each high-quality ordinary high school should be entrusted with at least one weak county middle school.
Of course, education construction is not something that can be completed overnight, and provinces that attach importance to education will invest more energy in the future.