EDUCATION IN CHINA

Chapter 2 – Educational reforms and current issues
Strengthening educational inspection
National educational inspectorate institutions are
charged with inspecting policies, inspecting education
and assessing quality. In recent years, the government
has increased the work forces of inspection institutions
in order to achieve these objectives.
According to official documents published in 2013, at
least one inspector should be assigned to each primary
or secondary school in China. In addition, the inspector’s
name, picture, contact information and major tasks
should be released to the public. Inspectors are recruited
by local government inspection institutions. These
institutions chose inspectors for the most part from a
pool of experienced headmasters, teachers, educational
researchers and administrators. Each inspector is
assigned to about five schools, and performs regular
inspections of each school at least once a month. The
inspection covers enrolment, school fees, curriculum,
teaching, learning burden, food sanitation and so on.
Inspectors report back to inspection institutions after
every inspection. They also communicate comments
and guidance to schools after inspections. Inspectors are
rotated every three years. In May 2015, the inspection
system covered over 99% of primary and secondary
schools.
The government recently established a special inspection
system for major educational emergencies. According
to the Interim Measures for the Special Inspection of
Educational Major Emergencies published in 2014, once
an emergency such as a natural disaster or accident
happens, the inspection institution becomes involved
in order to make sure that schools respond actively. The
inspection institution makes sure that schools handle the
emergency properly and protect educational activities.
Throughout the process of solving the problems, the
inspection institution should guarantee promptness,
transparency and clear responsibilities of all parties
concerned.
INSPECTION LEGISLATION
The Regulation on Educational Inspection was issued by
State Council in 2012, after which the Tianjin municipality
developed its own regulations with more details and
practical rules. The regulation of Tianjin municipality
has been approved by the Standing Committee of
People’s Congress of Tianjin Municipality, and was made
a law in May 2014. In 2015, Shanghai also approved its
own regulation of educational inspections. It is widely
recognised as a breakthrough that has made the system
more powerful.
Inspection legislation guarantees the implementation of
the educational inspection system, which is important to
the reform of the educational management system.
BUILDING AN AUTHORITATIVE
AND SPECIALISED INSPECTION TEAM
The Regulation on Educational Inspection established
specific standards for inspection teams, as well as the
composition of these teams. Previously, inspection teams
consisted almost entirely of retired educators. Recently,
more and more provinces have recruited currently active
teachers and educational administrators who know
more about modern education compared to their retired
colleagues. Additional training of inspectors is carried out
regularly to ensure their proficiency.
Some regions, like Chongqing municipality, have
started to create specialised inspection teams, and to
mandate that teaching and administration be evaluated
separately. Recently, teaching inspectors have been
given professional titles via the educational researcher
professional title system. This has made it possible for
inspectors to receive promotions. Anhui province made
a similar adjustment and recruited four chief inspectors
to undertake separately the inspection of elementary
education, vocational education, higher education and
lower-level government.
STANDARDISED PROCEDURES
AND OPERATION NORMS
More and more provinces have developed standardised
procedures for inspection and quality assessment. Hunan
province carried out the Whole Process Supervision
standard, mandating inspection before, during and after
the implementation of one specific policy. Inspection
before implementation refers to normal inspection
designed to identify potential problems or defects.
After this inspection, the feedback provided informs
administration decisions, which may lead to some
adjustments. Inspection during implementation requires
inspectors to visit each school at least twice a week, to
guide their adjustments. Inspection after implementation
entails assessing the effectiveness of adjustments,
during which implementation process is summarised.
If new problems are found, new adjustment will be
required. Within each inspection, inspectors introduce
operation norms to make the process systematic
and comprehensive. This Whole Process Supervision
standard as well as the operation norms help improve the
effectiveness of the inspections.
EDUCATION IN CHINA: A SNAPSHOT © OECD 2016 – 33