The External Communications Office of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee this afternoon (September 22) held the third media briefing of the Party Committee special-series press conferences on the theme “forging ahead in a new journey and make contributions in a new era.” Shen Wei, Secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Working Committee of Education and Health, gave a briefing on the reform and development of Shanghai’s education and health undertakings over the past 10 years, with the theme of “promoting high-quality development of education and health undertakings and leading the creation of high-quality life.” Wang Ping, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Working Committee of Education and Health and Director of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, and Wu Jinglei, Deputy Secretary and Director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, and Director of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, attended the press conference and answered questions from reporters.

Education and healthcare are closely related to the vital interests of the general public. Ensuring the education and health undertakings is related to the full implementation of the Party’s purpose and the balanced sharing of the achievements of reform and development. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made a series of important speeches and instructions on education and health undertakings, forming important expositions on education and Healthy China Initiative, and providing fundamental guidelines for delivering education and health undertakings well. Under the strong leadership of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and the Shanghai Municipal Government, the city’s education and health system has adhered to the original educational aspiration of “educating people for the Party, educating talents for the country” and the lofty mission of “protecting people’s lives and health,” while taking innovative and concrete actions to drive higher-quality development of the education and health undertakings in a bid to meet people’s expectations on enabling kids to receive good care, students to receive good education, and patients to receive good treatment.

1.The system and mechanism for high-quality Party building to lead high-quality development of education and health undertakings are well-established

The education and health system currently has more than 10,200 party organizations and 197,800 party members. The system has always adhered to the Party’s overall leadership on education and health undertakings, and adhered to the directions for running schools for education and hospitals for healthcare.

First, it launched and promoted the system where principals are responsible for the overall operation of primary and secondary schools under the leadership of Party organizations around the theme of the implementation of the Party’s educational policies. It has well implemented the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, and promoted scientific and standardized decision-making on major issues.

Second, it promoted the system where hospital presidents are responsible for the overall operation of public hospitals under the leadership of Party committees around the theme of “protecting people’s health.” It has improved the management system of modern hospitals with Chinese characteristics, and promoted integration of Party building and clinical medicine, mentorship and scientific research.

Third, it improved the system where principals are responsible for the overall operation of universities or colleges under the leadership of party committees around the theme of adhering to the direction of socialist education. It has promoted the integration of Party affairs and daily affairs, and the integration of “fostering virtue through education” and “education and scientific research.” The coverage ratio of talents serving as “double leaders”, or both discipline leaders and Party secretaries, in universities of colleges, has reached 97.3%.

Fourth, it promoted the construction of grass-roots Party organizations around the theme of the implementation of the quality improvement projects of Party building. The city has 4 national demonstration universities for Party building work, 18 model departments on Party building, 104 model Party branches, 13 “double-leaders” Party Secretary studios, and 1 national advanced grass-roots Party organization.

2. The overall goal of educational modernization has been initially achieved

Shanghai now has 3,432 regular schools, an increase of 245 compared with 2012. There are 3.01 million students in universities, secondary and primary schools, an increase of 451,000. The city has a total of 232,700 full-time teachers, an increase of 51,500. With the aim to provide first-class education with which people are satisfied, implement the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, and strive to be a pathfinder of national education reform, the city has promoted education undertakings to a higher level, and generally achieved the main targets on education undertakings development and human resources development identified in China’s Education Modernization 2035 plan.

First, fairness of access to education has been firmly guaranteed. The city has promoted education in five different dimensions, namely, moral, cognitive, physical, social and aesthetic, in an integrated way for students in universities, secondary and primary schools, and kindergartens. It also built and implemented an evaluation system for students’ comprehensive quality, and implemented universal art education, as well as the reform of physical education that prioritizes interest in primary schools, diversification in junior high schools, specialization in senior high school, and individualization in universities. The physical health and artistic quality of primary and secondary school students have been continuously improved, and the myopia rate of children and adolescents has been reduced. The gross enrollment rates of the three years prior to the primary school, compulsory education period and senior high school education are all close to 100%. The proportion of the main working-age population with higher education is close to 50%. Nearly 90% of preschool children receive inclusive preschool education, and the city has adopted unified standards in terms of basic construction of compulsory education schools, facility and equipment configuration, information technology construction, faculty and incomes, and per-student investment. Educational resources continued to be tilted towards weak areas such as rural-urban fringe, rural schools in suburban areas, weak junior high schools, and weak aspects such as teacher team building.

Second, education quality has been comprehensively improved. The city continued to participate in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), demonstrating high-quality and balanced development in basic education. A total of 15 colleges/universities and 64 disciplines have entered the list of top rankings and world-class subjects. The number of undergraduate students has increased from 359,000 to 406,000. The number of postgraduate students has increased from 127,000 to 233,300, and among them, the number of Master’s candidates increased by 86.9%, and that of Ph.D. candidates rose by 72.2%. The talent supply capacity in key industries has been significantly improved. Teachers including Yu Yi, Xie Xiaoshuang, Wang Peijian, Ying Caiyun, Feng Lirong, and Zhou Meiqin have been awarded national models for teaching and educating people. Zhong Yang and Wu Rongjin were awarded the title of “Model of the Times” by the Publicity Department, CCCPC. Wang Pinxian was awarded the title of “National Moral Model” by the Publicity Department, CCCPC. The opening-up in the education sector has seen improved quality and efficiency. High-quality Sino-foreign cooperative education institutions such as New York University Shanghai, Shanghai Vancouver Film Academy, and the College of Shanghai Lausanne Hospitality Management have been launched. The UNESCO Teacher Education Centre (TEC) has been established. The headquarters of the International Theatre Institute has been relocated to Shanghai, and mathematics textbooks of primary schools have cast their influence overseas.

Third, the contribution to national sci-tech prowess continued to rise. The city’s colleges and universities have led construction of three major national scientific and technological infrastructure facilities, two integrated research platforms, four national frontier science centers and 46 national scientific research platforms. Shanghai’s colleges and universities have won about 70% of the top three national awards for science and technology won by all entities in the city, and about 10% of the total won by all colleges and universities nationwide. The city leveraged the strength of local colleges and universities to build the Shanghai Center for Mathematical Sciences, Tsung-Dao Lee Institute and other high-level scientific research bases, as well as major innovation platforms such as the Science Center for Autonomous Intelligent Unmanned Systems and Shanghai Institute of Immunotherapy Innovation, so as to get integrated into construction of national strategic scientific and technological forces, and playing the role to foster innovation.

Fourth, the comprehensive reform has burst into vitality. The city has successively undertaken national pilot projects such as comprehensive reform of education, comprehensive reform of the college entrance examination, and comprehensive reform of education for all people, the entire journey and all aspects. The city has explored nationwide expansion of local major institutional achievements such as nursing services for infants aged 0-3 years old, college entrance based on unified college entrance examination results, high school academic level examination results, and comprehensive quality evaluation, ideological and political courses in colleges and universities, and classified evaluation of colleges and universities. In the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Shanghai is taking the establishment of a national demonstration zone for comprehensive education reform as a starting point, while undertaking major tasks such as creating the only pilot zone for digital transformation of education in the country, as well as the province-wide pilot of the national smart education platform, and the pilot of education evaluation reform, so as to play the role of an experimental field educational reform.

3.The health service system to protect the lives and health of citizens has been initially established

Shanghai currently has 6,317 health institutions with 239,600 health technicians. Taking the national pilot program of deepening the reform of the medical and healthcare system as a starting point, the city has taken measures to protect people’s health and life safety in an all-round and full-cycle manner. The average life expectancy of residents is 84.11 years, an increase of 1.7 years compared with 2012; the infant mortality rate in Shanghai is 2.30/1,000, down 54.37% from 2012. The maternal mortality rate is 1.60/100,000, a decrease of 77.46% compared with 2012. Various major health indicators maintained the world’s leading levels.

First, the city’s public health emergency response mechanism has been improved. The prevention and control strategy has been adjusted according to situations, the layout of fever clinics and sentinel clinics has been optimized, and the public health emergency response system has been improved. The city, together with all its citizens, won the battle to defend Shanghai against the pandemic. The city strengthened construction of the disease prevention and control system, and reduced the premature mortality due to major chronic diseases to below 10%. The city improved the pre-hospital medical emergency network, established a unified scheduling system, and shortened the average emergency response time. The health literacy of citizens has improved year by year and is higher than the national average.

Second, distribution of high-quality medical resources has grown more balanced. The “5+3+1” construction project has been initially completed, or building 5 new top-tier hospitals, upgrading 3 top-tier hospitals, and relocating 1 suburban top-tier hospital. The city focused on five new towns and other key areas to strengthen the layout of obstetrics and pediatrics hospitals, effectively alleviating the shortage of high-quality medical resources in the suburbs. The city enhanced the standardized construction of regional medical service circles and community health service institutions, while improving community health services. The city promoted the mechanism for citizens to voluntarily sign with a family doctor in a community health service center, a district-level medical institution, and a municipal-level medical institution to promote hierarchical diagnosis and treatment in an orderly manner. The city strengthened the allocation of resources such as elderly medical care and nursing, and built the municipal geriatric medical center, providing more than 80,000 family beds and elderly nursing beds. The city improved the consultation and emergency rescue network for critically ill pregnant women and newborns. It has established five pediatric medical consortia, and improved the pediatric services in general hospitals and community health centers.

Third, medical and health service capabilities have been continuously improved. The city has built five national medical centers, six national clinical medical research centers, as well as major platforms such as the National Science Center for Liver Cancer and National Major Science and Technology Infrastructure for Translational Medicine (Shanghai). A number of major original achievements have been formed, including diagnosis and treatment of intractable and critical illnesses, transformation of high-level basic research and clinical research results, and resolution of major public health issues. The performance of local public hospitals has been outstanding. According to the latest data of National Monitoring and Analysis of Performance of Top-tier Public Hospitals in China, two general hospitals in Shanghai ranked first and second respectively nationwide, and two TCM hospitals in Shanghai ranked the top among all top-tier TCM hospitals and hospitals of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine. Two specialty hospitals ranked first among their peers. The performance of public hospitals in Shanghai was leading in the country. The health service industry has undergone high-quality development, and the 5+X health service industry clusters including the New Hongqiao International Medical Center have been booming.

Fourth, the reform of the medical and health system has been comprehensively deepened. The city carried out reforms such as separation between medical and pharmaceutical services, and the equal payment for TCM and western medicines for the same disease under the medical insurance system. The city deepened comprehensive reform of community health services, and adopted zero price-addition policy for all essential medicines. The city established new mechanisms for supervision, evaluation, investment, distribution, and drug supply guarantee. The implementation of one-stop reform on “medical payment” and “birth” has improved the convenience of medical services.

On the new journey in the new era, Shanghai will focus on promoting main indicators on education development and human resource development to reach the advanced levels of global cities, accelerating the construction of a health science and technology innovation center with global influence, and continuously improving citizens’ sense of access to education and medical care.