China to intensify oversight of school services to curb misconduct and protect students' rights

China plans to intensify oversight of school services, including meals, teaching materials, and uniforms, to curb misconduct and protect the rights of students and parents, education authorities announced at a national conference on basic education priorities for 2026.

According to the Ministry of Education, special inspections will continue targeting school meal programs, with tighter supervision across the entire supply chain. Authorities will also strengthen controls over the selection and ordering of supplementary teaching materials, standardize school uniform procurement, and crack down on corruption.

To deepen exam and evaluation reforms, the ministry stated it will steadily advance reforms to the senior high school entrance exam. Systematic reviews of exam questions will be conducted to improve quality and reduce rote memorization, guiding teaching back toward its core educational purpose.

Local governments were urged to coordinate admission reforms alongside exam changes. While expanding senior high school capacity to provide more students access to quality education, regions are encouraged to increase quotas that allocate seats at high-quality high schools directly to secondary schools and explore diversified admission models to ease academic competition.

Additionally, compulsory education enrollment must adhere to tuition-free, nearby enrollment without entrance exams, while ensuring balanced class assignments. Public high schools must strictly follow local enrollment rules and eliminate unreasonable policies to safeguard fairness.

In early childhood education, the ministry said it will conduct surveys this year to assess the implementation of free education for the year before primary school. It will also promote the development of integrated childcare-kindergarten facilities and support eligible kindergartens in enrolling children aged 2 to 3.

These policy directions were revealed at a national conference on key basic education priorities for 2026, held from Thursday to Friday in Langfang, Hebei province.