The State Council has released a circular to assess the implementation of education responsibilities of governments at provincial levels.

The circular is aimed at improving education quality, promoting fair education, and enhancing the importance of education in economic and social development, according to the State Council.

The assessments will include the governments’ implementation of education policies, laws and regulations, local education development, and education work in administrative regions.

Issues such as encouraging and supporting the widespread development of pre-school education, promoting the balanced development of compulsory education and advancing senior high-school education are stressed as the assessment standards of local education development.

The assessment will be carried out annually. The steering committee on education under the State Council will issue evaluation documents at the end of March, and provincial governments should hand out their self-evaluation reports to the State Council by the end of May every year.

A third-party institution is authorized to monitor and assess the work of provincial governments based on national statistical data, and release an annual report by the end of June.

Based on the two reports, a national investigation group will conduct on-site evaluations of provincial governments, and then list existing problems. Provincial governments will then work out an improvement plan and report it to the State Council.

State Council will integrate the self-evaluation report, third-party evaluation report, on-site investigation and improvement plans from the provincial governments to work out the annual evaluation report, and then release it to the public.

The results will be regarded as an important basis for the rewards and punishments of local governments and leaders, said the circular.