I. 2024 work summary and report

Following the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully carrying out the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and the 2nd and 3rd Plenary Sessions of the 20th CPC Central Committee, and deeply implementing the important discourses of General Secretary Xi Jinping on education, the education sector of Huadu District in 2024 attached political importance to education, treated it as a part of people's livelihoods, and developed it according to its specific rules. With focus on the central work of the District Party Committee and the work requirements of “more innovative, faster and higher”, we pushed forward the "Hundred, Thousand, and Ten Thousand Project" to help revitalize rural education; we implemented the “1+9+N” plan for high-quality development of education, continued to brighten the brand of “energetic education”, and solidly promoted the five major reforms of“board, car, feet, rope, and card” ; and we successfully completed the District's "bid and award" projects and the objectives and tasks of the high-quality development statement. As result, the District's education cause is displaying strong momentum of growth.

(i) Ongoing strengthening of the Party's overall leadership of education work

Firstly, the Party's ideological and theoretical force was continuously strengthened. Taking the study and implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as a major political task, we studied and implemented the 2nd and 3rd Plenary Sessions of the 20th CPC Central Committee; we held 33 sessions of first topic study of Bureau Leading Party Members Group, and 5 sessions of theoretical study of the central group; we promoted the Two-way Attendance System for Party Organization Meetings, where the secretaries of grass-roots Party organizations attended the Bureau Leading Party Members Group meetings for 1,242 times, and the Bureau leadership members attended the party meetings of grass-roots Party organizations, and schools for 62 times; and we had the central tasks of the Bureau Leading Party Members Group effectively implemented. Secondly, Party discipline learning and education was solidly carried out. A Party discipline learning and education campaign mobilization and deployment meeting was held; a book club of the Bureau Leading Party Members Group for Party discipline learning and education was established; more than 5,000 copies of the Regulations on CPC Disciplinary Action were distributed; and members of Bureau Leading Party Members Group went down to grass-roots Party organizations to give Party lectures. 298 massed learning sessions were carried out, with focus on Party discipline learning and education. Thirdly, the foundation for Party building was comprehensively strengthened. Effort was made for in-depth promotion of the creation of the “Virtue and Talent Cultivation Spearhead” as a Party building brand. The “Direct Bus to Public Schools” project was showcased at the “Huadu Spearhead” citywide Party building brand development and District grass-roots party building work promotion meeting; the Party branch of Qixing Primary School was awarded as an advanced unit of “Huadu Spearhead”, and Han Qingxiong, secretary of the Party Committee of Urban Education Guidance Center, was awarded as an advanced individual. We carried out in-depth implementation of the grass-roots Party organizations compliance year campaign, supervising the rectification of 268 subordinate Party organizations. We pushed forward in a deep-going way the working mechanism of Party-led Interaction for Talent Cultivation, extending the coverage of the Party organizations and party work to 100% of the private schools and private educational institutions. Fourthly, the inspection and rectification was strictly carried out for solid results 155 rectification measures and a responsibility list was formulated against 41 problems found during the District Party Committee inspection, and all the problems were rectified. Fifthly, the Party was subject to full and strict governance. The responsibility breakdown and transmission mechanism was improved, the daily and special supervisions were strengthened, and 250 problems were rectified under supervision. In order to strengthen the prevention and control of corruption risks, economic responsibility audits and special audits were performed on 29 schools. Sixthly, the ideological position was more firmly fortified. A good job was conscientiously done in national security, network security, and confidentiality and security education, guarding the publicity positions at institutions and schools.

(ii) Continuous improvement of a high-quality education system

Firstly, the concept of “energetic education” became more salient. It has become a strong consensus to promote high-quality development by “energetic education”, and achievements have continued to emerge. 4 on-the-spot meetings of “1+9+N” high quality education development were held, and a series of 9 “energetic education” discussions were launched on the topics of moral character education, classroom construction, teacher training, effective teaching and research, quality improvement, and campus safety and governance, 57 feature stories themed on “energetic education “were produced, 32 outstanding energetic” courses were selected, and 50 annual projects of the District-level energetic education planning were completed. Secondly, the supply of high-quality resources increased. Cooperation with Tieyi Middle School, a brand school in Guangzhou city, was successfully promoted. 4 public kindergartens, including Huadong Town Center Kindergarten (Huaqiao Campus) were newly opened, adding 1,800 school places; 8 schools, including Huadu Airport School were newly opened, adding 10,050 school places of public compulsory education; and Huangguang Niujian Senior High School was completed and opened, adding 1,800 high school places. Thirdly, school facilities continued to improve. 54 projects of the three-year action plan for primary and secondary schools had fully started, and 14 of them were completed; and 7 projects aimed to tackle the tough problem of high school places had fully started, and 1 of them was completed. 6 school place expansion projects, including Huacheng Street Luodong Primary School, were completed with high quality; and other 8 micro-renovation projects for seismic reinforcement were completed for Xinhua Street Peixin School Complex and others. Implementation of the three-year action to improve the schooling conditions of remote schools significantly elevated the conditions and environmental quality of 44 such schools. Fengshen Experimental Primary School was recognized as one of the excellent maker education spaces in primary and secondary schools of Guangdong Province; the“Book shadow - Light collection” reading space of Qixing Primary School at Huadong Town as one of the most beautiful reading spaces in primary and secondary schools of Guangdong Province; 4 laboratories in Huadu District as high-level laboratories in primary and secondary schools of Guangdong Province; and 6 libraries as high-quality reading spaces in primary and secondary schools of Guangzhou. We built 4 “Huacheng Bookstores”, and 20 Children's Palaces in rural schools. Fourthly, basic education was improved in quality and excellence. We implemented the project of the resource center for integrated management of urban and rural pre-school education to help member kindergartens win five national awards, and 46 provincial and municipal awards. Having guided the application for license of 25 unlicensed kindergartens, and the transformation of 4 child care institutions, we achieved milestone in sorting out unlicensed kindergartens and made positive progress in childminding. Compulsory education achieved high-quality and balanced development, the “three schools” principle for running a school was significantly optimized, conditions for running a school were gradually improved, teaching quality continued to improve, and the catalytic role began to emerge. Paired assistance between between urban and rural schools achieved solid progress and began to bear fruit. Significant results were achieved in the creation of “Dual Zone”. We completed the classification and registration of private schools, and promoted the transformation and development of weak private schools, resulting overall improvement of private education quality. Fifthly, vocational education experienced integrated and innovative development. Closely following the direction of economic development, we had our focus on the development of new energy vehicles, electromechanical technology application and other key specialties. And the school-enterprise cooperation was further deepened, with the establishment of 10 school-enterprise training bases, 5 enterprise pre-employed student classes, 2 municipal industry-education alliances, and 1 industrial college. The evaluation results of secondary vocational-technical schools climbed sharply in ranking; in particular, Huadu Voc-tech School jumped and ranked 6th among schools of its kind in Guangzhou, was included in the first batch of Guangzhou's“pilot comprehensive high schools”, and recorded an enrollment completion rate of 100%. Sixthly, special education and adult education progressed steadily. Three new special education classes and 14 resource classrooms were built, and 100% of school-age children and teenagers with disabilities were admitted for compulsory education. The coverage of education for diploma and community education were extensively expanded to create a lifelong learning society; the porjects of“Urban Community Learning Center” and “Yangcheng Elderly Academy” made solid progress; and adult education underwent high-quality development. Seventhly, education exchanges and cooperation were strengthened continuously. The Hong Kong and Macao Student Class at Yazheng School developed well with good results, and won 2 national awards and 24 provincial awards in the World Chinese Students' Essay Competition. We took the initiative to strengthen the cooperation with colleges and universities: Huangguang Middle School was selected as a student base of Tsinghua University and a Peking University Boya Talent Co-education Base, and Xiuquan Middle School became a student base of Sun Yat-sen University and South China University of Technology. We promoted the signing of strategic cooperation agreements with Jinan University and other 6 universities; and the cooperation memorandum withXi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University gave rise to the establishment of Guangzhou's first“XJTLU Class” in Xiuquan Middle School. Educational assistance through pairing programs made notable achievements; and Huadu' practice of“teach-fishing type” educational assistance was covered and reported by China Education News Network, people.cn and many other media.

(iii) Continuous deepening of comprehensive education reform

Firstly, optimization of the regional education layout in an across the“board” approach. Guangzhou Sixth High School (Huadu Campus) was completed and opened. The education groups were optimized and adjusted to 28; with the newly established Xiuwai Education Group, Huaguang Education Group, and Huadong School Education Group, a new pattern of regional education development was taking shape, featuring brand-name schools in the east, south, west, north, and center of the District playing leading and demonstrative roles. Secondly, revitalization of the dormant public school place resources with “car”. The opening of 10 “direct bus” lines benefited nearly 500 families of migrant workers in Guangzhou, which became a successful model of Guangzhou education system in pursuing the reform to improve people's livelihood through small changes, and was reported by the China Education Daily, Nanfang +, Guangzhou Daily, Yangcheng Evening News and other media. Thirdly, realization of the sharing of high-quality teachers with “feet”. More than 60 teachers participated in the walk-in teaching program, bringing more professional teaching of subjects to tens of thousands of students. The relevant reform experience was covered by Guangzhou Daily in the form of key report in dedicated page section; and featured in Nanfang Daily, ycwb.com, and the new media terminal of the Guangzhou Society of Education. Fourthly, cultivation of education with regional characteristics with“rope” . Huadu Jump Rope Team had brilliant results in national rope skipping competitions, Asian Championships and World Championships, breaking more than 10 world records, winning more than 1,000 gold medals, producing 42 world jump rope champions, and writing legendary stories such as “National Moral Model”, “Lightspeed Youth”, and“Chinese Speed”. It has become a model of rural special education in Guangzhou. -Fifthly, enhanced provision of public services with“card”. We took the lead in the country to promote the opening of 135 public school stadiums to the public, ranking frist in Guangzhou city in terms of opening scale. This reform experience has been highly affirmed by the provincial and municipal leaders, and covered by the Yangcheng Evening News, Nanfang News Network, Tencent News, and many other media. The “Huadu Campus Fitness Card” is in research and development now, aiming to better meet the demand of the people for physical exercise places in walking distance.

(iv) Continuous improvement of regional education level

Firstly, ideological and political building was comprehensively strengthened. Solid progress has been made in big ideological and political building; both Party Chief and mayor of Huadu District led by model to give ideological and political courses, and the Party secretaries (principals) of schools were consistent in the practice of giving the first lecture of ideological and political course each semester. The teaching mode of ideological and political education was innovated, and a big ideological and political education covering all disciplines and connecting all academic segments was established. Effort was made to continuously deepen education on the history of revolution, on patriotism, and on rule of law, and to comprehensively promote the “Lectures by Five Types Veteran”. We also promoted the mentorship system for all secondary school students and cooperated with Guangdong University of Education in the pilot program of stationing social workers in secondary schools. Kwong Weiyu Memorial Middle School was selected as a pilot school for the program of research and application of guides for teaching ideological and political courses in ordinary high schools of Guangdong Province. And Xiuquan Middle School and other eight schools were selected as pilot schools for Guangzhou pilot project of the teaching, learning and evaluation paradigm for the new structure of ideological and political course. Two teachers, from Junwei Primary School and Yazheng School respectively, were recognized as candidates for the tile of “Famous Class Teacher in Primary and Secondary School”of Guangdong Province. Secondly, “double reduction”achievements were continuously consolidated. It was realized that all compulsory education schools in the District provided after-school services to students, which was used by students for 99,000 times. Improvement was made to the regulatory mechanism for off-campus training institutions; 172 licensed off-campus training institutions were included in the national regulatory platform, bringing the 100-day campaign to a successful end. Thirdly, the advantages in education through sports and arts became more salient. We carefully built an education system that consists of the “Vitality+” sports education and the “Rhythmic Whispering Flower” aesthetic education, and the results included jump rope, orienteering, ice and snow, stucco relief, enamel, choral singing and other items that have become bright name cards of Huadu education. We successfully hosted the 7th National School Sports League Meeting; the physical education teachers of the District got the highest team total score in Guangzhou Teaching Skills Competition; Huadu District's jump rope “Dream Team” won 8 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals, and broke 5 world records and 7 Asian records in the Asian Jump Rope Championships 2024. Qixin Primary School's “Golden Valley Orienteering Team” won the champion in Guangzhou primary and secondary school campus orienteering competition, which was their “eight championships in a row ”; China International Chorus Festival secured a silver medal and Jiutan Middle School the title of Class 2 Chorus in the 17th China International Chorus Festival; Timian Primary School was recognized as a inheritance base of Guangzhou intangible cultural heritage Hakka mountain song; and Qixing Primary School was listed as the one of the advanced collectives of the national education system. Teachers and students of Huadu District won more than 800 awards at the municipal level or above art events. Fourthly, education digitalization project speeded up and became more effective. Pan Quanbang, a teacher of Yaoyao Middle School, was awarded the special prize of “Benchmark Lesson” at the 7th National Secondary School IT Quality Lessons in 2024, and Xinya Primary School was recognized as a provincial benchmark school in the application of smart education in primary and secondary schools. The District has built 2 smart pen and paper experimental schools, and 29 smart teaching and research pilot schools; and 5 schools were included in the second batch of experimental schools for the Guangzhou project of Artificial Intelligence-assisted Teacher Team Building. The District had 12 prize winning cases in the provincial teachers' competition of informatization innovation and application skills, and 100 cases in the municipal competition; 27 prizes were won in the provincial students' digital literacy enhancement and application competition; and 35 students were awarded the titles of Litter Guard and Litter Lecturer in the provincial network security education series. Students of the District won 638 awards in provincial and municipal competitions of information technology and artificial intelligence, ranking in the front among districts of Guangzhou. Fifthly, education on science and labor made notable achievements. The District Youth Science Academy establisheda 58-member expert tutor team, formed the first Board of Governors, and organized 8 campus visits of Guangzhou academicians and experts. Students of Huadu won 134 national awards, 95 provincial awards and 156 municipal awards in all kinds of science and technology education achievement awards; Xiuquan Middle School and Huangguang Middle School passed with excellent results the examination of “Xiaoping Science and Technology Innovation Laboratory” by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China. Labor education bore rich fruit. The application to be listed as a “one lesson, two lectures”pilot area of Guangzhou in comprehensive practice and labor education was successful; the District ranked first in Guangzhou during the provincial evaluation of labor education; and Yunshan School and Changgang Junior High School were named “Guangdong School with Characteristic Labor Education”. Sixthly, quality of education and teaching improved steadily. We witnessed slow but steady progress in the results of the college entrance examination, and leap forward development in high school entrance examination. In the province's 2024 compulsory education quality monitoring, Huadu District obtained results that were higher than the average of the province and of Guangzhou city. The “learning as the focus”classroom teaching reform was pushed forward; there were more than 40 “learning as the focus”pilot schools and 12 in-depth teaching pilot schools in the District; and 130 lessons were labeled as excellent in classroom reform evaluation. Of the teachers participating in classroom teaching competitions, there were 1 national prize winner, 4 provincial first prize winners, 1 second prize winner, and 18 municipal prize winners; and 21 projects under provincial education science planning program, and 131 projects under municipal program, were approved for initiation. Seventhly, the education supervision system and mechanism were efficient and powerful. Shiling and other four towns passed with excellent grade the Guangdong Top Towns of Education reassessment. We efficiently carried out special supervision in education and teaching quality management of secondary schools, balanced development of compulsory education and others, and comprehensive supervision in norm-compliant kindergarten and standard-compliant schools and others.

(v) Continuous optimization of teaching force building

Firstly, the cultivation of teacher ethics was effective. We guided teachers to actively practice the spirit of educator, solidly carried out special rectification activities of teacher ethics, and improved the long-term mechanism of supervision of teacher ethics to entrenched awareness of the red line of teacher ethics. During the year, there were 0 disciplinary action and notification of violation of teacher ethics, and 5 schools were included in the second batch of excellent schools of Guangzhou in teacher ethics building. Secondly, teaching force continued to grow. 7 open recruitments for public school teachers were held. 447 persons were hired as full-time teachers or “new mechanism” teachers; among the newly recruited full-time teachers, 38.52% of held postgraduate degree. And the structural issues of the teaching force in terms of discipline, age, and education stage were initially eased. Thirdly, teacher training and development were promoted in a solid manner. The “energetic teacher” training series activities were extensively carried out; and a training program was implemented where young cadres were “guided and lead”by mentors. We organized teachers to participate in 67 provincial and municipal teacher training programs, held 9 classes under the“energetic teacher” training program for a total of 450 teachers, and organizing 84 training sessions of all kinds that recorded more than 8,000 enrollments. Fourthly, the quality of the teaching force was significantly improved. Of each education stage, the requirements of diploma holder percentage of teachers were satisfied; and 19 teachers were awarded such titles of famous principal, teacher, class teacher or studio head of Guangdong province or Guangzhou city. 4 teachers passed successfully the appraisal for full senior teacher title; and 5 were selected into the "Hundred, Thousand, and Ten Thousand Talents Training Project”of Guangdong primary and secondary schools, which was the fourth highest number in the city. Guo Feihong of Xiuquan Middle School was selected as a trainee of the “Excellence Program “training project for Party secretaries and principals of Guangdong primary and secondary schools; and it is worth mentioning that the project has only 5 trainees from Guangzhou. Zhou Weili of Yuhua Primary School at Shiling Town was named a National Excellent Teacher.

(vi) The line of defense for campus safety was getting stronger

Firstly, significant achievements were made in the creation of safe and civilized campuses. All-out efforts were made to improve the level of safe and civilized campuses of the District as a whole; and the 100% completion rate exceeded the target by 70%. We created the intelligent safety management mode; all schools of the District basically satisfied the “six 100%” requirements, and the connectivity of personal protection, physical protection and technical protection was realized. We carried out the “first lesson of safety education” at the beginning of the semester, and intensively provided education and training on national security, fire safety, traffic safety, drowning prevention, anti-bullying, drug prevention, etc., ; as a result, the safety and security awareness of teachers and students was significantly improved. Secondly, the psychological crisis prevention system for students was improved. A closed-loop management mechanism was established to provide care and support to key students and to join forces in solving key cases; and the prevention, early warning and intervention mechanisms were effectively implemented. The effect of education cooperation among school, family and society became more salient; Huang Rundai of Kwong Weiyu Memorial Middle School was listed in the first batch of famous family education teachers of Guangzhou; and Yuanxuan Middle School, and Shiling Town Yuhua Primary School were included in the third batch of demonstration schools of Guangzhou in education cooperation among school, family and society. Thirdly, the protection of minors was carried out solidly and effectively. We printed and distributed the Work Plan of Huadu District Education Bureau for 2024 “Pilot” Action of Student Misbehavior Management, and we improved the working mechanism for the prevention and management of juvenile delinquency and bullying. Fourthly, the campus hygiene and health defense line was fully established. We spared no effort in promoting the prevention and control of infectious diseases on campus; work on food safety, health education, myopia prevention and control was implemented in every detail; and We took the lead in the city to create 10“eye-care hut”in schools. We went all out to create “green school”, “healthy school”, and “waste-free school”. We successfully created 175 Guangdong green schools, 384 provincial-level smoke-free units , 3 provincial-level myopia prevention and control model schools, and 56 municipal-level healthy schools. Fifthly, public complaints handling and stability maintaining were comprehensively strengthened. The number of public complaints in the education system dropped by 29% year-on-year, and 98.7% of them were solved. Sixthly, the enrollment and examination work run stably. The enrollment work advanced smoothly, and the goal of safe examination was realized.

In addition, solid progress was made in various aspects, of the education sector, including trade union, CYLC working committee, education foundation, Work Committee on Caring for the Next Generations, women's federation, confidentiality, and archive keeping.