The Ministry of Education was founded in October 1949. The work of the ministry was overseen by the Culture and Education Commission that was created at the same time. On October 19, writer and poet
Guo Moruo was made the director of the commission, and linguist
Ma Xulun was made the first education minister of the People's Republic of China. In February 1958, the Ministry of Higher Education was merged into the Ministry of Education. In July 1964, the Ministry of Higher Education was restored. In July 1966, the Ministry of Higher Education was once again merged into the Ministry of Education. In June 1970, the
Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party decided to abolish the Ministry of Education and establish the Science and Education Group of the State Council. The Ministry of Education was restored after the disruptions of the
Cultural Revolution in 1975 by the
4th National People's Congress. Until the Ministry's 1975 restoration, the
State Council's Science and Education Group was the most important government body in the education bureaucracy. Its guidelines on environmental education emphasized firsthand experience and recommended that a quarter of environmental education content should consist of "practice activities". Since 2019, the Ministry of Education's
Institute for a Community with Shared Future (ICSF), hosted at the
Communication University of China, has served to promote the concept of "
community of a share future for mankind" internationally through multiple affiliated research centers in several countries.
Development of the political counselor system In 1952, the Ministry of Education sought to develop a system of political counselors as a pilot program in universities.
Tsinghua University established a political counselor program in 1953, becoming the first university to do so. In this program, new graduates who were also
Chinese Communist Party members worked as political counselors in managing the student body and student organizations, often simultaneously serving as
Communist Youth League secretaries. The program was interrupted by the Cultural Revolution but resumed in 1977. After its endorsement by
Deng Xiaoping, the program expanded across higher educational institutions. Beginning in the 1990s, the political counselor system was further institutionalized and expanded in higher educational institutions throughout China, with the ministry issuing standardized rules such as term limits and age limits in 2000. == Organizational structure ==