Building China into a Leading Country in Education: Index and Orientation

From the perspective of modernization, the essence of a leading country in education lies in ensuring comprehensively the value-added modernity of the people through its powerful capacity in education. Connotatively, a leading country in education refers to a country with significantly strong capacity in comprehensive educational strength, educational innovation, talent training, educational service, educational governance, international competitiveness in education, and influence in education. According to the results of the Worldwide Leading Country in Education Construction Index (WLCECI 2019) under the analytic framework for the orientation to decision-making, China’s total score was 74.56, ranking 24th among the 60 major countries in the world, and at the forefront of quasi-leading country in education. The WLCECI reveals that China belongs to the category of “low input and high output” and the type of “latecomer and exogenous” country. In light of this overall judgement, in terms of hard power construction, China needs to draw on the experience of similar leading countries in education, make full use of its latecomer advantage, and focus on the monitoring of the process-oriented educational indicators and the increase of output-based educational indicators. In terms of soft power construction, China needs to follow the principles of “green, coordinated, and sustainable” development and firmly take a new path of building a leading country in education with Chinese characteristics. Strategically, emphasis should be laid on stimulating national higher education capacity.