The Shanghai Municipal Commission of Education is a department of the municipal government responsible for overseeing education throughout the city.

Main responsibilities:

1. Implement laws, regulations, rules, guidelines and policies related to education. Research and draft local regulations and rules on education and organise their implementation.

2. Develop strategies for education reform and development, and formulate development plans and annual plans for the education sector. Identify key areas, scale, structure, spatial layout, and implementation steps for the advancement of the education sector, and ensure their effective execution.

3. Coordinate education work across different stages. Facilitate the advancement of reforms in both educational and school management systems, along with comprehensive improvements in educational and teaching practices. Advance the construction of a modern school system and promote law-based school management. Be responsible for the statistics, analysis, and publication of basic education information.

4. Oversee work related to basic education. Promote reforms in curriculum, teaching and enrollment examinations. Organise work related to preschool education and childcare services. Advance the integration of education resources in urban and rural areas, and promote balanced and high-quality development of compulsory education. Advance diversified development in regular high schools. Deepen reforms in special education.

5. Manage work related to vocational education. Promote teaching reform in vocational education, encourage vocational colleges to deepen cooperation with industrial and research organisations, develop vocational education at the undergraduate level, improve the training model for graduates with professional academic degrees, and consolidate and improve the level of secondary vocational education. Guide private vocational institutions to standardise their management systems. Establish a regular system for predicting industry-specific human resource demands and releasing employment conditions.

6. Oversee work related to higher education. Coordinate tasks such as the establishment of higher education institutions, adjustments to disciplines and majors, setting up and restructuring of degree programs, and planning of enrollment. Optimise the structural layout of higher education, and implement categorised management, guidance and services. Direct higher education institutions to adjust and optimise the composition of disciplines and majors according to social needs. Enhance the quality of undergraduate teaching, deepen reforms in graduate education, and improve the structure of graduate education.

7. Organise and implement the city-wide development plan for higher education disciplines. Promote the construction of world-class universities and disciplines. Guide higher education institutions to participate in building innovative systems and think tanks, and advance research at higher education institutions in the fields of science and technology, philosophy and social science and educational science.

8. Oversee the construction of a learning society and promote lifelong education. Advance the development of a lifelong education system and learning organisations, focusing on community education, family education, rural education, and elderly education. Guide township adult schools in providing vocational skills education and training, coordinate with relevant departments in conducting employment training for disadvantaged groups, and oversee the management of various nondegree education programs.

9. Manage private education. Standardise the operation of education by social forces, improve policies and measures for the macro-management of private education, and guide the development of industry organisations and educational social organisations in the private education sector.

10. Organise and implement further efforts to reduce the burden of homework and extracurricular training for students in the compulsory education stage. Strengthen the role of schools as the main educational institutions, enhance governance of extracurricular training institutions, and collaborate with relevant departments to strengthen routine supervision of institutions engaged in extracurricular training.

11. Assume responsibility for collaborative exchanges within the education system. Standardise foreign-related education, coordinate education for foreign students in Shanghai, and improve related social service systems. Coordinate international education of Chinese language within the education system. Within the education system, manage the affairs of students and teachers going overseas as well as foreign cultural and educational experts and foreign teachers coming to Shanghai. Organise cooperative exchanges between the education system and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.

12. Assume responsibilities for enrollment into education with record of formal schooling and manage school registration records. Participate in formulating employment policies for university graduates, reform graduate employment systems, and guide local universities in their efforts to help students find jobs and start businesses. Strengthen the system to provide guidance and service for career development, and enhance the capabilities of college students to get jobs and start businesses. Participate in formulating and implementing policies on educational aid and organise services for students facing employment challenges.

13. Provide guidance on cultivating teachers and training administrative staff at educational institutions of all levels and types. Promote the development of professional ethics and conduct for teachers. Manage recognition of teaching qualifications, and guide and coordinate the appointment of professional and technical positions in the educational sector.

14. Guide ideological and political education, moral education, physical education and health, art popularisation, and national defense education for educational institutions of all levels and types. Strengthen the quality of counselor teams and improve courses on ideological and political theories at higher education institutions.

15. Manage educational funds and State-owned educational assets at the municipal level. Participate in formulating charging policies for educational institutions of all levels and types, and regulate the management of educational fees. Supervise the execution of education budgets and ensure the standardised use of educational funds. Manage educational infrastructure projects, coordinate the construction and management of university campuses. Audit and inspect the entire educational system.

16. Assume responsibilities for education supervision and evaluation. Conduct assessments and monitoring of the academic quality of basic education, promote formulation of unified standards for education, and formulate standards for education of all levels and types.

17. Assume responsibilities for the protection of underage students at schools. Manage public safety education, logistics and security, as well as emergency response for higher education institutions, primary and secondary schools, and kindergartens. Lead efforts to improve comprehensive law and order around campuses. Manage the work related to petitions and complaints for the education system. Improve and ensure the implementation of safety production responsibilities in the education industry and guide, coordinate, supervise, and manage safety production in the education industry.

18. Manage textbooks and languages. Supervise and review textbooks and promote language regularisation and standardisation.

19. Complete other tasks assigned by the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and the municipal government.