CCTV News: Recently, the Office of the Special Working Mechanism for Reducing the Burden of Formalism at the Central Level for Grassroots and the General Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection reported on three typical problems for remediating the Burden of Formalism at the grassroots level.

These three typical problems are:

The research team of the China Employment Training Technical Guidance Center went to the grassroots for investigation and accompanied by multiple people at all levels. From October 16 to 18, 2024, a group of three people from the China Employment Training Technical Guidance Center went to two counties and districts of a certain province to conduct research on the construction of labor brand. During this period, there was a lack of strict control over the number of people accompanying grassroots. There were many people accompanying provinces, cities, counties and townships at all levels. Sometimes a research site accompanied nearly 10 people, which increased the burden on grassroots. The research team has successively inspected and investigated the national historical and cultural cities, the ancient streets of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the thousand-year-old ancient city walls, etc. Some research points are obviously inconsistent with the research topic.

The Chinese Student Nutrition and Health Promotion Association conducts the standard-to-compliance creation activities in violation of regulations, and the scoring standards are complicated and require the grassroots to provide a large amount of proof materials. In September 2024, the China Student Nutrition and Health Promotion Association issued a notice to relevant units of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in violation of regulations, deploying the application and evaluation of the construction of "Nutrition and Health School (Kindergarten)" in 2025, requiring relevant institutions of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities to organize application and evaluation of local schools and kindergartens, and propose to assess the progress of the work of schools meeting standards every year. The scoring standards are complicated, among which the Nutrition and Health School Scoring Table includes 39 items in 8 major categories and 117 scoring standards, and the index level reaches level 3. The above practices of the Chinese Student Nutrition and Health Promotion Association clearly violate the relevant requirements of the "Several Provisions on the Reduction of Burdens for the Grassroots" on Standardizing the Creation of Demonstration and Standardization of Standardized Activities, Coordinating and Standardizing Supervision, Inspection and Assessment.

The education department of Huizhou City, Guangdong lacks overall regulations on social affairs entering campuses, and has carried out activities such as meeting standards and signing responsibility letters in violation of regulations to increase the non-education and teaching burden of teachers. The Huizhou Municipal Education Bureau violated the "Several Regulations on the Remediation of Formalism and Reduced Burdens for Grassroots" and did not stop relevant compliance activities. In October 2024, it still carried out acceptance work for standardized management of fire safety in primary and secondary schools, requiring schools to evaluate and inspect more than 100 acceptance standards, and prepare various ledger materials such as monthly fire inspections, daily fire patrols, and fire safety education. In May 2024, the Education Bureau of Boluo County, Huizhou City launched a special work on preventing students' drowning safety, allocating the responsibilities that should be undertaken by professional departments to the school, and arranging the schools to comprehensively investigate key waters such as reservoirs, rivers and lakes around the campus. Students and parents are required to frequently sign commitment letters and responsibility letters, and take the anti-drowning work log as an important basis for principal responsibility system assessment and accountability investigation. Non-educational and teaching matters and excessive traces have increased the burden on primary and secondary school teachers.

Expert analysis: Both investigation and reform will give grassroots cadres more time to implement

What exposed these issues reported? How should we further correct it? The reporter interviewed relevant experts.

Song Wei, deputy director and professor of the Beijing Integrity Construction Research Base, said that the issues reported this time reflect that some places and units are not strict in implementing the spirit of the Central Eight Regulations and their implementation rules. They are not strict in the investigation, and are not seeking effectiveness, increasing the burden on grassroots; some are not strict in implementing the "Several Provisions on the Reduction of Burdens of Formalism for Grassroots" and carry out creation and compliance activities for grassroots in violation of regulations. Evaluation indicators are complicated, and the grassroots level is required to provide a large amount of proof materials, and cumbersome philosophy is required; some are not effective in coordinating social affairs into campuses, resulting in schools taking on too many unnecessary non-educational and teaching tasks. The spirit of the Central Eight Regulations and the "Several Regulations on the Reduction of Burdens for the Grassroots" are iron rules and hard rulings that must be strictly abide by. This not only requires all regions and departments to strictly implement relevant requirements, and seriously investigate and deal with the "four winds" problems that violate discipline and invisible variations in the wind, especially those formalism and bureaucracy that are keen on showing the superiors, not being responsible to the subordinates, and not considering effectiveness. At the same time, relevant departments should strengthen supervision and guidance on the work of rectifying formalism in systematic fields and industry associations to reduce the burden on grassroots units, and reduce the burden on grassroots units from the source. We must also do a good job in the "second half of the article" of rectification and rectification, strengthen follow-up guidance throughout the process, and supervise rectification in a real and tough manner. We will truly free the vast number of grassroots cadres from some unnecessary matters and have more time and energy to implement and serve the people.