According to relevant surveys, there is a big gap between China citizens' scientific quality level and that of developed countries. The gap between urban and rural citizens' scientific quality is very obvious, and the scientific quality of working-age population is not high; Most citizens have a low understanding of basic scientific knowledge, and they lack scientific spirit, scientific ideas and scientific methods. Some unscientific ideas and behaviors are widespread, and ignorance and superstition prevail in some areas. The low scientific quality of citizens has become one of the bottlenecks restricting China's economic development and social progress.
The construction of citizens' scientific quality is a basic social project to adhere to the road of independent innovation with China characteristics and build an innovative country. It is also a social action guided by the government and widely participated by the whole people. Since the reform and opening up, especially since the implementation of the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education, China's citizens' scientific quality construction has made great progress, but there are still many problems. The number of years of formal education per capita is lower than the world average; Due to the long-term influence of exam-oriented education, students' scientific quality structure has obvious defects; The development of social education and adult education is not comprehensive and in-depth, and citizens lack opportunities to receive lifelong education. The long-term operation mechanism of popular science has not yet been formed; Lack of popular science facilities, teams, funds and other resources; Mass media science and technology dissemination is not strong enough and the quality is not high. The public service of citizens' scientific quality construction has failed to effectively meet the needs of society, and the initiative of citizens to improve their scientific quality has not been fully mobilized.
The National Action Plan for Scientific Literacy aims to comprehensively promote the scientific literacy construction of citizens in China. Through the development of science and technology education, dissemination and popularization, the scientific literacy of the whole people will be greatly improved as soon as possible, and the long-term goal of China adult citizens having basic scientific literacy by the middle of this century will be realized. The Outline of Scientific Literacy puts forward the main objectives, tasks and measures of the national action plan for scientific literacy during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, as well as the phased goals by 2020.