Since the establishment of Dehong Prefecture in 1953, education in Dehong has remarkably improved. In 2000, Dehong achieved the goal of universal "nine-year compulsory education" across the Prefecture.

Since 2000, the Dehong educational authorities made an effort to promote educational reforms and innovation, focusing on updating education in the countryside, optimizing educational resources and improving education quality.

From 2000 to 2005, Dehong carried out several educational reform projects.

Firstly, five secondary technical schools were merged into two schools.

Secondly, the prefectural government is to implement the reconstruction and expansion work of the general high schools and widen their capacities for students; 32 million yuan was used to renovate and expand 6 high schools within the Prefecture.

Thirdly, Dehong implemented the Reconstruction Project for Schools with Unsafe Buildings. By the end of 2004, 383 million yuan were used to reconstruct buildings for 110 elementary and high schools within the Prefecture.

Fourthly, with the help of the central government, Dehong Government exempted tuition fees for 84,858 elementary and high school students in the Prefecture.

Fifthly, schools were encouraged to use multimedia and other information technologies in class and received financial support from the Dehong Government. 2665 computers, 502 CD players, and 23 multimedia classrooms were set up in elementary and high schools. By the end of 2005, the ratio of students to computers reached 72 / 1.

So far Dehong has established a complete educational system with all levels of schooling. At present, there are 657 elementary schools with 10.88 million students, 68 high schools with 64,682 students, 6 vocational middle schools with 3,067 students, 4 secondary technical schools with 1,564 students, 2 institutes of higher education with 2,967 students, and 81 kindergartens with 19,876 students in Dehong Prefecture.