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Overview
New approaches to education were encouraged after 1977, after a long period
of nothing being done with the growth of education and science. It was in 1985,
that school reform was implemented. Schooling was for nine years, with academic
achievement having priority over political consciousness.
Children between the ages of three to six go to kindergarten. There they
study language, math, singing, and painting and participate in sports. However,
because there is a shortage of room, many children do not get to participate in
pre-school education. But, because of the importance placed on education, that
is changing.
After kindergarten, the educational system is broken into three stages.
Primary school, secondary school and then the university. Primary school is
required and last for six years. Although in the more rural areas of China, the
schooling is always enforced.
While in primary school, the students are exposed
to math, Chinese and one foreign language, English or Japanese. These are the
main subjects, however they covered is Biology, music, art, politics, history,
physics, chemistry and geography.
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Once they complete with their primary school education, an exam is taken
before they proceed to the next stage – secondary school. This also lasts for
six years, broken down into middle and upper school. A student will go to middle
school for three years, upon which another exam is taken before proceeding into
upper school. The student who completes the middle school stage may then proceed
into vocational colleges.
Primary and middle school is required, but from here
on they have the choice to quit or continue their education. Within the
vocational schools there are three types: technical secondary schools,
vocational high schools and skilled worker’s schools. With technical schools
the idea is to create managerial personnel for the front line of production.
With vocational high schools, the training is focused on certain professional
skills. Lastly are the skilled workers schools.
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These are for bringing about
technical workers. Essentially, a vocational school allows a student to study
technical, teacher training or agricultural courses. How well they do with the
upper school education depends upon if they can meet the university entrance
requirements, which are known to be difficult and demanding.
The highest level of education that one can receive in China is a university
education. This is something that is offered to a small amount of Chinese. For
instance, in 10,000 students only 18 will be offered a university education. The
main study at universities is in humanities and science, although there is an
interest in architecture and engineering. However, the emphasis is usually
placed on scientific and technical education.
Once the students finish with
their university education, it is up to the authorities to find them employment.
Also, on a small scale, is the emergence of post-graduate study. Today, China
has a post-graduate education system in place.
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Recently there has been a surge of interest in adult education. This began
due to the high rate of illiteracy among its adults. The main purpose was to
increase the education level of the adults. Essentially, it is for those who
want to change jobs, provide literacy education for the illiterate adults.
It
was also to provide education for those who left regular school. Types of higher
learning education facilities include radio and TV universities, workers
colleges, farmer’s colleges, teacher colleges, and independent correspondence
colleges. Also, there are regular universities offering adult education.
In
various types of colleges, they can take free-time, part-time and full-time
course. The best free-time courses are in Beijing and Shanghai. Students are
generally released from work and are allowed to study, while having their fees
paid by their employers.
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Despite China’s attempt to educate the people, it is reported that there is
27% of the population that is illiterate. However, those numbers have dropped
compared to an 80% of the population illiteracy rate in the 1940’s. The drop
out rate has decreased, and the illiteracy of young and middle-aged people has
dropped significantly.
Some of the main reasons for the illiteracy are blamed on
low school attendance while they are young. Also, the lack of money to pay for
school fees prevents many from obtaining an education. Then there are primary
and middle schools that don’t have enough teachers due to low pay and poor
working conditions.
But compared to the history of China, great strides have
been taken in educating the people. By the end 1998, there were 1,022
universities and colleges in China with over 3 million students. Then there were
962 institutions geared towards adult education.
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PRESCHOOL EDUCATION
China develops its preschool education in various ways, by mobilizing the
resources of the whole society. While local governments run kindergartens,
work units, social organizations and individuals are also encouraged to open
kindergartens. Kindergartens apply the principle of combining child care
with education, and ensure that the infants achieve all-round physical,
intellectual, moral and aesthetic development, providing them with a harmonious
coordination of body and mind. With play as the basic form of activity,
kindergartens create a good environment for learning and provide the infants
with opportunities and conditions to exercise and display their abilities.
The state has worked out a qualification and examination system for
kindergarten teachers. At present, there are 67 kindergarten teachers'
schools in China, and the infant education is an area of study in vocation high
schools is considerably well developed. The Regulations on the Administration of
Kindergartens, the Regulations on the Kindergarten Work, and other laws and
regulations issued by the state have put kindergartens on the road to
systematized scientific development.
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PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
Primary and secondary education in China is composed of three stages: primary
school, junior middle school and senior middle school, with a length of study of
12 years altogether. Generally, the length of study in primary schools is
six years; junior middle schools, three years; and senior middle schools, three
years.
Primary and junior middle school education is compulsory.
Children who have reached the age of six may enter primary schools. Where
junior middle school education is basically universal, students who have
graduated from primary schools may, without examination, advance to the
appropriate junior middle schools. Junior middle school graduates may
enter senior middle schools after passing examinations set by the local
education authorities.
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Since the issuing of the Compulsory Education Law of the PRC in 1986,
governments at all levels have actively promoted nine-year compulsory education,
and made remarkable achievements. Throughout the national, nearly ,500
counties, cities and municipal districts have basically instituted nine-year
compulsory education, with a population coverage of about 50 percent.
Senior middle school education is now virtually universal in large in large and
medium-sized cities and the coastal areas, where the economy is fairly well
developed.
Ethics, labor skills and after-school education are promoted in primary and
secondary schools, laying a good foundation for the enhancement of the students'
quality and their all-round development.
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SPECIAL EDUCATION
The Chinese government has all along paid great attention to special
education. With the initiation of the reform and opening policies in 1978,
China's special education entered a new development period. The state has
issued a series of laws and regulations which make explicit stipulations on
safeguarding the rights to education of the disabled, formulated a series of
both general and specific policies for reforming and developing the sphere of
special education, while earmarking special funds for this
purpose.
According to statistics, China has 1,426 special
education schools for blind, deaf and mentally retarded children and teenagers,
and some 5,400 special education classes attached to ordinary middle schools,
with a total of 320,000 students. In addition, a large number of disabled
children and teenagers study in ordinary schools. Currently, more than
1,700 rehabilitation institutions for deaf infants are operating on China and
over 70,000 children have been or are being trained there. Furthermore,
there are more than 1,000 vocational training institutions for the disabled in
China.
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VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
The Chinese government issued the Vocational Education Law of the PRC
in 1996, making explicit stipulations regarding the status, role, structure,
functions and duties, management system and fund channels for vocational
education.
China's vocational education is mainly composed of advanced vocational
schools, technical secondary schools, skilled worker's schools, vocational
middle schools, vocational training centers and other technical training schools
for adults and training institutions run by social organizations or
individuals. Vocational education is divided into three levels: advanced,
secondary and primary levels, which coordinate closely with each other.
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Advanced vocational education, the highest level of vocational education in
China, is still in the initial stage. Conducted on the basis of the
students having high-school education, it is an important part of the higher
education. At present, schools offering advanced vocational education are:
87 professional and technical colleges, short-term vocational universities and
technical junior colleges; several dozen professional junior colleges, now
undergoing reforms; 133 higher learning schools for adults (with 188 areas of
study offered), where experiments in advanced vocational education are
conducted; and 18 technical secondary schools which offer advanced vocational
education classes.
Their major task is to cultivate practical and
technological specialists for the front line of the nation's economic
construction. In accordance with the development program for vocational
education, the existing system of advanced vocational education is to be
reformed and restructured, and supplemented with a small number of leading
vocational secondary schools to promote advanced vocational education and
gradually develop into colleges of vocational technology.
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Vocational secondary education is the principal part of the China's
vocational education. It has three forms: technical secondary schools,
vocational high schools and skilled workers' schools.
The major task of technical secondary schools is to cultivate secondary
technical and managerial personnel for the front line of production. After
many years of effort, there are now 3,206 technical secondary schools
nationwide.
The restoration and development of vocational high schools began in the early
1980s. Because they have adapted themselves to China's economic development and
reform of the structure of secondary education, vocational high schools are
developing rapidly. Now there are 8,500 such schools nationwide, with a
total of four million students.
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They mainly train employees with high
school educational level and certain professional skills. Compared with
the low quality of professional teachers and textbooks and simple and crude
equipment for experiments and practice in the early 1980s, vocational high
schools now have developed into well-equipped new-type schools with obviously
improved quality of teachers and management.
Skilled workers' schools are vocational secondary schools for cultivating
technical workers. China's first skilled workers' schools was established
in 1949. Currently, there are 4,467 skilled workers' schools nationwide,
with 1.8625 million students studying 400-odd subjects.
To date, there are more than 17,000 vocational schools of various types and
levels, 2,090-odd professional training centers and over 400,000 training
centers for workers and staff, technical training schools for adults and
training institutions run by social organizations and individuals.
Each
year, millions of people are trained at the various training institutions and
vocational schools. Chinas has basically formed a vocational education
system offering distinct advanced, secondary and primary levels of education in
all grades.
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HIGHER EDUCATION
After continuous reforms and adjustment since 1978, a multi-level and
multi-format higher education system comprehending all disciplines has taken
initial shape to fit in with national economic and social development. The
number of ordinary institutions of higher learning increased to 1.022 in 1998
from 598 to 1978.
With the continuous deepening of the reform of the
organization of higher education, the scale of ordinary institutions of higher
learning has been greatly developed, and the benefits remarkably enhanced.
With the levels and structure of the cultivation of talent being increasingly
rationalized, and the courses improved, institutions of higher learning
continuously supply society with a great number of top=grade specialists.
In recent years, putting stress on scientific and technological sectors while
developing in an all-round way, enterprises run by institutions of higher
learning have sprung up rapidly, and their products with high technology
contents have found their way into international markets.
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China is
focusing its energies on carrying out the "211 Project," that is to
say, developing 100 major universities and an extensive group of important
disciplines and areas of study to reach the advanced world standards by the
early part of the 21st century.
As China established a socialist market economy system and deepened the
reforms of various undertakings, the higher education system reform has become
the crux of various reforms in higher education.
The general objective for
the reforms is to bring into better balance the relations between the
government, society and institutions of higher learning, establish and strive to
perfect a new system that, while still macro-managed by the state within an
overall plan, turns institutions of higher learning outward to face society and
gives schools autonomy in providing education.
After many years of effort,
higher education has made considerable progress in the reform of management and
investment systems, as well as in the personnel and distribution systems.
Also, it has taken a big step forward in the reform of the recruitment and
employment systems of college graduates.
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In 1997, all the institutions of
higher learning in China carried out the "combination of two
categories" reform, that is, the students to be recruited were no longer
divided into two categories - state planning and the regulatory planning - but
all belonged to the same category and had to pay tuition fees.
Schools
provide loans for students who cannot afford to pay the tuition. In
respect of the employment of recent college graduates, with the improvement of
the labor and personnel systems, the work units and schools meet to coordinate
supply and demand, and exercise a "two-way choice," wherein work units
may select their own employees and graduates may choose their employers under
the guidance of state policies, with the exception of those students who are
pre-assigned to specific posts or areas, who enjoy pre-assignment grants or
special grants and are to be employed according to the contracts.
Postgraduate education is making unprecedented strides. Before 1949,
China's high-grade specialists were mainly trained in foreign countries, the
scale of domestic postgraduate education was very small, as a handful of
higher-education schools enrolled a limited number of graduates and granted
about 200 master's degrees altogether throughout all the pre-Liberation period,
and no doctorates were offered.
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After 1978, China's educational and
scientific undertakings developed in an all-round way, and postgraduate
education gradually entered a new stage of vigorous development. In 1978,
some 63,000 people entered for graduate admission examinations, and 10,000 were
recruited.
In 1998, a total of 8,957 students received doctorates, and
38,051 master's degrees. Today, China has managed to establish a
postgraduate education system fundamentally comprehending all disciplines and an
academic degrees system wherein the quality of the training can be
guaranteed.
This has promoted the fostering and growth of high-grade
specialized talents, and given an impetus to scientific research and discipline
development in institutions of higher education and scientific research.
While admitting foreign students, China also send students to study abroad
every year. In 1998, China received 43,084 students from 164 countries and
the students it sent to study abroad exceeded to 23,000-mark.
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ADULT EDUCATION
Just after the founding of the PRC, when illiterates accounted for more than
80 percent of the nation's population, the Chinese government called on the
people to "develop functional literacy and gradually reduce
illiteracy," which was the beginning of adult education in China.
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The purpose of adult education in China is to raise the educational level and
that of professional technology, and the practical capabilities of the people
who, while working, wish to change their jobs or are waiting for employment;
provide literacy education for illiterates; continue to provide education for
people who have left regular schools, in accordance with their educational
levels; provide continued education for people who have received higher
education to renew and expand their knowledge and enhance their professional
proficiency; and develop colorful social and cultural life education to help all
of China's people lead civilized, healthy and scientific lives.
Adult higher learning institutions include radio and TV universities,
workers' colleges, farmers' colleges, colleges for managerial personnel,
colleges for in-service teachers training, independent correspondence colleges,
and ordinary colleges and universities offering adult education (such as
correspondence departments, evening universities and teachers' in-service
training classes), supplemented by educational TV programs and higher-learning
examination programs for the self-taught.
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Secondary schools for adult
education include vocational secondary schools, ordinary middle schools holding
secondary vocational classes for workers and cadres, adult middle schools, adult
technical training schools, peasants' cultural and technical schools and
agricultural radio and TV schools, supplemented by the secondary vocational
examination program for the self-taught.
In addition, there are various
face-to-face teaching schools and correspondence schools characterized by
in-service training, guidance and other training.
The teaching methods
provided by these schools include full-time classroom teaching, and
long-distance instruction for self-taught students by providing teaching
materials, and audio and video materials. The study methods include
full-time, part-work and part-study, and spare-time methods.
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Education comes in two categories - general and specific. The former
includes the regular college, junior college, vocations secondary school and
middle school levels, and the latter includes elimination of illiteracy rural
practical technology training, on-the-job training, education for
single-discipline qualification certificates, education for vocational
certificates and postgraduate continued education.
In recent years, the units running schools for adults have made considerable
progress in the acquisition and improvement of schools buildings, teaching
instruments and equipment, and the number and quality of teachers, and the
quality of and benefits from schools are being continuously enhanced.
Schools for adult education have become an important part of China's
education.
In addition to schools funded by the state, there are
1,2000-odd institutions of higher learning funded by society at large, of which
21 are qualified to issue academic certificates and diplomas. Besides,
there are 30,000 schools giving short-term training, in-service training,
continuation courses and guidance.
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