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Education and Literacy
in China
Shortly
after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese government
took education as a matter of primary importance, and made enhancing the
cultural quality of the people the basis of the construction of the
nation.
Before 1949, China had a population of nearly 500 million, of whom 80 percent
were illiterate. Proceeding from reforming the educational system, the
Chinese government made an overall plan and adjusted its educational policies,
with the result that the number of students increased rapidly. Currently,
91 percent of the country has instituted compulsory primary education, with nearly 99
percent of school-age children are enrolled in schools.
The dropout rate
has decreased and the illiteracy rate of young and middle-aged people has declined to less than seven percent. Since the initiation of the reform
and opening policies in 1978, marked by the restoration of the higher-education
examination system, China's education got on the road to accelerated
development.
As one of the priorities of China's economic and social
development, education is a matter of great concern to the government. The
decisive guiding principle that "Education should be geared to the
needs of modernization, of the world and of the future" (Message written
for Jingshan School by Deng Xiaoping on October 1, 1983) has promoted the speedy
development of China's educational undertakings. China
has attained considerable achievements attracting worldwide attention in
education.
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According to the latest statistics, by the end of 1998 there
were 1,022 universities and colleges in China, with 3.41 million students, of
which 1.08 million were the year's new recruits; 736 graduate training units
with 199,000 students, of which 73,000 were the year's new recruits; 962 adult higher-learning institutions with 2.82 million students, of which one million
were the year's new recruits; 17,106 secondary special and technical schools and
vocation high schools, with 11.26 million students (of which, 1.73 million were
technical school students), accounting for 55 percent of the total students in
high schools.
There were 54.5 million junior middle school students
nationwide, with an enrollment rate of 87.3 percent; 139.54 million primary
school pupils, with 98.9 percent of the school-age children enrolled. The
dropout rates of the students of ordinary junior middle schools and primary
schools were 3.23 percent and 0.93 percent, respectively.
There were 2.51
million people studying in vocational secondary schools for adults; 86.82
million persons trained in adult technical training schools; and 3.21 million
illiterate people became literate. The
cross-century period is an important phase in China's economic and social
development.
Giving priority to the development of education is the basis
of the two major national strategies of improving the quality of the people and
rejuvenating the nation by relying on science and education and realizing
sustained development.
As human society enters the knowledge and
information age, education is expected to play an increasingly important
role.
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