Basic Education

China's basic education includes pre-school education, nine-year compulsory education from elementary to junior high school, ordinary senior high school education, special education for disabled children, and education for illiterates.

There are more than 200 million elementary and high school students in China. Together with pre-school children, they account for one-sixth of the whole population. For this reason the Central Government has given priority to development of basic education as a key field of infrastructure construction and educational development.
 
In recent years, senior high school education has developed steadily. In 2003 the enrollment was 7.52 million, 3.1 times that in 1988. Today, the national gross enrollment in senior high schools is only 42.8 percent, much lower than that of developed countries.
 
The Central Government has invested special funds to improve conditions of elementary and high schools around the country.

Higher Education

Enrollment in higher education in China continues to expand. From 1999 to 2002, the enrollment increased from 1.6 million to 3.2 million. In 2003, the total enrollment in ordinary schools of higher learning throughout China was 3.82 million, 62,000 more than the previous year. Schools of higher learning and research institutes enrolled 269,000 post-graduate students, 66,000 more than the previous year. In 2004, the whole scale of enrollment of post-graduate students will be further enlarged, the planned enrollment being 330,000, an increase of 22.7 percent from 2003.

Schools of higher learning have improved their research strength, making more obvious contributions to the economic construction and social development of the country. By strengthening cooperation between production, teaching and scientific research — schools of higher learning are speeding up the turning of scientific and technological research results into products. By the end of 2003, 43 scientific parks had been built around the country in places like Beijing-based Tsinghua University, East China's Fujian-based Xiamen University and Zhejiang-based Zhejiang University.