I. Background
It is a state-run system of public education under Ministry of Education. Training is in all trades and professions. Education is compulsory for at least 9 years. The government provides primary education for 6 to 9 years, starting at the age of 6 or 7, followed by 6 years of secondary education for 12 to 18 years. Some provinces may have 5 years of primary school but 4 years for middle school.
- There are 3 years of middle school and 3 years of high school.
- A 99% attendance rate for primary school and 80% rate for both primary and middle schools reported by the Ministry of Education.
- First private schools established in 1980s.
- Education has expanded, e.g., the number of undergraduates and doctorate degrees has increased fivefold from 1995 to 2005.
- There are over 100 National Key Universities.
- Education is geared towards economic modernization and priority is given to training skilled personnel and expanding scientific and technical knowledge.
- Humanities are considered important but vocational and technical skills are considered paramount for China’s modernization goals.
- There is re-training of already-educated elite and emphasis on modern sciences and technology.
- Continuing education is the trend and schooling has become lifelong process.
- Political changes in contemporary China have improved higher education through political re-education.
II. Levels
- A 9-year Law of Compulsory Education was passed in 1986- 6 years in primary and 3 years in secondary.
- The main features of the 9-year systems are continuity, the principle of proximity and unitarity.
1. Basic Education
- Involves pre-school, 9-year compulsory education (elementary to junior high school), standard senior high school
education, special education for disabled children and education for illiterate people.
- Prioritized as the key field of infrastructure construction and education development.
2. Primary Education
- Enrollment increased to 96% in 1985.
- Tuition-free and reasonably located for attendance.
- Entry at 7 years for 6 days a week; later changed to five and a half and 5 days a week in 1995 and 1997
respectively.
- The curriculum consisted of Chinese, math, PE, music, drawing, elementary instruction in nature, history, geography, practical work, general knowledge and moral training.
- Chinese and math account for 60% of the scheduled class time; natural science and social science account for about 8%.
3. Pre-school Education
- Begins at age 3 and is a target of education reform.
- More pre-school teachers with more appropriate training were called by officials.
4. Special Education
- For gifted children and slow learners.
- Children with severe learning problems and those with handicaps and psychological needs were largely the responsibility of the parents.
- Extra provisions were made for blind and severely hearing-impaired children, but enrollment is low.
5. Secondary Education
i. Junior secondary
- Commonly called (junior) middle school education, and consists of 3 years of the 9-year compulsory education.
- Graduants may continue a 3-year academic education in academic high school, which eventually lead to the university, or to switch to a vocational course in vocational high school.
ii. Senior secondary
- 3-year high school (or called senior middle school) education, for grade 10 to 12.
- Attended by 12 year olds who have finished 6 years of primary education; but not compulsory.
- Curriculum includes Chinese, math, English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, e.t.c.
- Chinese, Math, and English are the 3 main subjects in the Gaokao.
- The entrance exam is called Zhongkao.
- Entry is by application and performance in the exams.
- There is stiff competition in the top schools.
iii. Vocational and Technical schools
- Vocational education embraces higher vocational schools, secondary skills, vestibule schools, vocational high schools, job-finding centers and other adult skill and social training institutes.
- Are to meet vocational education, obtaining employment, and to meet the more acute demand for high quality, skilled workers.
- Are cultivating skilled workers needed in modern manufacturing and service industries; and training rural laborers moving to urban areas.
- 4 kinds of secondary and technical schools in 1987 are technical schools, workers’ training schools, vocational technical schools and agricultural middle schools.
iv. Higher Education
- Has recently doubled and is the world’s largest.
- Many industrial and multiversities and specialist colleges have been established, strengthening some incomplete subjects and establishing new specialties, e.g., automation, nuclear power, energy resources, e.t.c.
- Schools of higher learning were merged into universities; this has reformed higher education management, optimized allocation of educational resources and improved technical quality and school standards further.
III. Administration and Finance
- Laws regulating the system of education the Regulation on Academic Degrees, the Compulsory Education Law, the Teachers Law, e.t.c.
- Provincial-level authorities were to develop plans, enact decrees and rules, distribute funds to counties and administer directly a few key secondary schools.
- Due to scarce resources, local governments were instructed not to pursue middle-school education blindly while primary education was still developing, or take money, teachers and materials from primary schools.
- High school years generally have 2 semesters.
- The number of lessons offered in senior secondary is subjective and largely depends on the school’s resources.
- Admission to senior schools is through competition.
- Polytechnic colleges were to give priority to admitting secondary vocational and technical school graduates and providing on-the-job training for qualified workers.
- University and colleges were independent and were able to choose their own teaching plans and curricula; to accept projects from or cooperate with other socialist establishments for scientific research and technical development, e.t.c.
- These reforms also allowed the universities to accept financial aid from work units and decide how this money was to be used without asking for more money from departments in charge of education.
- Examinations are the basis for recruiting academically able students into higher education.
- Funding of education is by central and provincial governments; but this is lower in rural areas.
- Families supplement with tuition fees, hence some children get less education. Parents highly value education and sacrifice a lot.
- Investment in education has increased; 1%-point increase yearly since 1998.
- Financial allocation to education to be increased after setting up an educational finance system.
- Investment in education to be 4% of GDP.
- Cost-sharing is non-compulsory education.
- County authorities were to distribute funds to each township government to make up for any deficiencies.
- The government has created a special fund to improve conditions in China’s elementary and high schools, for new construction, expansion and the re-building of run-down structures.
- Per-capita educational expenditure for elementary and high school students has greatly grown, teaching and research equipment, books and documents being updated and renewed yearly.
- China government’s aims were to develop basic education system to approach or attain the level of moderately developed countries by 2010.
- Primary schools were tuition-free under the 9-year Compulsory Education Law.
- Parents paid a small fee per term for books and other expens
Titany answered the question on August 10, 2021 at 10:25