The Tenth Five-Year Plan of the Education Industry and its Development

The education industry will energetically implement the strategy of developing China through science and technology in line with the Resolution of the Communist Party of China's Central Committee and the State Council on Deepening Educational Reform and Promoting Quality Education, the Resolution of the State Council on Reform and Development of Elementary Education and the Action Plan of Vitalizing Education in the Face of the 21st Century.

China aims to build up a vigorous socialist education system with Chinese characteristics. The system will not only meet the needs of the socialist market economy and social development, but also provide qualified personnel and a solid knowledge base for China to realize its strategic targets in modernization construction.

Targets for 2010:
Pre-school education will be improved to meet social demand; conditions for running schools and the teaching level will be significantly enhanced; more people will receive nine-year national compulsory education; the gross enrollment rate of junior middle schools will exceed 95 percent; the gross enrollment rate of senior middle schools will also be greatly augmented; high school education will be popularized in cities and developed areas.

By 2010 the number of students enrolled in colleges and universities will reach 23 million, including one million postgraduates; the gross enrollment rate of colleges and universities will reach 20 percent.

The renovation capability and service capacity of colleges and universities will be further strengthened; the reform of education and teaching methods will be intensified; network education will reach a comparatively high level; the modernization of education will be realized in some areas; the structure of the educational layout nationwide will be more rational; educational exchanges and cooperation with foreign countries will be expanded; a life-long education system will be established.

Overview of the development of education in China

Compulsory education:
In 2001 there were 491,300 primary schools nationwide with 99.05 percent of children at the primary school age; full-time teachers with formal academic credentials accounted for 96.81 percent. As for junior middle schools, 66,600 such schools had an enrollment of 88.7 percent at the middle-school level, including 88.72 percent of full-time teachers with academic credentials.

Pre-school education and special education:
There were 111,700 kindergartens in China in 2001 with 20.2184 enrolled (including those receiving pre-school education) 20.2184 million with 630,100 kindergarten teachers. Meanwhile, there were 1,531 special-education schools with 56,000 disabled students. The total number of disabled children in schools was 386,400 in 2001.

High school education:
There were 34,300 high schools in China in 2001, including ordinary, professional, specialized and skilled workers' high schools, adult schools and adult specialized schools, with a combined enrollment of 9.8799 million students. Later, the total number of students in schools reached 26.0093 million.

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