Basic Education in China
Basic education system in China includes preschool education, nine-year compulsory education from elementary to junior high school, and standard senior high school, which is a little different those in some western countries. After basic education, students attend higher education.
Preschool Education
In China, preschool education starts at the age of 3 and lasts for three years to the age of 6.
In 2018, there were 266,700 kindergartens nationwide and a total of 18.64 million children were enrolled in all kindergartens in the whole country. In the same year there were totally some 46.56 million children in all these kindergartens. More details about the number of kids and nursery schools in more recent years are displayed in the following table, which helps to give a concrete picture about the status quo of preschool education in Mainland China.
Table 2 indicates clearly that kindergartens in the past seven years have been increasing considerably. Various factors may explain this phenomenon, but there are some primary underlying reasons. For the first thing, once the one-child policy was intended to control the possible birth burst. After a policy change in late 2013, most Chinese provinces allow families to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. According to statistics, the number of newborns in China is increasing and has exceeded 1.31 million since the implementation of the two-child policy. For the second, the issue of the Outline of China’s National Plan for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010—2020) in 2010 also promotes the preschool education since it stipulates that the gross enrollment rate of kids must reach 80% by the end of 2020, which has been realized in advance.
Elementary School Education and Junior High School
After attending preschool education for several years, kids continue schooling by going to primary schools and then junior high schools successively. According to the Law on Nine-Year Compulsory Education, all school-age children have the right to receive at least nine years of education (six-year primary education and three years secondary education). Compulsory education enjoys the features of being compulsory, free, universal and secular.
Generally, children at the ages from 6 to 12 are of primary school age and all pupils start formal schooling at the age of 6 or 7. In 2016, pupils atprimary schools reached the number of 99.13 million. Statistics serve well to illustrate the rise and fall of the numbers of primary schools and pupils who attend these schools in China.
The above table shows that the number of primary schools all over the country continues to decrease for six years from 2012 to 2017. But the number of pupils in schools witnesses a tendency of increase within the same period of time. In 2018 and in the beginning of 2019, however, this tendency experienced a turn that pupils in primary schools increased appreciably as a result of the implementation of the two-child policy.
Junior high school is the primary stage of high school. It generally refers to the middle stage of the nine-year compulsory education, which is a stage of transition from primary education to senior high school education and belongs to the category of secondary education. As of 2015, there were 52,400 million junior high schools in China, with 43.12 million students. The gross enrollment rate in junior high school was 104.0%, and the enrollment rate of junior high school was 94.1%. Besides senior high school, which is called general high school, some students continue their education by attending vocational high schools or secondary vocational school.
The policies for students to graduate from elementary schools and enter junior middle school are determined by the county education committee. Students in junior high school attend a general test called Zhongkao (literally “middle test”), i.e. the senior high school entrance examination, in order to enter a senior high school.
Table 4 shows a general tendency of the decline of the number of junior high schools even though the number of students in schools increases in recent years after reduction from 2012 to 2015. This can also be explained away by the new adoption of two-child policy. After the issue of the new policy, youngest kids have grown up to become the potential student resources for junior high schools. In the meanwhile an increasing number of children migrate to urban areas and that of the so-called left- behind children decrease in accordance.
Senior High School
When the nine-year compulsory education comes to an end, students attend another three years of education, as from grade 10 to grade 12. It is regulated by the compulsory education law that students who have finished six years of primary education will continue three more years of academic study in middle schools at the age of twelve. But the stage of education is not compulsory, since junior graduates may have two choices: to continue a three-year academic education in academic high schools, which will eventually lead to university, or to switch to a vocational course in vocational high schools.
Students at senior high schools are normally of the ages between 16 and 18. Statistics shows the total numbers of senior high schools and students on campus. As is the case with junior high schools and students, the numbers of senior high schools and their students definitely display a tendency of decrease from 2012 to 2017. Actually some former senior high schools have been converted into vocational high schools since all students with the aim of higher education are recruited by schools in big and small cities. In addition the gross enrollment rates indicate that an increasing number of students have the opportunity to attend senior high school before they finally get the opportunity to go to university.
Higher Education in China
In ancient China, the institutions of higher education was called, Taixue in Han Dynasty, and later named Guozijian, especially in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The higher education in contemporary China has changed at various times. In recent years an increasing number of higher education institutions have been established, which is shown in Table 5.
Statistics results show that higher education institutions increased steadily and continuously in recent years from 2012 to 2018. The number of undergraduate students as well as those of master and doctoral students has kept going up. The gross enrollment rate of undergraduate students rose to 48.1% in 2018, that is, nearly half of the students in senior high schools have the opportunity to go to colleges and university after graduation. For that purpose, high school students must attend the Gaokao (literally “high test”), the National Higher Education Entrance Examination.
The above statistic results indicate that the recruitment rate has been increasing from 1977 to 2018 when it reached a new high of 81.1%, which means the majority of examinees have the access to higher education.
