Education in China is a state-run system of public education run by the Ministry of Education. All citizens must attend school for at least nine years. The government provides primary education for six years, starting at age six or seven, followed by six years of secondary education for ages 12 to 18. Some provinces may have five years of primary school but four years for middle school. There are three years of middle school and three years of high school. The Ministry of Education reported a 99 percent attendance rate for primary school and an 80 percent rate for both primary and middle schools.[citation needed] In 1985, the government abolished tax-funded higher education, requiring university applicants to compete for scholarships based on academic ability. In the early 1980s the government allowed the establishment of the first private schools. The population has had on average only 6.2 years of schooling, but in 1986 the government set the goal of nine years of compulsory education for students by the year 2000.
The United Nations Development Program reported that in 2003 China had 116,390 kindergartens with 613,000 teachers and 20 million students.[citation needed] At that time, there were 425,846 primary schools with 5.7 million teachers and 116.8 million students. General secondary education had 79,490 institutions, 4.5 million teachers, and 85.8 million students. There also were 3,065 specialized secondary schools with 199,000 teachers and 5 million students. Among these specialized institutions were 6,843 agricultural and vocational schools with 289,000 teachers and 5.2 million students and 1,551 special schools with 30,000 teachers and 365,000 students.[citation needed]
China has already pulled off one of the most remarkable expansions of education in modern times, increasing the number of undergraduates and people who hold doctoral degrees fivefold in 10 years.[3] In 2003 China supported 1,552 institutions of higher learning (colleges and universities) and their 725,000 professors and 11 million students (see List of universities in the People's Republic of China). Beijing and Tsinghua universities and more than 100 other National Key Universities are some of the most prestigious universities in the world.
The percentage of China's college-age population in higher education has increased from 1.4% in 1978 to roughly 20% in 2005. Every year 450,000 engineering students graduate from college, 50,000 graduate with masters degrees, and 8,000 graduate with Ph.Ds.[citation needed]
In 2002, the literacy rate in China was 90.8%; 95.1% of males and 86.5% of females. [4]
Laws regulating the system of education include the Regulation on Academic Degrees, the Compulsory Education Law, the Teachers Law, the Education Law, the Law on Vocational Education, and the Law on Higher Education.
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