EDUCATION IN CHINA
Education in China
is primarily managed by the state-run public
education system, which falls under the Ministry of Education. All citizens must
attend school for a minimum of nine years, known as nine-year compulsory
education, which is funded by the government.
Compulsory education includes six years of elementary school, typically starting at
the age of six and finishing at the age of twelve, followed by three years of middle
school and three years of high school.
Laws in China 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
.
In 2020, the Ministry of Education reported an increase of new entrants of
34.4 million students entering compulsory education, bringing the total number of
students who attend compulsory education to 156 million. In 2003, central and
local governments in China supported 1,552 institutions of higher learning
(colleges and universities), along with their 725,000 professors and 11 million
students.
In 1985, the government abolished tax-funded higher education, requiring
university applicants to compete for scholarships based on their academic
capabilities. In the early 1980s, the government allowed the establishment of the
first private institution of higher learning, thus increasing the number
of undergraduates and people who hold doctoral degrees from 1995 to 2005.
[7]
Chinese investment in research and development has grown by 20 percent per year
since 1999, exceeding $100 billion in 2011. As many as 1.5 million science and
engineering students graduated from Chinese universities in 2006. By 2008, China
had published 184,080 papers in recognized international journals – a seven-fold
increase from 1996. In 2017, China surpassed the U.S. with the highest number of
scientific publications.In 2021, there were 3,012 universities and colleges (see List
of universities in China) in China,
[11]
and 147 National Key Universities, which are
considered to be part of an elite group Double First Class universities, accounted
for approximately 4.6% of all higher education institutions in China.
[12]
China has also been a top destination for international students and as of 2013,
China was the most popular country in Asia for international students and ranked
third overall among countries.
[
China is now the leading destination globally for
Anglophone African students and is host of the second largest international
students population in the world. There were 26 Chinese universities on lists of the
global top 200 in the 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities, behind only
the United States in terms of the overall representation.
Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu and Zhejiang outperformed all other education systems
in the Programme for International Student Assessment.China's educational system
has been noted for its emphasis on rote memorization and test preparation.
However, PISA spokesman Andreas Schleicher says that China has moved away
from learning by rote in recent years.According to Schleicher, Russia performs
well in rote-based assessments, but not in PISA, whereas China does well in both
rote-based and broader assessments.
History
Improving population-wide literacy was the focus of education in the early years of
the People's Republic of China. In 1949, the literacy rate was only between 20–
40%.
[21]
The communist government focused on improving literacy through both
formal schooling and literacy campaigns.In the first sixteen years of communist
governance, elementary school enrollment tripled, secondary school enrollment
increased by a factor of 8.5, and college enrollment more than quadrupled.
Since the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), the education system in
China has been geared towards economic modernization. In 1985, the federal
government ceded responsibility for basic education to local governments through
the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party's "Decision on the Reform
of the Educational Structure". With the education reform plan in May 1985, the
authorities called for nine years of compulsory education and the establishment of
the State Education Commission (created the following month). Official
commitment to improved education was nowhere more evident than in the
substantial increase in funds for education in the Seventh Five-Year Plan (1986–
1990), which amounted to 72 percent more than funds allotted to education in the
previous plan period (1981–1985). In 1986, 16.8 percent of the state budget was
earmarked for education, compared to 10.4 percent in 1984.
As a result of continual intra-party realignments, official policy has alternated
between ideological imperatives and practical efforts to further national
education. The Great Leap Forward (1958–1960) and the Socialist Education
Movement (1962–1965) sought to end deeply rooted academic elitism, to narrow
social and cultural gaps between workers and peasants and between urban and
rural populations, and to eliminate the tendency of scholars and intellectuals to
disdain manual labor. During the Cultural Revolution, universal fostering of social
equality was an overriding priority.
A mean value theorem equation is displayed on a bridge in Beijing.
The post-Mao Zedong Chinese Communist Party leadership views education as the
foundation of the Four Modernizations. In the early 1980s, science and
technology education became an important focus of education policy. By 1986,
training skilled personnel and expanding scientific and technical knowledge had
been assigned the highest priority. Although the humanities were considered
important, vocational and technical skills were considered paramount for meeting
China's modernization goals.
The reorientation of educational priorities paralleled Deng Xiaoping's strategy for
economic development. Emphasis also was placed on the further training of the
already-educated elite, who would carry on the modernization program in the
coming decades. A renewed emphasis on modern science and technology led to the
adoption of an outward-looking policy that encouraged learning and borrowing
from abroad for advanced training in a wide range of scientific fields, beginning in
1976.
Beginning at the Third Plenum of the Eleventh National Party Congress Central
Committee in December 1978, intellectuals were encouraged to pursue research in
support of the Four Modernizations and, as long as they complied with the party's
"Four Cardinal Principles" they were given relatively free rein. When the party and
the government determined that the structures of the four cardinal principles had
been stretched beyond tolerable limits, they might restrict intellectual expression.
Literature and the arts also experienced a great revival in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Traditional forms flourished once again, and many new kinds of literature and
cultural expression were introduced from abroad.
In 2003, China's Ministry of Education called for adding environmental education
content throughout the public school curriculum from the first year of primary
school through the second year of high school.
Development
The old library at Tsinghua University ranked one of the top universities in China
and worldwideEntrance gate at the No. 3 Middle School Attached to Beijing
Normal University, an example of an affiliation of primary, secondary, and tertiary
institutions common in China
Since the 1950s, China has been providing a nine-year compulsory education to
what amounts to a fifth of the world's population. By 1999, primary school
education had become generalized in 90% of China, and mandatory nine-year
compulsory education now effectively covered 85% of the population. The
education funding provided by the central and provincial governments varies
across regions, and those in the rural areas are notably lower than those in major
urban areas. Families supplement money provided to the school by the government
with tuition fees.
For non-compulsory education, China adopts a shared-cost mechanism, charging
tuition at a certain percentage of the cost. Meanwhile, to ensure that students from
low-income families have access to higher education, the government has initiated
ways of assistance, with policies and measures for scholarships, work-study
programs and subsidies for students with special economic difficulties, tuition
reduction or exemption and state stipends.
Illiteracy in the young and mid-aged population has fallen from over 80 percent
down to five percent. The system trained some 60 million mid-or high-level
professionals and almost 400 million laborers to the junior or senior high school
level. Today, 250 million Chinese get three levels of school education (elementary,
junior, and senior high school), doubling the rate of increase in the rest of the
world during the same period. Net elementary school enrollment has reached 98.9
percent, and the gross enrollment rate in junior high schools 94.1 percent.
[24]
As of
2015, the government-operated primary and lower secondary (junior high) schools
in China have 28.8 million students.
[25]
Chinese high school students won multiple gold medals every year consistently at
many International Science Olympiad Competitions like the International Biology
Olympiad,
[26]
the International
Olympiad
on
Astronomy
and
Astrophysics,
[27]
the International Olympiad in Informatics,
[28]
the International
Earth
Science
Olympiad,
[29]
the International
Mathematical
Olympiad,
[30]
the International
Physics
Olympiad
[31]
and
the International
Chemistry Olympiad.
[32]
As of 2022, China ranks first in the all-time medal count
at the International Mathematical Olympiad with highest goal medals since its first
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