EDUCATION | SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY | CULTURE | PUBLIC HEALTH | SPORTS

Summary

In 2000, education development was accelerated in the midst of reform and adjustment. Higher education developed fast with breakthroughs in the reform of management system. There were 1,041 regular institutions of higher learning in China with 5.56 million enrolled undergraduate students, including 2.21 million new entrants, and 772 adult higher education institutions with an enrollment of 3.54 million, including 1.56 million new entrants. There were 738 universities and institutions that offered courses leading to postgraduate degrees, enrolling 301,000 graduate students, including 129,000 new entrants.

Senior secondary education was expanded. There were 12.01 million active students in 14,600 regular senior secondary schools, including 4.73 million new entrants, and 12.95 million students in secondary vocational or technical schools of various types, including 4.25 million new entrants. Objectives for popularization of the nine-year compulsory education and elimination of illiteracy among young and middle-aged people were basically attained. The nine-year compulsory education program covered 85 percent of the total population, and the illiteracy rate for the young and middle-aged population was down to below 5 percent. Junior secondary schools enrolled 62.56 million students, including 22.96 million new entrants, with a gross enrollment ratio of 88.6 percent.

Pupils enrolled in regular primary schools numbered 130.13 million, with 19.46 million new entrants. The attendance rate of school-age children hit 99.1 percent. The rate of dropouts for regular junior secondary and primary school students was 3.21 percent and 0.55 percent respectively. There were 378,000 students in special education schools, with 53,000 new entrants, and 22.44 million kids in kindergartens. Adult technical training schools trained 96.42 million persons. A total of 2.58 million people completed basic literacy courses in 2000.