Students' enrollment rate on par with developed world

The gross enrollment rates of all levels of education in China have reached or exceeded those of middle- to high-income countries, Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng said on Friday. 

In the past decade, the gross enrollment rate of preschool education grew by 23.6 percentage points to 88.1 percent last year, while higher education's enrollment rate jumped by 27.8 percentage points to 57.8 percent, he said.

The enrollment rates of preschools, primary and middle schools in the country have reached the average level of high-income countries, Huai said.

The long-existing problems of students dropping out of primary and middle schools have been resolved and the country has realized dynamic zero dropout for primary and middle school students, he said at a news conference held by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on the achievements of education reform and development since the 18th CPC National Congress.

In the past 10 years, almost 1.3 billion times of financial aid were given to students with financial difficulties. Under a special program, more than 950,000 students from rural and under-developed regions have been enrolled to key universities with lower scores, he said.

The country now has more than 218 million people with bachelor's degrees or higher, marking a significant increase than 10 years ago. Secondary and higher vocational schools have nurtured more than 79 million graduates in the past decade, Huai added.

Lyu Yugang, director of the ministry's department of basic education, said the "double reduction" policy, aiming to reduce the excessive homework and after-school tutoring burden of primary and middle school students, have achieved great progress since it was introduced last year.

The number of offline tutoring institutions has been slashed by 95.6 percent and online ones by 87.1 percent, while the tutoring course fees have been reduced by more than 40 percent, he said.

According to third-party surveys, 87.8 percent of students said their homework has reduced considerably and more than 90 percent students said they can finish it in set time, he said.

Huai said the employment situation of new college graduate this year remains stable despite unprecedented challenges such as record number of graduates, COVID-19 epidemic and economic downturn pressure.

In fact, the employment work of college students has faced many challenges and difficulties in recent years, he said.

However, under the strong leadership of central authorities and concerted efforts of education authorities and related departments, a host of employment-friendly policies have been implemented and the employment situation has stayed stable for many years, he added.