China education has always been given great priority in China. Most ancient Chinese people thought that nothing is lofty except reading books. In modern China, the Communist Party and Chinese government attach great importance to education. The late Chinese leader Deng XiaoPing used to say that science and technology are crucial to the realization of modernization and that Chinese education provides a solid foundation for pursuing that goal.
New progress has been made in education undertakings. In 1993, the enrollment of new post-graduate students was 42,000, or 9,000 more than in 1992. Institutions of higher learning took in 924,000 new undergraduate students, an increase of 22.5% over the previous year. The year of 2000 saw a big leap forward in China’s education of higher learning. About 2,200,000 new undergraduate students were taken into various institutions. The number was doubled in 2001, when 4,642,100 young people enrolled in undergraduate studies. The development is impressive, but far from being enough for the need of China’s social construction.
Compulsory education is the cornerstone of basic enducational deveolpment. With the implementation of the nine-year compulsory education program, the enrollment of primary-school-age children was 99.1%, and 94.4% of primary school graduates continued their studies in secondary schools in 1999. The dropout rates for students in junior secondary schools and in primary schools was 5.3% and 2.1% respectively. A nationwide “ Project Hope” is being carried out to help the dropouts to go back to school with donations and encouragement by individuals and enterprises. The problem of most of the dropouts is that they simply can not afford an education.
Adult education is part of national education. In 2000, 1,470,000 adults were enrolled in adult education of higher learning. Besides that, a variety of on-the job training programs are available everywhere. TV courses, correspondence courses, everning universities, universities for the aged, adult vocational schools, adult technical training schools and adult primary schools are to be found all over the country. Basic literacy courses are now offered in adult primary schools, with the aim of eliminating illiteracy.
Schools at all levels in China follow the principle that education should serve the drive for socialist modernization, be combined with productive labour, and that young people should be trained morally intellectually, and physically. In recent years, The teachers’ Law and The Education Law have been adopted. Those document will guarantee the rights of teachers and ensure the healthy and rapid development of education in China.
The salary for teacher used to be low in China. But things have changed and more people have come to see the important role teachers play in the social development. “Respect teachers and value the teaching” has become the nationwide slogan; September 10th is designated as Teachers’ Day. In the past decade, teacher’s social status has been raised considerably.