Basic Education in China(I)

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A Survey of the Development of Basic Education

2001-01-01

Basic education in China includes pre-school education, primary education and regular secondary education.

Before the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, basic education in China was extremely backward. In 1946, the peak year of educational development, the country had only 1,300 kindergartens, 289,000 primary schools and 4,266 secondary schools. After 1949, the central and local governments attached great importance to basic education and began to input a lot of financial, human and material resources in education. With the adoption of the policy of reform and opening to the outside world in 1978, basic education entered a new era of progress. In 1985, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party issued the "Decision on the Reform of the educational Structure", laying down the principle that local governments should be responsible for basic education. The new policy was an incentive for local governments, especially those of the counties and townships. In 1986, the National People's Congress promulgated the "Commpulsory Education Law of the People's Republic of China", thus placing basic education in the country on a firm legal basis. In 1993 the CPC Central Committee and the State Council jointly issued the "Guidelines for the Reform and Development of Education in China", clarifying the directions and basic policies for the development of basic education till the early years of the 21st century. In early 1999, the State Council ratified the "Action Plan for Educational Vitalization Facing the 21st Century" formulated by the Ministry of Education (MoE) , laying down the implementation of the strategy of "Invigorate China through Science, Technology and Education" and drawing the blueprint of reform and development for the crosscentury education based on the "Education Law of the People's republic of China" and the "Guidelines for the Reform and Development of Education in China". IN June 1999, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council jointly promulgated the "Decision on the Deepening of Educational Reform and the Full Promotion of Quality Education", clarifying the direction for the establishment of a vital socialistic education with Chinese characteristics in the 21st century.

During the past 50 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, basic education in China has gained tremendous achievements. By the end of 1998, China had 181,400 kindergartens with a total enrollment of 24,030,300 pupils, 609,626 primary schools with a total enrollment of 139,538,000 students, 63,940 regular junior secondary schools with a total enrollment of 53,630,300 students, 13,900 regular senior secondary schools with a total enrollment of 9,380,000 students and 1535 special schools with a total enrollment of 358,400 students, among whom 225,500 students join the special education class or other regular class in the regular secondary schools.


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