Reports

Overview of educational achievements in China in 2019

Source: www.moe.gov.cn
2020-10-07

2019 marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, and was a crucial year for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and to achieve the first of the Two Centenary Goals.

In 2019, China accelerated the modernization of its education system through further reforms aimed at promoting quality education and moving up in global education ranking in line with President Xi’s thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era and the guidelines on education set forth at the 19th National Congress of the CPC, and the second, third and fourth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee. Tremendous achievements were made in all education sub-sectors at all educational stages.

I. Overall progress1

In 2019, China had 530,000 educational institutions2, 11,000 more than in the previous year. 282 million students were enrolled in degree-granting institutions, an increase of 6.606 million students from 2019, up 2.4%. The number of full-time teachers working in institutions at all levels was 17.320 million, an increase of 592,000 or up 3.5% compared to 2018.

The floor area in educational institutions3 across the country covered 3.74 billion m2, up 4.6% or 160 million m2 more than in the previous year. Assets in teaching and scientific research equipment totaled RMB 1.12111 trillion, up 9.7% or RMB 99.29 billion over the previous year.

II. Compulsory education

To meet demand in education emerging with urbanization, governments at all levels made efforts to optimize educational resources and increase school enrollment in urban areas, and tried to narrow the gap between education in urban and rural areas. The number of compulsory-level schools and enrollment numbers have both increased in cities.

1. Schools and students

In 2019, there were 213,000 schools for compulsory education across the country, 1,230 fewer than in the previous year. The number of new entrants into compulsory education was 35.079 million, an increase of 1.1% or 380,000 students from 2018. The number of students in compulsory education was 154 million, an increase of 2.6% or 3.965 million students from 2018.

The number of students enrolled and retained in primary schools continued to rise, especially in urban schools. In 2019, there were 160,000 primary schools, a decrease of 1,663 schools from 2018 (i.e. an increase of 650 urban schools and a decrease of 2,313 rural schools). Primary schools across the country enrolled 18.690 million pupils, an increase of 17,000 or 0.1% from 2018, among which urban primary schools enrolled 7.453 million, up 4.5%, while rural primary schools’ enrollment dropped by 2.6%. The total number of primary school pupils across the country reached 105.612 million, marking an increase of 2.2% or 2.2220 million students over the previous year. The total number of pupils in urban primary schools was 39.641 million, up 6.5% from 2018, while the number in rural schools dropped by 0.3%. 

The number of students enrolled and retained in junior high schools also continued to rise, especially in urban schools. In 2019, there were 52,000 junior high schools across the country, 433 more than in 2018 (i.e. an increase of 569 urban schools and a decrease of 136 rural schools), which enrolled 16.389 million students, an increase of 2.3% or 363,000 students over 2018. Urban junior high schools enrolled 6.240 million, up 7.3% from 2018, while enrollment of rural junior high schools dropped by 0.6% from 2018. The number of junior high school students totaled 48.271 million, up 3,8%, or an increase of 1.746 million students over the previous year. Among them, there were 18.068 million urban junior high school students, up 6.8% from 2018, while the number of rural junior high school students increased by 2.0% compared to 2018.

The number of students in primary schools for every 100,000 people increased by 131 over the previous year, to 7,569, while the number of junior high school students increased by 112, to 3,459. 

2. Higher enrollment and completion rates

In 2019, the net enrollment rate in primary schools reached 99.94%. The gross enrollment rate in junior high schools was 102.6%, which is largely at the same level as that of high-income countries.

99.5% of primary school pupils continued on to junior high school, and 94.5% of junior high school graduates stayed on to senior high school. The Ministry of Education took a series of measures to reduce dropout rates. The ratio of enrollment to graduation at compulsory education level reached 94.8%, up 0.6 percentage points on 2018.

3. Compulsory education for children of migrant workers

In 2019, governments at all levels stepped up efforts to implement favorable education policies and measures for the children of migrant workers. A total of 14.270 million children4 received education in cities where their migrant parents worked, an increase of 29,000 or 0.2% from 2018 and representing 9.3% of all students in their host schools, a slight decreased of 0.2 percentage points from 2018. 79.4% of these students studied in state-run schools, remaining the same as the previous year.

In terms of the educational stage, 10.420 million school-children were enrolled in host primary schools (78.9% in state-run ones), a decrease of 64,000 students over the previous year, and 3.849 million in host junior high schools (80.8% in state-run ones), an increase of 93,000 students from 2018.

Geographically, 58.1% of the newcomers, or 8.288 million school-age children, were enrolled in schools in the eastern regions. Inner-provincial migration was the major source of the transient students, with inter-county mobility accounting for 57.1% of them.

4. Teachers

In 2019, the number of full-time teachers in compulsory education stood at 10.016 million, up 286,000 or 2.9% on 2018. The number of full-time teachers in primary schools was 6.269 million, an increase of 177,000 teachers or 2.9% over the previous year. 99.97% of them meet diploma requirements (senior high diploma or higher), and the student-teacher ratio was 16.9:1. The number of full-time teachers in secondary high schools was 3.74 million, an increase of 108,000 teachers or 3.0% over the previous year. 99.88% of them meet diploma requirements (associate college degree or higher), and the student-teacher ratio was 12.9:1.

The number of teachers with an associate or college degree teaching the 9-year compulsory education continued to increase, with faster improvement in teaching credentials among the rural teacher population, further closing the urban-rural divide. In 2019, 97.3% of primary school teachers had an associate degree or higher, up 0.8 percentage points from 2018. The urban-rural gap at this educational stage closed 0.7 percentage points year on year to 2.8 percentage points, with 96.3% of rural teachers and 99.1% of urban teachers holding an associate degree or higher. 

87.4% of junior high school teachers had a four-year college degree or higher, up 1.1 percentage points from last year. The urban-rural gap at the lower secondary education level closed by 0.5 percentage points year on year to 9.1 percentage points, with 84.0% of rural teachers and 93.1% of urban teachers having a college degree.

5. School and class sizes

In 2019, schools for compulsory education continued to expand in size, while their class sizes remained stable. Regular primary schools had 659 students on average, an increase of 20 pupils on the previous year. Junior high schools had an average of 921 students, an increase of 26 students compared to 2018. The average class sizes for primary schools and junior high schools were 38 and 46 pupils, respectively, both remaining the same as in the previous year. The figure was 50 students for senior high schools, 1 fewer than in the previous year. 

In primary schools, a total of 10,900 large-sized classes (which had 56 or more students) accounted for 3.9% of all classes, down 2.6 percentage points or 70,000 from 2018. In junior high schools, a total of 45,000 classes or 4.3% of all classes were oversized, down 4.3 percentage points or 41,000 year on year. The proportions of super-sized classes in regular primary and junior high schools dropped below 0.5%, or specifically 0.2% and 0.3 % respectively.

Investment in educational facilities continued to increase in schools providing compulsory education across the country, but urban-rural differences remained large. In 2019, the average value of equipment per student in primary schools was RMB 1,672, an increase of RMB 115 or 7.4% over the previous year. The figure in rural primary schools was 77.8% of that in urban primary schools, an increase of 2.0 percentage points from 2018. The average value of equipment per student in junior high schools was RMB 2,625, an increase of RMB 173 or 7.0% over the previous year. The figure in rural junior high schools was RMB 2,354, representing 76.4% of that in urban junior high schools, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from 2018. 

Schools providing compulsory education continued to make progress in their informatization drive, with the coverage of quality resources expanding and information technology being further integrated into teaching practices. In 2019, the average number of instructional computers per 100 students in primary schools increased from 11.1 to 11.4, and that in junior high schools rose from 15.2 to 15.5 compared to the previous year.

The proportion of schools with a local area network (LAN) continued to increase, though the urban-rural gap in this aspect remained significant. In 2019, 68.7% of primary schools had established a LAN, an increase of 1.2 percentage points over the previous year. 77.2% of junior high schools had established a LAN, the same as in the previous year. In rural areas, 65.7% of primary schools and 74.2% of junior high schools were equipped with a LAN, which were 17.3 percentage points and 11.5 percentage points below the rates in urban areas, respectively.

III. Preschool and special education

1. Preschool education

The State Council issued Several Opinions on Deepening the Reform and Standardizing the Development of Preschool Education, which set clear goals to provide greater accessibility to preschool education. The General Office of the State Council also issued Notifications on the Regulation of Local Community Affiliated Kindergartens, which focused on the establishment of a public service system of preschool education equipped with highly accessible education resources.

In 2019, there were 281,000 kindergartens in China, an increase of 14,000 or 5.4% over 2018. Among them, there were 203,000 inclusive kindergartens (public and privately run kindergartens charging affordable, government-controlled tuition fees), an increase of 20,000 or 10.9% over the previous year, accounting for 72.1% of all the kindergartens across the country, an increase of 3.5 percentage points over the previous year.

In 2019, 16.882 million children joined kindergartens, bringing the total number of children attending kindergartens to 47.139 million, an increase of 575,000 or 1.2% on 2018. 35.830 million children attended inclusive kindergartens, an increase of 1.807 million or 5.3% on the previous year. They accounted for 76.0% of children attending all kinds of kindergartens: 2.9 percentage points higher than in 2018, and 4 percentage points away from the goal set for 2020. In rural areas, the percentage of children attending inclusive kindergartens was 79.6%, 9.0 percentage points higher than that in urban areas.

In 2019, the net enrolment rate of preschool education institutions was 83.4%, 1.7 percentage points over 2018. 99.3% of newly enrolled primary school students had received preschool education, an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the previous year. The number of those who received preschool education per 100,000 people was 3,378, an increase of 28 over the previous year.

Progress was also made in building a more skilled and better-educated teacher workforce, with the student-teacher ratio dropping continuously. In 2019, there were 2.763 million full-time kindergarten teachers across the country, an increase of 182,000 or 7.0% over the previous year. The student-teacher ratio decreased from 16.6:1 of the previous year to 15.9:1. 98.4% of full-time teachers met diploma requirements (senior high diploma or higher). The proportion of full-time teachers with an associate college degree or higher increased from 81.0% of the previous year to 82.7%. In rural areas, the proportion of kindergartens teachers who met diploma requirements was 97.5%, 1.9 percentage points lower than that in urban areas. 77.2% of them had an associate college degree or higher, 11.5 percentage points lower than that in urban areas. The gap was still significant. 71.3% of full-time teachers at the preschool level had received professional training in preschool education, an increase of 0.4 percentage points over the previous year. 

2. Special education

In 2019, there were 2,192 special schools across the country, an increase of 40 over the previous year. Students registered in such schools totaled 795,000, an increase of 129,000 or 19.3% over the previous year. Among these students, 171,000 were benefited from “home delivery” teaching programs, marking an increase of 54,000 or 46.8% from 2018 and accounting for 21.5% (4.0 percentage points up from 2018) of all students studying in schools providing special education.

The number of students receiving special education at preschool education level was 4,993.

Students receiving special education at primary schools totaled 556,000, an increase of 77,000 or 16.0% over the previous year. Among these students, 274,000 attended regular classes or special education classes in regular primary schools, an increase of 16.7% over the previous year. These students accounted for 49.3% of all the students receiving special education at primary schools, a slight increase of 0.3 percentage points on 2018.

Students receiving special education at the lower secondary education level totaled 223,000, an increase of 46,000 or 26.4% over the previous year. Among these students, 119,000 attended regular classes or special education classes in regular junior high schools, an increase of 23.1% over the previous year. These students accounted for 53.6% of all the students receiving special education at lower secondary education level, a decrease of 1.4 percentage points on 2018.

Students receiving special education at the upper secondary education level totaled 10,877, an increase of 372 or 3.5% over the previous year. 

In 2019, China had 62,000 full-time teachers undertaking special education programs, an increase of 4,000 or 6.3% over the previous year. Among these teachers, those having received professional training accounted for 76.9%, higher than 75.7% in 2018.

IV. Upper secondary education

In 2019, the Ministry of Education continued to implement programs to build senior high schools in educationally disadvantaged counties and promote accessibility to upper secondary education in the central and western parts of China. Across the country, access to upper secondary education showed a small increase and school conditions underwent further improvement.

1. Scale of and access to upper secondary education

In 2019, there were a total of 24,000 schools offering upper secondary education5, an increase of 55 than the previous year. Students newly enrolled totaled 14.399 million, an increase of 901,000, or 6.7% over the previous year. The number of students attending these schools reached 39.949 million, an increase of 602,000 or 1.5% over the previous year. The average number of students receiving upper secondary education per 100 thousand people stood at 2,850, a decrease of 22 over the previous year. The gross enrollment rate at the upper secondary level was 89.5%, an increase of 0.7 percentage points over the previous year. This shows that the vast majority of new entrants into the workforce have received at least an upper secondary education. 

There were 14,000 regular senior high schools across the country (an increase of 227 over the previous year), with a total of 8.395 million students admitted (an increase of 468,000 or 5.9% over the previous year) and 24.143 million students attending these schools (an increase of 389,000 or 1.6% over the previous year). 

There were 10,100 secondary vocational schools6 across the country (a decrease of 151 over the previous year), and a total of 6.004 million students newly admitted (an increase of 433,000 over the previous year), which accounted for 41.7% of all those admitted in schools offering upper secondary education. There are 15.765 million students attending secondary vocational schools (an increase of 212,000 over the previous year), which accounted for 39.5% of all those registered in schools offering upper secondary education.

2. Teaching workforce at upper secondary level

The number of full-time teachers at upper secondary level reached 2.704 million in 2019, while the number of full-time teachers teaching at ordinary junior high school rose 2.6%, or 47,000, to 1.859 million. The student-teacher ratio declined from 13.1:1 in 2018 to 13.0:1 in 2019, reflecting an improvement in the deployment of the teaching workforce. The number of full-time teachers with a Bachelor’s degree or higher rose 0.2 percentage points over the previous year to 98.6%.

For secondary vocational schools, the number of full-time teachers dropped to 843,000 in 2019, marking a 1.1% increase or 9,000 more teachers than in the previous year. The student-teacher ratio7 declined from 19.1:1 in 2018 to 18.9:1 in 2019. 92.6% of full-time teachers met the diploma requirements (undergraduate or above). Teachers with a “double qualification” accounted for 30.6% of all teachers.  

3. Senior high school conditions

In 2019, senior high schools counted on average 1,729 students, the same as in the previous year. The average class size in these schools was 50, 1 fewer student than in the previous year. The number of oversized classes was 93,000, accounting for 19.4% of the total and marking a decrease of 26,000 or 6.2 percentage points over the previous year, while the number of super-oversized classes was 22,000, accounting for 4.6% of the total and marking a 2.4 percentage points decrease or 11,000 fewer than in the previous year.

The average floor area in schools per student stood at 23.5 m2, 0.7 m2 up on 2018, while the average value of equipment per student reached RMB 4,447, marking an increase of 7.8% or RMB 323 up on 2018. Every hundred students were equipped with 19.9 instructional computers or 0.7 more than in 2018. 

4. Secondary vocational school conditions

In 2019, the average number of students in secondary vocational schools was 1,582 or an increase of 36 than in the previous year. The average floor area in school per student stood at 19.6 m2, 0.2 m2 up on 2018, while the average value of equipment per student arrived at RMB 7,597, marking an increase of 6.7% or RMB 474 on 2018. There were 23.6 instructional computers per hundred students, up 0.5 compared to 2018. 

V. Higher Education

In 2018, the General Offices of CPC Central Committee and the State Council launched the China's Education Modernization 2035 plan, which stresses the need to accelerate the implementation of “Double First-Class” Initiative and improve the quality of higher education. Continuous efforts were made to build capacity of HEIs in central and western parts of China. In 2019, China’s higher education continued to grow steadily with a more refined system, significantly expanded access, improved teaching infrastructure and better qualified teaching workforces. 

1. Higher education enrollment

There were 2,956 higher education institutions (HEIs) across China in 2019. 2,688 were regular HEIs (including 257 independent colleges). 1,265 universities offered Bachelor’s degrees, an increase of 20 over the previous year. The number of higher vocational education institutes was 1,423, an increase of 5 over the previous year. The number of adult HEIs was 268, a decrease of 9 over the previous year. For the same period, there were a total of 828 institutions offering postgraduate programs.

Graduate institutes across China enrolled 917,000 students, an increase of 59,000 or 6.8% over the previous year. Among them there were 105,000 doctoral students and 811,000 master students.

As the national government has vigorously promoted professional degree programs at postgraduate level to foster a greater number of practice-oriented professionals, enrollment on professional doctorate degree programs reached 10,386, marking an increase of 2.8 percentage points on the previous year and representing 9.9% of all enrolled doctoral students, while those signing up for professional Master’s degree programs also went up to 474,000, marking an increase of 0.8 percentage points on the previous year and representing 58.5% of all enrolled master students,.

Total enrollment in undergraduate programs in regular HEIs went up 15.7% to 9.149 million, a remarkable increase of 1.239 million students over the previous year, while the enrollment in adult HEIs went up quickly to 3.022 million, an increase of 10.6% or 289,000 students over the previous year.

2. Students currently enrolled on higher education programs

In 2019, there were 40.02 million students across the country enrolled in one form or another of higher education, an increase of 1.69 million over 2018. The gross enrollment rate rose to 51.6%, 3.5 percentage points up on 2018. 2,857 out of every 100,000 people in the population were attending higher education programs, marking an increase of 199 over the previous year.

The total number of students currently enrolled in a higher education program went up 4.8% to 2.864 million, an increase of 132,000 over the previous year. Among them 424,000 were studying for Doctoral degrees and 2.440 million for Master’s degrees.

The number of students currently enrolled in an undergraduate program in regular HEIs went up by 7.1% or 2.005 million to 30.315 million, while those enrolled in adult HEIs went up by 13.1% or 776,000 to 6.686 million.

3. Higher education graduation data

In 2019, 640,000 people graduated from postgraduate programs in China, marking a 5.8% increase or 35,000 more graduates than in 2018, of which there were 63,000 doctoral graduates and 577,000 Master’s graduates. 

The number of undergraduates receiving a Bachelor degree was 7.585 million, 0.7% up or 52,000 more than in 2018.

4. Teaching workforce in regular HEIs

With more faculty members holding degrees level or above qualifications, the quality of the teaching workforce in regular HEIs was further improved. The number of full-time teachers in regular HEIs reached 1.74 million, showing a 4.0% increase or 67,000 more teachers than in the previous year. The average student-teacher ratio for all regular HEIs8 was 18.0:1. The student-teacher ratio in colleges or universities offering undergraduate degrees was 17.4:1, same as the previous year, while the student-teacher ratio in higher vocational education institutes for the same period went up to 19.2:1 from 17.85:1.

In 2019, 75.0% of all faculty members in regular HEIs held a Master’s degree or above, up 1.4% over the previous year. 84.9% of the teachers working at undergraduate-level colleges or universities held a Master’s degree, showing a rise of 1.2 percentage points over the previous year. 51.5% of the teachers working at higher vocational education institutions held a Master’s degree, showing a rise of 1.6 percentage points over the previous year.

In 2019, the proportion of teachers holding senior professional titles increased slightly. 43.4% of teachers at higher education level had a senior professional title, up 0.2 percentage points on 2018. 

5. Regular higher education institutions 

Rapid progress was made in the provision of equipment and facilities for research and teaching, informatization and online courses, which helped to improve teaching quality.

In 2019, the average number of students per regular HEI9 in China was 11,260, an increase of 655 on the previous year. More specifically, the average number of students per undergraduate college/university and per higher vocational school was 15,179 and 7,776, showing an increase of 283 and 939, respectively, over the previous year.

The average school floor area per regular HEI student in 2019 was 27.0 m2, marking a decrease of 0.7 m2 on the previous year. More specifically, the average school floor area per undergraduate college/university student was 28.1 m2, an increase of 0.1 m2, while the average school floor area per higher vocational school student reached 24.7 m2, marking an decrease of 2.5 m2 over the previous year. In 2019, the average value of equipment per student in regular HEIs was RMB 16,264, an increase of 3.5% over the previous year. More specifically, the average value of equipment per student in undergraduate colleges/universities and higher vocational schools was RMB 19,455 and RMB 9,562, an increase of 6.4% and a decrease of 3.2%, respectively.

In 2019, the average number of instructional computers per 100 regular HEI students was 26.1, a decrease of 0.9 over the previous year. The average number of instructional computers per 100 undergraduate college/university students was 26.2, a decrease of 0.4 over the previous year, and the average number of instructional computers per 100 higher vocational school students decreased by 1.9 to 25.6.

The average number of online courses provided by regular HEIs was 262.3. Among them, the average number in undergraduate-level HEIs was 345.9, an increase of 40.9 over the previous year, and the average number in higher vocational schools was 188.9, an increase of 16.6 over the previous year.

VI. Adult education and literacy education

In 2019, there were 6,241 schools offering primary level education to adults, with 422,000 student and 16,000 teaching and administrative faculty members (including full-time 9,500 teaching faculty members). There were 480 establishments offering junior-high level education to adults, with 103,000 students and 1,983 teaching and administrative faculty members (including 1,764 full-time teaching faculty members).

The number of illiterate adults was reduced by 161,000. In 2019, 169,000 people attended literacy programs. In these literacy programs, there were 12,000 teaching and administrative faculty members, including 7,298 full-time teaching faculty members. 

VII. Non-state education

In 2019, the Ministry of Education revised the Regulations on the Implementation of the Non-state Education Promotion Law, which was considered and approved on the executive meetings of State Council on January 2, 2019. The Ministry of Education has enhanced supervision on the implementation of relevant policies across the country, to promote a steady, diversified development of non-state schools. The number of students attending private-run schools at all levels of education continued to increase and take up a greater share of all students, and the teaching quality has improved.

In 2019, there were a total of 192,000 non-state schools in China, an increase of 8,052 over the previous year, accounting for 36.1% of educational institutions across the country. The number of newly enrolled students in 2019 was 17.743 million, a decrease of 54,000 or 0.3% over the previous year. The number of students attending non-state schools was 56.166 million, an increase of 2.384 million or 4.4% over the previous year, accounting for 19.9% of the total number of registered students. More details are given below:

There were 173,000 non-state kindergartens, an increase of 7,457 or 4.5% over the previous year. The number of newly enrolled children was 9.047 million. The number of children attending non-state kindergartens was 26.494 million, an increase of 97,000 or 0.4% over the previous year, accounting for 56.2% of the total number of children attending kindergarten, marking a slight decrease of 0.5 percentage points over the previous year.

There were 6,228 non-state primary schools, an increase of 49 over the previous year. The number of newly enrolled students was 1.59 million, an increase of 37,000 or 2.4% over the previous year. There were a total of 9.449 million non-state primary school students, marking an increase of 603,000 or 6.8% over the previous year, and accounting for 9.0% of all primary school students, an increase of 0.4 percentage points over the previous year.

There were 5,793 non-state junior high schools, marking an increase of 331 over the previous year. The number of newly enrolled students was 2.431 million, an increase of 126,000 or 5.5% over the previous year. There was a total of 6.874 million non-state junior high school students, an increase of 511,100 or 8.0% over the previous year, accounting for 14.2% of all junior high middle school students, an increase of 0.5 percentage points over the previous year.

There were 3,427 non-state senior high schools, marking an increase of 211 over the previous year. The number of newly enrolled students of that year was 1.359 million, an increase of 189,000 or 16.2% over the previous year. There was a total of 3.597 million non-state senior high school students, an increase of 314,000 or 9.6% over the previous year, accounting for 14.9% of all senior high school students, an increase of 1.1 percentage points over the previous year.

There were 1,985 non-state secondary vocational schools, a decrease of 8 over the previous year. The number of newly enrolled students was 90,000, an increase of 88,000 or 10.8% over the previous year. The total number of non-state secondary vocational school students was 2.244 million, an increase of 147,000 or 7.0% over the previous year, accounting for 14.2% of all secondary vocational school students, an increase of 0.7 percentage points over the previous year.

In 2019, there were 757 non-state colleges/universities (including 257 independent colleges and 1 college for adults), marking an increase of 7 over the previous year. The number of newly enrolled undergraduate student was 2.197 million, an increase of 357,000 or 19.4% over the previous year. The total number of non-state college/university students was 7.088 million, an increase of 592,000 or 9.1% over the previous year, accounting for 23.4% of all undergraduate students in colleges/universities and higher vocational schools, and marking an increase of 0.4 percentage points. The number of newly enrolled postgraduate students was 876, and the total number of postgraduate students was 1,865. 

VIII. China-foreign joint education institutions with legal personality

In 2019, there were 35 China-foreign joint education institutions with legal personality in the country, the same as last year. Among them, there were 7 kindergartens, 1 junior-senior high school, 14 senior high schools, 1 secondary vocational school and 12 regular HEIs. 

A total of 53,700 students attended these schools, an increase of 4,700 over the previous year. Among them, the number of students attending kindergartens, junior high schools, senior high schools, secondary vocational schools and regular HEIs were 720/9,832/918 and 40,300, respectively.

 

[1] The statistics herein is exclusive of data on Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions and Taiwan Province. All numbers are rounded and therefore the sums of figures for sub items may be not equal to the original sums. 

[2] Exclusive of after-school training agencies.

[3] Self-owned properties and rented properties are included in the data of HEIs and secondary vocational schools in terms of their floor area in educational institutions, teaching and scientific research equipment, and instructional computers; for the same data as indicated above, technical schools are excluded from secondary vocational schools.

[4] Children of migrant workers refer to school-age children who left their home villages to live with their parents and receive compulsory education in a city of which they are not registered residents.

[5] Including regular senior high schools, senior high schools for adults, and secondary vocational schools.

[6] Regular secondary vocational schools, vocational high schools, polytechnic schools for adults and technical schools are included in the data of the number of schools, students and teachers.

[7] Exclusive of technical schools. This applies throughout the report. 

[8] The student-teacher ratio in regular HEIs is calculated on the basis of the lower total of student numbers, excluding data from college or university branches.

[9] The average number of registered students in regular HEIs includes undergraduate students registered in regular undergraduate programs only, while excluding data from college or university branches.