EDUCATION IN CHINA

Chapter 1 – Organisation and management of education in China
FIGURE 1.1 CHINA’S EDUCATION SYSTEM ORGANISATION
Age
Schooling
27 22
26 21
25 20
24 19
23 18
22 17
21 16
20 15
19 14
18 13
17 12
16 11
15 10
14 9
13 8
12 7
11 6
10 5
9 4
8 3
7 2
6 1
5
4
3
PhD programme
Master’s programme
University (bachelor’s degree) and vocational college
Senior secondary school
Junior secondary school
Primary school
Pre-school and kindergarten
Source: OECD (2015), OECD Economic Surveys: China, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eco_surveys-chn-2015-en.
In China, students must complete nine years of
compulsory education. Most students spend six years in
primary school, though a few school systems use a fiveyear
cycle for primary school. Primary education starts at
age six for most children. This is followed by three to four
years of junior secondary education. Before the 1990s,
secondary schools recruited students on the basis of an
entrance examination. To emphasise the compulsory
nature of junior secondary schools, and as a part of
the effort to orient education away from examination
performance and towards a more holistic approach to
learning, the government has replaced the entrance
examination with a policy of mandatory enrolment based
on area of residence (Schleicher and Wang, 2014). The
gross enrolment ratio for primary education in 2014 was
103% compared with 104% in 2006, while for secondary
education gross enrolment ratio was 94% compared with
64% in 2006 (UNESCO-UIS, 2016)
After finishing compulsory education, students can
choose whether to continue with senior secondary
education. Senior secondary education takes three
years. There are five types of senior secondary
schools in China: general senior secondary, technical
or specialised secondary, adult secondary, vocational
secondary and crafts schools. The last four are referred
to as secondary vocational schools. Students undergo
a public examination called Zhongkao before entering
senior secondary schools, and admission depends on
one’s score on this examination. The government uses
examination results from Zhongkao to assign students to
different senior secondary schools.
China has made significant efforts to expand participation
in secondary vocational schools in recent years in order to
meet the country’s fast-evolving economic and manpower
needs. In 2014, secondary vocational schools accounted
for a little less than 22% of total senior secondary school
enrolment in China (UNESCO-UIS, 2016). Although senior
secondary education is not part of compulsory education
in China, in 2014, 95% of junior secondary graduates
continued their study in senior secondary schools
(National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2015). This figure
is notable because in 2005 only around 40% of junior
secondary graduates attended senior secondary schools
(National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2005).
10 – EDUCATION IN CHINA: A SNAPSHOT © OECD 2016