This Day, That Year

40 years on

Compulsory primary education was first mentioned in China’s Constitution, revised in December, 1982, marking a milestone for the country’s education sector.

An item from Dec 7, 1982, in China Daily showed Xie Zhiqing, a 73-year-old retired worker, taking an English exam in Shanghai.

On April 12, 1986, China Editor’s note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up policy. implemented a nine-year compulsory education program. The program guarantees children the right at least nine years of education, six years of primary and three years of secondary. Funded by the government, tuition is free.

Since the 1990s, China’s literacy rate has been rapidly improving, increasing from about 78 percent in 1990 to over 95 percent in 2010.

In 2015, the nine-year compulsory education program covered all children across the country, according to the Ministry of Education. The dropout rate during the nine years of education should be less than 5 percent by 2020, the ministry said.

However, there is a disparity in educational performance between urban and rural areas, due to a lack of trained teachers and financial and physical resources.

To solve the problem, the China Youth Development Foundation launched Project Hope in October 1989.

It has become one of the country’s most successful charities and is dedicated to helping children access education.

By the end of 2017, the charity had raised more than 14 billion yuan ($2 billion) to finance the education of more than 5.7 million students.

Thanks to Project Hope, the primary school dropout rate is less than 1 percent, according to the Ministry of Education.