China Primary Education

The Law of the People's Republic of China on Compulsory Education promulgated in April 1986 provides that primary education must be popularized nationwide. It says: All children who have reached the age of six, regardless of sex, ethnicity and race, shall enter a school to receive full-time compulsory education of a prescribed year limit. The length of schooling for primary education is 6 years. The curriculum at the primary school stage includes ethics, Chinese, maths, nature study, history, geography, society, physical education, music, fine arts and labor. By 1996, there were 646,000 primary schools in China, with an enrolment of 130 million students and the rate of middle school graduates reached as high as 92.6 percent.