Prisoners study about two hours a day or 12 hours a week. Teaching staff are especially selected for the school and some are chosen from among prisoners with a higher educational level. Prisoners who have attended classes and passed the tests given by the local educational department will be given educational certificates equivalent to those issued by educational institutions in the society at large. Over the last six years, prisoners have been awarded a total of 902,000 certificates or diplomas of various kinds. After he was released from prison he passed his college entrance examination and later was even admitted as a postgraduate at Harbin Industrial University, where he obtained an MA degree.
Vocational education is a major part of the education programme for criminals in China.
A total of 546,000 certificates for various levels of technical proficiency were issued to prisoners by the labour departments in society as a result of testing. Vocational teaching materials and various forms of reference material are provided free for the prisoners. Taking into account the social needs of prisoners who have been released plus the fact that they go in different directions, short, practical and immediately useful programmes are the main focus of vocational and technical training. Through courses which teach subjects such as home appliance repair, tailoring and sewing, cooking, hair-dressing, home poultry raising, carpentry, bricklaying, electricity and agricultural implement repair, prisoners acquire one or more skills during their imprisonment, in preparation for finding employment after their release. Some returned to their original work units and some were employed as key technical personnel inordinary enterprises.