page_title: Education in China
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Education in China / Secondary education / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Linxia High school, in the northeast of Linxia City. Lists of newly admitted students are posted by the gate.
context_page_description: Education in China is primarily managed by the state-run public education system, which falls under the command of the Ministry of Education. All citizens must attend school for a minimum of nine years, known as nine-year compulsory education, which is funded by the government. Compulsory education includes six years of primary education, typically starting at the age of six and finishing at the age of twelve, followed by three years of junior secondary education. Some provinces may have five years of primary schooling but four years for junior middle school. Junior middle schooling is followed by three years of senior middle school, by the end of which secondary education is completed.
  In 2019, the Ministry of Education reported an increase of 1.5611 million students entering into compulsory education. In 1985, the government abolished tax-funded higher education, requiring university applicants to compete for scholarships based on their respective academic capabilities.
context_section_description: Secondary education in China has a complicated history. In the early 1960s, education planners followed a policy called "walking on two legs," which established both regular academic schools and separate technical schools for vocational training. The rapid expansion of secondary education during the Cultural Revolution created serious problems; because resources were spread too thinly, educational quality declined. Further, this expansion was limited to regular secondary schools; technical schools were closed during the Cultural Revolution because they were viewed as an attempt to provide inferior education to children of worker and peasant families.
  In the late 1970s, government and party representatives criticized what they termed the "unitary" approach of the 1960s, arguing that it ignored the need for two kinds of graduates: those with an academic education (college preparatory) and those with specialized technical education (vocational). Beginning in 1976 with the renewed emphasis on technical training, technical schools reopened, and their enrollments increased.
  In the drive to spread vocational and technical education, regular secondary-school enrollments fell. By 1986 universal secondary education was part of the nine-year compulsory education law that made primary education (six years) and junior-middle-school education (three years) mandatory. The desire to consolidate existing schools and to improve the quality of key middle schools was, however, under the education reform, more important than expanding enrollment.
caption: Lists of newly admitted students - complete with their home communities, test scores, and any extra points they derived due to their ethnicity or family size - posted outside of Linxia High School
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