As part of China's National Education Science tenth Five-year
Plan, the working group "Research into Equity Issues in Chinese
Higher Education" announced that a widening education gap exists
between China's rural and urban populations.
China's rural areas have a far higher proportion of residents
with low and middle education levels than do China's urban areas.
The proportion of urban residents who have attained higher
education also surpasses rural China.
This represents the primary disparity in China's education
system. The group's research further indicates that the disparity
between urban and rural areas has widened gradually as education
levels have increased.
51.5 percent of rural residents and 16.3 percent of urban
residents have only achieved an elementary education.
41.5 percent of the rural population and 32.4 percent of the
urban population have a junior middle school education.
6 percent of rural residents and 21 percent of urban residents
have attained a senior high school education. Graduates of
technical secondary school accounted for 0.8 percent and 13.2
percent of rural and urban populations, respectively. And only 0.2
percent of rural residents had attended junior college, compared to
11.1 percent amongst China's urban population.
Residents with a university education accounted for just 0.02
percent and 5.63 percent of the agricultural and nonagricultural
populations, respectively.
Those with a graduate education made up 0.001 percent of rural
Chinese and 0.323 percent of city dwellers.
In urban areas 3.5, 16.5, 55.5, 281.55 and 323 times the number
of people in rural areas had attained senior high school, technical
secondary school, junior college, university and graduate levels of
education, respectively.
(chinanews.cn February 15, 2005)