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Legislator Appeals for 12-year Compulsory Education Programme

A delegate to the National People's Congress (NPC) submitted a motion to the annual session of the Chinese parliament, appealing for a programme to prolong current nine-year compulsory education to 12 years, according to Xinhua.

President Liu Weixing from the Anhui branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, cited four major reasons for his motion: to help train more technical workers; to ease the pressure from unemployment; to provide a "knowledge asset" for poor families.; and to help solve the "three rural" issue - agriculture, rural areas and farmers, a major aspect of the working agenda of the Chinese leadership, which is aiming to achieve balanced economic development and social harmony.

The current nine-year compulsory education programme from primary to junior high school covers nearly 94 percent of the Chinese population, sources say. Liu noted that the country's rapid and stable economic growth has created conditions for a 12-year compulsory education program, while the increasing scale of higher-learning institutions has made it possible to enroll more students. Liu suggested different places install the scheme in line with their own conditions.

Beijing, the country's capital, has already announced a plan to popularize a 12-year compulsory education scheme step by step, while the economic hub, Shanghai. Has already achieved this goal and is now moving toward an upper goal: to let children and juveniles benefit from 14 years of compulsory education.