China

=**China**= (Lauren Miller)


 * Introduction**: China's educational system underwent a major overhaul in 1949 when the People's Republic of China was established. Prior to this time, education was not provided uniformly and a large proportion of the population was illiterate. Since then, the country has established a law that provides 9 years of compulsory education to its children. In China primary education encompasses ages 6-12 while secondary education takes place from ages 12-18. Admittance to higher education is based on admissions tests of academic ability.


 * Primary education**: China has a huge population and the majority of that population appears to be enrolled in primary education. The balance between males and females is actually quite even, with 50,079,866 females making up a total of 107,394,752 students. Students enter the system at age 7 and are enrolled in primary school for 5 years. The latest student/teacher ratio in primary education is about 17.68:1.


 * Secondary education**: There isn't a huge decline in numbers of students between primary and secondary school, with 48,568,728 females enrolled in secondary programs and 101,830,969 total students enrolled in secondary schooling. Enrollment in vocational and technical schooling appears to represent about 1/5 of the total secondary enrollment. The student/teacher ratio at this stage is quite similar: 16.37:1. Students enter secondary programs at age 12.


 * Tertiary education**: 56,844,232 females are enrolled in tertiary education programs, making up about half of the 119,417,609 total population enrolled in tertiary programs. As compared to the number of students in primary and secondary school, it seems as though most Chinese students have the opportunity to pursue tertiary education, though the size of the population at that age may simply be greater.


 * Human and financial resources**: Slightly more than half of primary teachers are female (55.5%). Slighly less than half of all secondary teaches are female (45.1%). The country's education expenditure only represents about 1.9% of its GDP, however it represents 13.0% of government spending. 59.6% of that expenditure is on teachers.