1. Primary Education.
Primary education includes pre-school education and elementary education. Pre-school, or kindergarten, can last up to three years, with children entering as early as age three, until age six, when they typically enter elementary school. Elementary school begins with the first grade, and then proceeds through either grades five or six, depending on the system.
The academic year is divided into two semesters, each consisting of 19 weeks, with a total of 38 weeks of instruction for the year. In addition there is one week ``in reserve'' (similar to ``snow days,'' in this country) for additional time as needed. The remaining 13 weeks are for vacations and holidays.
Primary education includes pre-school education and elementary education. Pre-school, or kindergarten, can last up to three years, with children entering as early as age three, until age six, when they typically enter elementary school. Elementary school begins with the first grade, and then proceeds through either grades five or six, depending on the system.
The academic year is divided into two semesters, each consisting of 19 weeks, with a total of 38 weeks of instruction for the year. In addition there is one week ``in reserve'' (similar to ``snow days,'' in this country) for additional time as needed. The remaining 13 weeks are for vacations and holidays.
2. Secondary Education.
Secondary education is divided into regular secondary education and vocational and technical secondary education. Regular secondary education consists of junior middle school and senior middle school. Junior middle school will involve either three or four years of schooling, depending on the system (6-3 versus 5-4), and senior middle school is, in the vast majority of cases, a three year program, resulting in a 5-4-3 or a 6-3-3 system of elementary school-junior middle school-senior middle school.
The academic year for junior middle school consists of 39 weeks of instruction, with one week in reserve. The academic year for senior middle school is made up of 40 weeks of instruction, with one to two weeks in reserve.
Students in the vocational and technical secondary education stream will, upon graduation from junior middle school, enter a vocational or technical school. Vocational schools generally offer programs ranging from two to four years, and train medium-level skilled workers, farmers, as well as managerial and technical personnel. Technical schools typically offer four year programs to train intermediate technical personnel. There is a third category, called Schools for Skilled Workers, that typically enroll graduates from junior middle schools to train for positions involving production and operation skills. The length of training is typically three years.
3. Higher Education.
Higher education at the undergraduate level includes two-year junior colleges ({\em zhuanke daxue} ר¿Æ´óѧ), four-year colleges ({\em benke xueyuan} ±¾¿ÆѧԺ) and universities ({\em daxue}´óѧ ). Many colleges and universities also offer graduate programs, leading to the Master's or Ph.D. degrees. There is also a myriad of higher educational opportunities under the general category of adult education, as below.
4. Adult Education.
This category overlaps all three of the above categories. There is adult primary education, which organizes into Workers' Primary Schools, Peasants' Primary Schools, and Literacy classes. Adult secondary education includes radio/TV specialized secondary schools, specialized secondary schools for cadres, specialized secondary schools for staff and workers, specialized secondary schools for peasants, in-service teacher training schools, and correspondence specialized secondary schools. Adult higher education includes radio/TV universities, cadre institutes, workers' colleges, peasant colleges, correspondence colleges, and educational colleges. Most of the above colleges offer both short-cycle (zhuanke ר¿Æ) as well as regular undergraduate (benke ±¾¿Æ) curricula.
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