The Shanxi Department of Education introduced Shanxi province's education development in the past 10 years at a press conference on Sept 1.

Currently, educated people account for nearly one-fifth of the province's population, covering all stages from pre-school education to higher education. The number of years of education for people over the age of 15 reached 10.45 years, ranking fourth in China, showing rapid development in education. 

In the past decade, the province's general public budget for education funding has nearly doubled, with an average annual growth rate of more than 5 percent, giving priority to ensuring educational development. 

By the end of 2021, there were 14,564 schools in Shanxi, with 6,628,800 students. 

From 2011 to 2021, the gross enrollment rate of preschool education increased from 70.5 percent to 95.78 percent, the net enrollment rate of primary school-age children and junior high school-age teens remained above 99.95 percent and above 99.66 percent, respectively, and the gross enrollment rate of senior high school people rose from 88.50 percent to 95.47 percent. 

The education informatization system covering urban and rural areas has become more complete, and the internet access rate of primary and secondary schools has reached 100 percent. 

The total number of students receiving higher education has exceeded 1 million, and all prefectural-level cities in the province now have colleges and universities. 

Through the province's higher education vitalization plan, Shanxi has developed 42 disciplines for industrial innovation, and established 66 collaborative innovation centers and 37 industrial technological innovation research institutes. 

The universities and colleges in the province have withdrawn 44 and added 141 master's and doctoral degree authorization qualification sites, canceled 284 and added 633 undergraduate majors, with applied specialties accounting for 62 percent. 

Shanxi has also attached equal importance to vocational education. Every year, 300,000 training opportunities have been given to locals and about 200,000 high-quality technical and technical personnel have been cultivated. 

The vocational education system has been further improved, with four higher vocational colleges winning national recognition and support and 50 secondary vocational schools gaining provincial support. 

Over the past 10 years, colleges and universities in the province have delivered 2.07 million graduates, providing strong talent support and intellectual guarantees for the province's economic and social development. 

In addition, the integration of open education, continuing education, community education, and senior education has accelerated, with a mass lifelong learning atmosphere created in the province.