Adult education is an important part of the Chinese educational cause, which parallels the basic, vocational and technical, and higher education. It undertakes the important task of enhancing the quality of the Chinese workforce, and directly promotes economic and social development. Since 1978, the Chinese government has introduced a series of policies relating to adult education, and issued several statutes in this respect, laying a foundation for accelerating the development of adult education. In 1998, China had 962 adult higher learning institutions, with the students totaling 2.82 million.

1. Marked Results Achieved in Eliminating Illiteracy

In the early of the 1950s, China had an illiterate and half-illiterate population of 320 million, which made up 80 percent of the whole population. Since the 1980s, the Chinese government strengthened the elimination of illiteracy, targeting the rural areas. In February 1988, the State Council issued the Regulation on the Elimination of Illiteracy, which requires that the illiterate and half-illiterate citizens aged between 15-40 have the right and obligation to become literate through learning, with no regard to their sex, nationality and race. It encourages those aged above 40 to receive education to eliminate illiteracy. At the same time, farmers' cultural and technical schools were set up in rural areas, which opened courses in agriculture, forestry, sideline, fishery, and in township enterprises, business, building, transportation, and services. The efforts consolidated the achievements in the elimination of illiteracy and cultivated the practical technical talents that were in urgent need in rural economic development. Now, 180 million people, who were illiterate in the past, have learned reading and writing through the movement, and the illiteracy rate among 14-45 young and middle aged people has dropped to below 6 percent.

2. On-the-Job Training

As one of the basic tasks of adult education, on-the-job training usually aims at raising employees' ideological level, working ability and production skills. Its main contents include study of political theory, professional ethics, specialized knowledge and technical skills. Those whose education level fails to reach the standard needed by their working posts should, at first, improve the basic education by learning related knowledge.

The training task is mainly undertaken by institutions of higher learning for adults at various levels. The trainees who pass the relevant examinations will receive qualification certificates issued by these institutions. Since 1978, more than 200 million employees have attended such training. Given the situation that more and more working standards have been made and issued by organizations of various trades, on-the-job training is appearing to be an urgent task, and the training system is gradually becoming standardized and institutionalized.

3. Long-Distance Education

Long-distance education in China includes teaching through correspondence and broadcasting. The Chinese government has brought correspondence education into the state plan, and made it one of the basic tasks for ordinary institutions of higher learning. In addition to in-service personnel, graduates of senior middle schools have been allowed to enroll since 1986.

eanwhile, the necessary teaching contingent, textbooks and correspondence education stations are now available, which can well support the whole procedure of education covering self-taught, face-to-face teaching, tutoring, reading and writing assignments, tests in laboratories, fieldwork, examination (inspection), course designing, graduation design, graduation exams and oral exams. In 1986, China Educational TV Channel was launched to fill a gap in the sector, symbolizing a great stride along the modernization road. Some new disciplines have been gradually added to the radio and TV education programs. Enrollment was brought into the overall plan of state for higher education examination and recruitment. Thus far, the country has set up more than 1,000 educational TV stations. Long-distance education based on radio, television and satellite communications has basically covered the whole country, providing a sound base for the sector's further development.

With the development of modern information technology, China is slated to launch a modern long-distance education project. Based on the existing Chinese educational and scientific research network and the satellite transmission system, the country will fully utilize modern information technology and existing information resources, so as to form a socialized and open educational network, establish a lifetime study system and provide more study opportunities for various members of society.

4. Self-Taught Examination System

In 1981, China established a higher educational examination system for the self-taught. Examinees are not limited by age or record of previous schooling. The system provides examinations of higher learning for those self-taught to receive a record of education, an ideal practice in education by combining self-teaching and social assistance with national examination. The National Higher Educational Examination Committee for the Self-taught was set up in 1983, overseeing the Higher Educational Examination Office for the Self-taught responsible for the daily administrative work. In March 1988, the State Council promulgated the Provisional Regulations on a Higher Education Examination Program for the Self-taught. The general requirement of the examination basically coincides with that of regular and junior college courses. Colleges and universities in charge of examinations work out examination plans of special courses which are in line with the overall teaching plans for universities. Those who pass the examination in their chosen subject receive diplomas of junior or regular college education and enjoy similar treatment to graduates from colleges and universities. According to statistics in 1997, 9.451 million people registered for the examination, with 270,300 receiving the diplomas. Of these, 212,000 got regular college certificates, and the rest acquired that of junior college education.

The secondary professional educational examination program for the self-taught also enjoyed fast development. In 1997, registered examinees reached 769,000, with 8,234 people receiving certificates.

5. Post-University Education

With the fast development of modern science and technology, the former school education system was no longer able to satisfy social needs. On June 23, 1987, the State Council released a document, which had been worked out by the State Education Commission, concerning a decision on the reform and development of adult education. This, for the first time, made the post-university education, or continuous education as is often called, one of the five major tasks of adult education. On December 15, 1987, the State Education Commission and other ministries jointly issued a circular providing targets, tasks, principles, contents and forms of the post-university education.

Targets of the post-university education include the in-service technical and administrative personnel with an educational background of above junior college level or with medium-level professional titles. Most of them are young and middle-aged people who are backbone staff in their units. Continuous education is to help them to enrich their knowledge, so as to keep up with the development of the fields they are engaged in. The program upholds the principle of "gearing to the world, the future and modernization." It is emphasized that the teaching should be according to actual needs. Much attention should be paid to teaching new theory, modern technology and advanced methods in the development of science and technology in the world. Diversified forms of the education are encouraged, and the main forms should be short-term training and spare-time study. At present, continuous education has become an important part of adult education.