This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. To mark the occasion, we are publishing a series of reports celebrating the city's achievements in different aspects over the past four decades.
The number of schools and students in basic education in Shenzhen had reached 2,593 and 2.09 million by the end of 2019, marking a fast growth over the past 40 years.
Data showed the city had 250 primary and secondary schools 40 years ago when the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was established.
From an agricultural border county neighboring Hong Kong, Shenzhen Special Economic Zone laid the foundation for basic education by increasing investment year by year. In 2019, the investment in education was 83.8 billion yuan (US$12.45 billion) and 67 percent, or 56.1 billion yuan, had been spent in basic education, a report by Shenzhen Economic Daily showed yesterday.
As of 2006, Shenzhen had unveiled a regulation on balanced development for the compulsory education period and seven auxiliary documents that guaranteed a balanced and integrated development of Shenzhen education.
The quality and balanced development of Shenzhen education provided opportunities for students without hukou, or Shenzhen permanent residence permits. As the largest migrant city in China, Shenzhen solved schooling problems for non-hukou students and guaranteed their rights to education.
Due to the fast growth of non-hukou residents, up to 80 percent of total residents in the early 2000s, Shenzhen worked out schooling policies with the lowest thresholds. In 2018, it further relaxed schooling policies.
At present, 63 percent of schooling places are provided to students without Shenzhen hukou. Since 2017, children of Hong Kong and Macao residents in Shenzhen can study at primary and secondary public schools in Shenzhen. In the 2020 high school entrance examinations, of the 80,000 students registered for the examination, 55 percent had no Shenzhen hukou.
Students studying at private schools in Shenzhen can also get public fund subsidies from the government. Since 2012, the city has offered subsidies for private schools, teachers and students. In the most recent three years, a total of 2.11 million students have benefited from the subsidy programs involving 7.45 billion yuan.