(Adopted at the Fourth Session of the Sixth National People'sCongress and promulgated by Order No. 38 of the President of thePeople's Republic of China on April 12, 1986, and effective as of July1, 1986)

Article 1. This Law is formulated, in accordance with theConstitution and the actual conditions in China, for the purpose ofpromoting elementary education and the building of a socialistsociety that is advanced culturally and ideologically as well asmaterially.
Article 2. The state shall institute a system of nine-yearcompulsoryeducation. The authorities of provinces,autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the CentralGovernmentshalldecideon measures to promote compulsoryeducation, in accordance with the degree of economic and culturaldevelopment in their own localities.
Article 3. In compulsory education, the state policy oneducation must be implemented to improve the quality of instructionand enable children and adolescents to achieve all-round development-- morally, intellectually and physically -- so as to lay thefoundation for improving the qualities of the entire nation and forcultivating well-educated and self-disciplined builders of socialismwith high ideals and moral integrity.

Article 4. The state, the community, schools and familiesshall, in accordance with the law, safeguard the right tocompulsory education of school-age children and adolescents.


Article 5. All children who have reached the age of six shallenroll in school and receive compulsory education for the prescribednumber of years, regardless of sex, nationality or race. In areas wherethat is not possible, the beginning of schooling may be postponed tothe age of seven.