China will fully popularize nine-year compulsory education in five years, or during its 11th five-year period for national economic and social development (2006-2010).

Chinese Minister of Education Zhou Ji made the remarks Tuesday at a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council.

Zhou noted that in the five-year period, China will increase the enrollment rate of Chinese senior secondary education and higher education to 80 percent and 25 percent, respectively. In the meantime, China will also expand its secondary vocational education to about the size of its general secondary education.

China has 23 million college students at school

China had 23 million students in its institutions of higher learning by the end of 2005, an education official said Tuesday.

Chinese Minister of Education Zhou Ji told a press conference that the gross enrollment rate of higher education institutions in China reached 21 percent last year, an 8.5 percent increase of that of 2000.

The increase marked the steady and sound growth of China's higher education, Zhou said.