IX. Education, Science and Technology

In 2009, the post-graduate education enrollment was 1.405 million students with 511 thousand new students and 371 thousand graduates. The general tertiary education enrollment was 21.447 million students with 6.395 million new students and 5.311 million graduates. Vocational secondary schools of various types had 21.787 million enrolled students, including 8.736 million new entrants, and 6.192 million graduates. Senior secondary schools had 24.343 million enrolled students, including 8.303 million new entrants, and 8.237 million graduates. Students enrolled in junior secondary schools totaled 54.409 million, including 17.885 million new entrants, and 17.977 million graduates. The country had a primary education enrollment of 100.715 million students, including 16.378 million new entrants, and 18.052 million graduates. There were 428 thousand students enrolled in special education schools, with 64 thousand new entrants. Kindergartens accommodated 26.578 million children.

The amount of expenditures on research and development activities (R&D) was worth 543.3 billion yuan in 2009, up 17.7 percent over 2008, accounting for 1.62 percent of GDP. Of this total, 27.2 billion yuan was appropriated for fundamental research programs. A total number of 639 projects under the National Key Technology Research and Development Program and 1,328 projects under the Hi-tech Research and Development Program (the 863 Program) were implemented. The year 2009 saw a total of 127 national engineering research centers and 85 national engineering laboratories. The number of state validated enterprise technical centers reached 636 by the end of the year. The technical centers at the provincial level numbered 5,011. Venture capital investment plan had been initiated and implemented to boost new emerging industries, and 20 venture investment funds were established. Some 977 thousand patent applications were accepted from home and abroad, of which 878 thousand were domestic applications, accounting for 89.9 percent of the total. A total number of 315 thousand patent applications for new inventions were accepted, of which 229 thousand were from domestic applicants or 72.8 percent of the total. A total of 582 thousand patents were authorized in 2009, of which 502 thousand were domestic patents, accounting for 86.2 percent of the total. A total of 128 thousand patents for new inventions were authorized, of which 65 thousand were domestic ones, accounting for 50.9 percent. Till the end of year 2009, the number of patents in force was 1.520 million, of which 1.193 million patents were domestic ones, accounting for 78.5 percent; the number of patents in force for inventions was 438 thousand, of which 180 thousand was domestic ones, accounting for 41.1 percent. A total of 214 thousand technology transfer contracts were signed, representing 303.9 billion yuan in value, up 14.0 percent over the previous year. The year 2009 saw 6 times of successful launch of satellites. The first petaflop super computer Galaxy 1 was developed successfully, and ChangEr 1 satellite hit moon successfully.

By the end of 2009, there were altogether 25,000 laboratories for product inspection, including 414 national inspection centers. There were 168 organizations for product certification and management system certification, which accumulatively certified products in 41 thousand enterprises. A total of 3,760 authorized measurement institutions enforced compulsory inspection on 45.60 million measurement instruments in the year. A total of 3,158 national standards were developed or revised in the year, including 2,102 new standards. There were 2,737 weather warning signals sent by national and provincial meteorological stations, and 3,950 weather alerts. There were 1,457 seismological monitor stations and 32 seismological remote monitor network stations. The numbers of oceanic observation stations were 66. Mapping departments published 2,060 maps and 307 mapping books.