China operates world's largest education system of quality: minister

China operates the world's largest education system of quality, with preschool education and compulsory education reaching the average levels of high-income countries, Education Minister Huai Jinpeng said at a press conference in Beijing on Saturday.

"Education connects both the welfare of all families and the future of the country, as it concerns the growth of all children and the cultivation of talent for the modernization drive. Now China is operating the world's largest education system of quality. China has 440,000 schools of all levels and types with 280 million enrolled students and 18.7 million teachers," said the minister at the press conference on people's livelihood at the ongoing fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress.

"The gross enrollment rate for preschool education is 92.9 percent, an increase of 28.4 percentage points compared with that before the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012, significantly higher than the average of 84.7 percent of the member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). China's higher education system has produced 55 million graduates during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025). Its gross enrollment rate has more than doubled, rising from less than 30 percent before 2012 to over 60 percent today," Huai said.

The gross enrollment rate for senior high schools in China reached 92 percent in 2025, an increase of 7 percentage points compared with that before the 18th CPC National Congress, according to the minister.

"The data that I presented to you demonstrate that we have made new breakthroughs in providing inclusive, high-quality public education services. The coverage and key indicators of basic education have comprehensively surpassed the average level of upper-middle-income countries, with preschool education and compulsory education reaching the average level of high-income countries," Huai told the press conference.

The fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress opened on Thursday and is scheduled to run till March 12.

Yemenis took to the streets on Friday in Al-Sabeen Square in the capital, Sanaa, as well as in other areas under Houthi control, to express solidarity with Iran and Lebanon.

The demonstrations were held to protest ongoing military operations by the United States and Israel against the two countries.

Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi reiterated on Friday that his forces will stand firmly with Iran. He stressed that the group is ready to take action should the situation require it.

Officials from the group stood behind those remarks while attending the demonstrations.

"As our leader said, we should observe and monitor, and move the situation, with our hands already on the trigger, in the sense that we are ready for any new situation, for any emergency and for what the situation calls us, because we are ready," said Houthi official Ali Al-Dailami.