China's higher education gross enrollment rate exceeds 60 pct: minister

The gross enrollment rate of China's higher education has exceeded 60 percent, Education Minister Huai Jinpeng told a press conference on Saturday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress in Beijing, Huai emphasized that China now operates the world's largest education system with high quality.

"During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), China's higher education system supplied a total of 55 million skilled professionals to society. The gross enrollment rate has more than doubled, rising from under 30 percent before the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012 to over 60 percent today," he said.

"In the recent two years, China's world-class universities and universities with world-class disciplines have enrolled an additional 38,000 students through the expansion of high-quality undergraduate programs. In addition, we have also established 18 new undergraduate universities and 70 new vocational undergraduate colleges over the past five years, increasing undergraduate enrollment by 700,000. By advancing international cooperation in education, we have set up over 540 new Chinese-foreign cooperative education institutions and programs at the undergraduate level and above, creating an additional 350,000 opportunities to study for students," said Huai.

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.