This report provides an assessment of both the strengths and potential areas for improvement of the education system of the People's Republic of China. It articulates the inputs and outputs of China's education system, brings in up-to-date policies and practices implemented in China, and provides an in-depth analysis on how China's education system is performing in four overarching dimensions: learning environment, curriculum and teaching practices, student outcomes and education governance. Additionally, this report compares China with other high performing education systems to show the common or divergent patterns between them, offering insights for education systems around the world.

This short country note recaps some Background on the 2014 OECD Measuring Innovation in Education report, the main Key report findings on innovation in education, the Report approach to measuring educational system innovation, along with Hong Kong's top five organisational education innovations for the 2003-2011 period and Hong Kong's top five pedagogic education innovations for the same interval.

Learning for Jobs is an OECD study of vocational education and training designed to help countries make their VET systems more responsive to labour market needs. This special report looks at the system in China. China's education system has made dramatic advances: almost all children in China now complete lower secondary education. Around three quarters continue into upper secondary schools, with fast increasing numbers in tertiary education. At upper secondary level about half the cohort enter vocational schools – more than 20 million students. At the same time the system faces significant challenges. The government is seeking to make the system accessible to all students – by removing the fees barrier, ensuring minimum quality standards in all vocational schools, and in providing adequate high quality workplace training opportunities. This report sets out some policy options for China to address these issues.

This Country Note on China forms part of the OECD Thematic Review of Tertiary Education. This is a collaborative project to assist the design and implementation of tertiary education policies which contribute to the realisation of social and economic objectives of countries. The principal objective of the review is to assist countries to understand how the organisation, management and delivery of tertiary education can help them to achieve their economic and social objectives. The focus of the review is upon tertiary education policies and systems, rather than upon the detailed management and operation of institutions, although clearly the effectiveness of the latter is influenced by the former.

Over the last fifty years, the People's Republic of China has, in the face of dramatic social, political and economic challenges, made enormous strides in developing an educational system, from pre-school through post-graduate levels, that attempts to deal with the dual responsibilities of the equity of educational access and the effectiveness and relevance of the teaching-learning process. Many concerns remain with the education system and significant reforms are still being considered. Perhaps no tension is greater in modern China than that between the desire to provide increased access to education at all levels and the equally strong desire to maintain and increase educational quality to "world-class" standards. In resolving this tension, the People's Republic of China will face a serious set of policy questions.