South China's Guangdong Province is striving to increase its high school enrollment at an annual average rate of 60,000-80,000 during the 2003-2005 period.
Larger cities and the Pearl River Delta will lead the senior high school education popularization during the three years.
Currently, high schools in the economically dynamic province fail to meet demand in terms of scale, quantity and quality, the Guangdong Education Bureau said.
In 2002, only 61 percent of junior middle school students were enrolled in senior middle schools in Guangdong, according to statistics provided by the bureau.
The statistics also show each of the 1,012 senior high schools in the province has only 972 students on average.
The small size of the schools is a hindrance to the development of faculty, distribution of educational resources and improvement of the overall educational standards, bureau officials said.
To this end, Guangdong projects to raise the rate of senior high-school enrollment from the current 61 percent to more than 70 percent in 2005.
The percentage is expected to reach over 90 percent in large and medium-size cities and on the Pearl River Delta, according to the province's plan.
(Xinhua News Agency March 19, 2003)
