Two experts elaborated on how China will improve and use child education to help protect minors' rights and interests, especially female children and ethnic minority groups, at the first Sino-European Forum on Human Rights held in Strasbourg, France on Friday.
Professor Liu Hainian (L), director of the Center for Human Rights Studies at China's Academy of Social Sciences, speaks at the first Sino-European Forum on Human Rights held in Strasbourg, France on Dec. 4, 2015. [Photo by Zhang Rui/China.org.cn]
Professor Liu Hainian, director of the Center for Human Rights Studies at China's Academy of Social Sciences, said China paid great attention to children's education as early as 1,000 years ago. However, during the previous century, China was left behind due to invasions and wars. When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the illiteracy rate of the nation was a stunning 90 percent.
However, China has been improving education for decades. As nationally supported nine-year compulsory free education ends after junior high school, many students aged 15 abandon further studies due to financial or other reasons, creating a time gap for many of these underage children to be child laborers. "The good news is, China is going to promote a 12-year education system for minors during its 13rd Five-Year Plan, " Liu said, "this can help prevent these problems."
