(Yicai Global) Feb. 27 -- China had 276 million students last year. 

The pupil population rose by 5.36 million for the year, but high school enrollment fell for the eighth straight year and that of kindergarten dropped by 740,000. 

Chinese Kindergartens accepted 186 million students in 2018, down 3.82 percent yearly, China's Ministry of Education said at a press conference yesterday.

The pre-school and high school enrollment decline relates to the population structure, and Chinese school enrollment is decreasing, noted Liu Changya, the head of MOE's Department of Developmental Planning.

China's high school placements last year were 135.2million, down 2.2 percent annually, and this has a nexus with both birthrate fluctuations and grade advancement, Liu said.

Enrollment in secondary vocational education was 41.37 percent of that of high school education but, as an important labor pool, secondary vocational graduate numbers are also decreasing each year, and have kept downward since 2013, with one million less every two years, and only 496,800 in all of 2017. 

Last year's vocational figures are not out yet, but 2018's enrollment was 5.6 million, down 3.95 percent per year as student numbers slipped to 15.5 million, down 2.55 percent annually, per public data.

China will adjust its educational policies as the labor dividend wanes and will achieve the full coverage of high school education by 2035, it said in the Education Modernization Plan 2035 that issued on Feb. 22. 

The country will coordinate the development of secondary vocational and high school education, per the scheme, and will hold the number of vocational students equal to that of high school students, while ensuring most urban and rural new laborers have a high school education, the country's cabinet the State Council noted in the plan.  

Enrollment in primary schools jumped by 5.7 percent to 18.9 million, while that of  junior high schools rose by 3.58 percent to 16 million last year, even as those  in high school and kindergarten continued their decline.

Editor: Ben Armour