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A brief introduction to the Chinese education system

This content is associated with The Open University Childhood and Youth Studies qualification .

Structure of the Chinese education system

In China, education is divided into three categories: basic education, higher education, and adult education. By law, each child must have nine years of compulsory education from primary school (six years) to junior secondary education (three years). 

Basic education

Basic education in China includes pre-school education (usually three years), primary education (six years, usually starting at the age of six) and secondary education (six years).

Secondary education has two routes: academic secondary education and specialized/vocational/technical secondary education. Academic secondary education consists of junior (three years) and senior middle schools (three years). Junior middle school graduates wishing to continue their education take a locally administered entrance exam, on the basis of which they will have the option of i) continuing in an academic senior middle school; or ii) entering a vocational middle school (or leaving school at this point) to receive two to four years of training. Senior middle school graduates wishing to go to universities must take National Higher Education Entrance Exam (Gao Kao). According to the Chinese Ministry of Education, in June 2015, 9.42 million students took the exam.

Higher education

Higher education is further divided into two categories: 1) universities that offer four-year or five-year undergraduate degrees to award academic degree qualifications; and 2) colleges that offer three-year diploma or certificate courses on both academic and vocational subjects.  Postgraduate and doctoral programmes are only offered at universities. 

Adult education

Adult education ranges from primary education to higher education. For example, adult primary education includes Workers’ Primary Schools, Peasants’ Primary Schools in an effort to raise literacy levels in remote areas; adult secondary education includes specialized secondary schools for adults; and adult higher education includes traditional radio/TV universities (now online), most of which offer certificates/diplomas but a few offer regular undergraduate degrees.

Term times and school hours

The academic year is divided into two terms for all the educational institutions: February to mid-July (six weeks of summer vacation) and September to mid/late-January (four weeks of winter vacation).  There are no half-terms.

Most schools start in the early morning (about 7:30 am) to early evening (about 6 pm) with 2 hours lunch break. Many schools have evening self-study classes running from 7 pm-9 pm so students can finish their homework and prepare for endless tests. If schools do not run self-study evening classes, students still have to do their homework at home, usually up to 10 pm. On average, primary school pupils spend about seven to eight hours at school whilst a secondary school student spends about twelve to fourteen hours at school if including lunchtime and evening classes. Due to the fierce competitiveness to get into good universities, the pressure to do well for Gao Kao is intense.  Many schools hold extra morning classes in science and math for three to four hours on Saturdays. If schools do not have Saturday morning classes, most parents would send their children to expensive cramming schools at weekends or organise one-to-one private tuition for their children over the weekend.

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Overview of the education system in china

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This paper focuses on the impacts of the reforms in Chinese educational system. Education is part of China's overall development and it is known that the last recent decades the whole Chinese educational system has been the subject of unprecedented reforms. The increased impact of educational reforms has provided significant human resources and innovation, which facilitated progress in the economic, political, cultural, and social development. The development of China's education system has been a major factor in its economic and social growth. This article aims to examine some of the effects that the reforms have generated on the entire Chinese education system and provide guidelines for minimizing limitations and weaknesses of the education system in its reforms. Using a qualitative approach to collect the data drawn from articles and materials, this paper aims to discuss educational reforms and how they affect the Chinese education system by exploiting the readings related to the subject. Some progress has been achieved in the extent to which transformations are perceptible. Gains have been made through educational policies supported by good economic health for years. Despite the progress, education seems to be the field of some contradictions and there is a need to overcome certain shortcomings and weaknesses of educative practices that the Chinese educational system is still facing. Possible solutions are proposed in conclusion and recommendation.

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Since a few years now, a new terminological wind has been blowing upon the educational arena all over the world. This is how in higher education discourse, such concepts and ideas as internationalization, skills acquisition (in addition to knowledge), outcomes-based teaching and learning (OBTL), life-long learning, whole-person education, general education, global citizenship education, employability are recurrently used to illustrate the reorientation of educational principles and needs. Hong Kong is here no exception, but at the same time, the Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China is introducing wide-ranging reforms to apply a new academic structure: secondary education should be completed in six years instead of seven and in 2012 the higher education institutions will switch from three-year degrees to more generalised four-year courses. Furthermore, in his 2009/10 Policy Address, the Chief Executive announced that the education service was one of the six new engines selected to diversify the local economy in the wake of financial crisis and global recession and help power it toward recovery. These educational orientations and reforms have to be viewed in the consideration of the aim to see Hong Kong as “Asia’s world city” and the Hong Kong higher education sector serving as the “education hub” in the region. This is the reason why in recent years the Hong Kong government has introduced a series of measures to internationalize local schools and institutions, since internationalisation of education is seen as fundamental for Hong Kong’s success. The main purpose of this article is to evaluate the impact of the above-mentioned new concepts and reforms on Hong Kong’s internationalisation policy in higher education. It will also investigate to what extent these changes reflect Hong Kong’s needs in terms of societal development.

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• Education at a Glance

Education at a Glance 2022

Oecd indicators.

Education at a Glance is the authoritative source for data on the state of education around the world. It provides information on the structure, finances and performance of education systems across OECD countries and partner economies. More than 100 charts and tables in this publication – as well as much more data available online – provide key information on the output of educational institutions; the impact of learning across countries; access, participation and progression in education; the financial resources invested in education; and teachers, the learning environment and the organisation of schools.

The 2022 edition focuses on tertiary education, looking at the rise of tertiary attainment and the associated benefits for individuals and for societies. It also considers the costs of tertiary education and how spending on education is divided across levels of government and between the state and individuals. A specific chapter is dedicated to the COVID crisis and the shift from crisis management to recovery. Two new indicators on professional development for teachers and school heads and on the profile of academic staff complement this year's edition.

English Also available in: French , German

• Spotlight on Tertiary Education: Findings from Education at a Glance 2022
• https://doi.org/10.1787/3197152b-en
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Upper secondary attainment is often seen as a minimum qualification for successful labour market participation. In China, 37% of 25-64 year-olds had achieved at least an upper secondary qualification in 2020, compared to 83% on average across OECD countries. Of these, about half had achieved upper secondary education as their highest education attainment, while the remainder had completed a tertiary programme.

• Click to download PDF - 352.18KB PDF

Cite this content as:

Author(s) OECD

03 Oct 2022

How Does Education in China Compare with Other Countries?

Innovation is a critical component of national power.  It propels countries to develop new products or methods of production that drive economic progress and enable states to tackle transnational challenges, such as climate change and global health crises. The ability of a country to cultivate its capacity for innovation rests with its domestic education system. A well-educated workforce is instrumental to technological and scientific discovery, which can propel states to the apex of the increasingly innovation-based global economy.  This need is particularly salient for China as its leaders seek to push the Chinese economy up the global value chain.

Primary and Secondary Education

In an effort to promote sustainable development, Chinese leaders have sought to improve educational quality and increase access across the country. The most notable government policy, the 1986 Law on Nine-Year Compulsory Education , called for achievement of the ‘two basics’ ( liangji ): universal enrollment among school-aged children (6-15 years) and full literacy among those under the age of 20. Other measures have centered on revising the national curriculum and enhancing teacher training programs.

Yet educational access remains uneven in China. Students born into affluent families generally have greater access to high-quality education than those from lower income backgrounds. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics suggest that urban residents in China enjoy a nearly threefold income advantage over their rural counterparts. The household registration system ( hukou ) has further widened this development gap by restricting the internal movement of persons.  Education-finance policies requiring local governments to bear partial responsibility for funding schools have compounded this issue, leaving less affluent areas without sufficient resources to pay skilled teachers, purchase necessary instruction materials, and maintain school facilities.

Migration from rural areas has forced the closure of village schools, contributing to the decrease in Chinese primary schools from 668,685 in 1995 to 201,377 in 2014.

Literacy is a baseline indicator of educational access. High levels of literacy serve as the foundation for improved access to information and directly enhance an individual’s ability to contribute to society.  As of 2011, China had all but eliminated illiteracy among young and middle-aged citizens – a landmark achievement for a country with the world’s largest population. Nevertheless, provincial variations reveal the incomplete nature of China’s ongoing development. Wealthy cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, reported 2014 literacy rates (98.52 percent and 96.85 percent) comparable with those of developed countries. At the other extreme, Tibet’s literacy rate was a mere 60.07 percent in same year, pegging it closer to under-developed countries like Haiti and Zambia.

Regional variations in educational access become more evident when considering the average length of schooling per student. To assess the role education plays in evaluating economic development and quality of life, the United Nations calculates the Education Index (EI) as part of its annually released Human Development Index (HDI). EI is calculated from mean and expected years of schooling and ranges from 0 (no educational attainment) to 1 (theoretically perfect educational attainment). EI values vary widely across China. In 2014, Beijing enjoyed a high EI of 0.854, which closely matches that of Iceland (0.853), an OECD country that ranks sixth on the Human Development Index . EI is lowest in Tibet, whose value of 0.45, when compared to EI values from around the world, places it in the bottom 20 percent.

Education Index by Income Level

Income-levels correspond to the World Bank’s development classification, which uses GNI per capita (Atlas method) to calculate the levels of development.

Urbanization has exaggerated regional differences in educational access. The movement of people from rural to urban areas within China in search of employment opportunities and higher wages is among the largest internal migrations  in human history. Migration from rural areas has forced the closure of village schools, contributing to the decrease in Chinese primary schools from 668,685 in 1995  to 201,377 in 2014 . Rural migrants have flooded the labor market in urban centers, including Beijing and Shanghai, such that migrant laborers comprise roughly one-third of China’s total labor force . These population shifts have contributed to overcrowded classrooms , which may come under even greater strain as the number of children of migrant workers residing in China’s biggest cities is expected to increase by 1.5 million annually.

More developed regions have managed to offset much of this demographic shift. Some of China’s most densely populated areas compare favorably with cities in the United States in terms of student-teacher ratios. The average number of students per teacher in primary and secondary schools in Beijing and Shanghai is 15:1 and 14:1, respectively.  By comparison, New York City and Los Angeles have elementary and secondary school student-teacher ratios of 15:1 and 21:1 , respectively. Chinese classrooms also have fewer students per teacher than the global average at both the primary and secondary level.

Less economically developed regions often suffer from the migration of qualified teachers to more developed parts of the country and lack adequate funds to hire and properly train instructors. Despite generally lower population density levels than urban areas, limited economic resources manifest in fewer, less-qualified teachers per student.  Guangxi province, for instance, has primary and secondary student-teacher ratios of 20:1 and 24:1. These patterns are mirrored in less developed regions around the world. According to a 2013 United Nations report , adolescents residing in rural areas of developing countries are less likely to have access to institutions with favorable student-teacher ratios. In India, insufficient funding has resulted in national primary and secondary student-teacher ratios of at 29:1 and 34:1 , respectively.

In order to address these imbalances, the central government has implemented policies to realign  education funding. The National Plan for Medium- and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020) set ambitious achievement targets for primary and secondary education. The plan emphasizes the need to boost scientific and technological innovation by developing China’s human-resource base.  Stated goals include universalizing preschool education and improving the nine-year compulsory education system through the “rational allocation” of resources and provision of “special support” to the less fortunate.

Local governments are also taking action to tackle disparities in education access. Shenzhen has waived school fees and Shanghai has offered legal status and funding for migrant children. The Ministry of Education has vowed to crack down on arbitrary fees , which allow some families to send their children to better schools outside the student’s home province. Additionally, the Chinese government passed the Compulsory Education Law in 2006 to galvanize local reform, prompting cities such as Wuhan to develop policies that allow migrant children living in urban areas to attend local schools without the requisite urban hukou .

Tertiary Education

Tertiary education, generally understood as post-secondary school learning supported by universities, technical training institutes, community colleges, and research laboratories, is essential to a country’s competitiveness in an increasingly innovation-driven global economy. Over the last decade, China has made considerable strides in advancing tertiary education, with the number of institutions more than doubling and government expenditures increasing from $52.66 billion in 2003 to $311 billion in 2014. The 211 Project and 985 Project , initiatives designed to raise research standards and cultivate rencai (people with talent), further demonstrate the effort Chinese leaders are making to modernize the country’s education system.

At present, however, the quality of Chinese universities lags behind that of other countries. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2016-2017, a widely respected London-based university measure, includes only two Chinese institutions among the top 100 universities worldwide.  Peking and Qinghua universities place 29th and 25th respectively, among the 978 tertiary institutions featured in the world ranking. By comparison, the study found that the United States is home to fifteen of the top twenty universities in the world. University rankings released by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy also reflect this division. Qinghua and Peking universities rank 58 th and 71 st in the consultancy’s global comparison.  China’s 3 rd and 4 th nationally-ranked universities , Zhejiang and Fudan, fail to make the top 100.

China’s top universities are highly selective. Peking University does not publicize its admission rates, but applicants from Beijing are believed to have a 0.5 percent chance of acceptance, which is up to 40 times higher than applicants from elsewhere in the country. When compared globally, Peking University’s low admission rate reveals the exceptionally competitive nature of tertiary education in China. Two of the world’s most well-regarded higher education institutions in the United States, Harvard University and Stanford University, have admission rates around 5 percent. In the United Kingdom, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge have acceptance rates over 17 percent.

The structure of the national admissions process further compounds this disparity.  College hopefuls are bound by their hukou (household registration) and performance on the gaokao, China’s National Higher Education Entrance Examination. Every year, universities set quotas for how many applicants may be admitted from each province. Institutions allocate the highest number of spots to applicants from the institution’s home province, and typically preferential treatment is given to urban residents from elsewhere for the remaining spots. Consequently, students from rural or lower-income Chinese provinces must often score significantly higher on the gaokao than their counterparts with urban hukou in order to be admitted into the same institution.  

China and India supply almost half of (46.4 percent) the global 6.4 million Science and Engineering bachelor’s degrees.

Chinese universities are generally understood to be divided into four tiers , with Tier 1 encompassing universities designated to receive substantial central government funding to develop China as a world-class research center . The cutoff gaokao scores ( fenshuxian ) required for admission into each tier are determined annually, but a student’s chances for acceptance usually depend on the difficulty of the gaokao , university quotas, academic interests, and their hukou . A high number of Tier-1 institutions are concentrated in wealthy municipalities and provinces, which earmarks them for more government funding than their lower-ranking counterparts.  Specifically, five of the top ten universities in China are located in Beijing and Shanghai.

Tertiary enrollment rates further reflect China’s stark urban-rural education divide. On the national level, just over a quarter of the country’s college-age population is enrolled in a tertiary institution.  Shanghai, one of China’s wealthiest municipality, boasts an enrollment rate of 70 percent, while provinces like Guangxi suffer from enrollment rates below 20 percent. A similar trend surfaces when comparing countries across the globe. Highly developed countries in North America and Western Europe have tertiary enrollment rates averaging around 75 percent.  Conversely, in developing regions in Central Asia , just over a quarter of the population attains tertiary education.

Many of those who attend Chinese universities pursue degrees in science and engineering fields.  According to the 2016 Science and Engineering Indicators Report , China and India supply almost half of (46.4 percent) the global 6.4 million Science and Engineering (S&E) bachelor’s degrees. The two countries are projected to collectively account for two-thirds of the increase in global S&E graduates through 2030 . By comparison, the European Union and United States supplied 11.5 percent and 9.2 percent, respectively, of the global share of S&E graduates.

This outpouring of S&E graduates may present its own problems for China as it seeks to transition to a consumer-driven economy.  A Qinghua and Fudan University joint study observed a gap between China’s supply and its need for highly skilled labor. Specifically, western provinces have skills shortages in fields such as research and development and capital operation , and eastern provinces lack skilled technical workers . Moreover, high-skilled workers often seek opportunities in the same cities , which can lead to an excess of job hunters in a particular market. In 2013, the tertiary education system supplied more highly-skilled workers than the economy demanded, resulting in a new-graduate unemployment rate more than three times higher than the national average.  Educational attainment outstripping market demands is not unique to China. In South Korea, recent graduates face a highly competitive job market with scarce employment opportunities , forcing some students to linger at university.

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Education & Science

Education in China - statistics & facts

China's educational system, large regional disparities, key insights.

Detailed statistics

Share of GDP spent on public education in China 2010-2022

Number of students at high schools in China 2012-2022

Number of college and university graduates in China 2013-2023

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Education Level & Skills

Adult literacy in China 1982-2020

Enrollment rate in tertiary education in China 1990-2023

Leading destinations for Chinese students studying abroad 2015 and 2022

Further recommended statistics

General overview.

• Premium Statistic Education Index - comparison of selected countries 2022
• Basic Statistic Adult literacy in China 1982-2020
• Basic Statistic Illiteracy rate in China 2022, by region
• Premium Statistic Enrollment rate in senior secondary education in China 1990-2023
• Premium Statistic Enrollment rate in tertiary education in China 1990-2023
• Basic Statistic Leading universities Asia 2024

Education Index - comparison of selected countries 2022

Education index including inequality* of selected countries in 2022

Adult literacy rate in China from 1982 to 2020

Illiteracy rate in China 2022, by region

Illiteracy rate in China in 2022, by region

Enrollment rate in senior secondary education in China 1990-2023

Gross enrollment ratio in senior secondary education in China from 1990 to 2023

Gross enrollment ratio in tertiary education in China from 1990 to 2023

Leading universities Asia 2024

Leading universities as ranked by Times Higher Education in Asia in 2024

Education expenditure

• Premium Statistic Public expenditure on education in China 2013-2023
• Premium Statistic Share of GDP spent on public education in China 2010-2022
• Premium Statistic Public education spending per student in China 2022, by level of education
• Premium Statistic Per capita spending of urban households in China on education & leisure 1990-2023
• Premium Statistic Per capita expenditure of private households in China on education 2022, by region
• Premium Statistic Per capita spending of households in China on education & leisure 2000-2023

Public expenditure on education in China 2013-2023

Public expenditure on education in China from 2013 to 2023 (in billion yuan)

Public expenditure on education as a share of the gross domestic product (GDP) in China from 2010 to 2022

Public education spending per student in China 2022, by level of education

Public education spending per student in China in 2022, by level of education (in yuan)

Per capita spending of urban households in China on education & leisure 1990-2023

Annual per capita expenditure of private urban households in China on education, culture, and recreation from 1990 to 2023 (in yuan)

Per capita expenditure of private households in China on education 2022, by region

Per capita expenditure of private urban households in China on education, culture and recreation in 2022, by region (in yuan)

Per capita spending of households in China on education & leisure 2000-2023

Annual per capita expenditure of households in China on education, culture, and recreation from 2000 to 2023 (in yuan)

Educational infrastructure

• Premium Statistic Number of pre-schools in China 2012-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of elementary schools in China 2012-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of elementary schools in China 2022, by region
• Premium Statistic Number of secondary vocational schools in China 2012-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of high schools in China 2012-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of colleges and universities in China 2012-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of colleges and universities in China 2022, by region

Number of pre-schools in China 2012-2022

Number of pre-schools in China between 2012 and 2022

Number of elementary schools in China 2012-2022

Number of elementary schools in China between 2012 and 2022

Number of elementary schools in China 2022, by region

Number of elementary schools in China in 2022, by region

Number of secondary vocational schools in China 2012-2022

Number of secondary vocational schools in China between 2012 and 2022

Number of high schools in China 2012-2022

Number of high schools in China between 2012 and 2022

Number of colleges and universities in China 2012-2022

Number of public colleges and universities in China between 2012 and 2022

Number of colleges and universities in China 2022, by region

Number of public colleges and universities in China in 2022, by region

Student situation

• Premium Statistic Number of students at elementary schools in China 2012-2022
• Premium Statistic Share of students repeating a year at elementary school in China 2018
• Premium Statistic Number of students at high schools in China 2012-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of students at colleges and universities in China 2013-2023
• Premium Statistic Undergraduate students enrolled at universities in China 2022, by region
• Premium Statistic Number of college and university graduates in China 2013-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of college and university graduates in China 2022, by region
• Premium Statistic Monthly salary of university graduates in China 2012-2022

Number of students at elementary schools in China 2012-2022

Number of students at elementary schools in China between 2012 and 2022 (in millions)

Share of students repeating a year at elementary school in China 2018

Share of students repeating a year at elementary school in China between 2008 and 2018

Number of students at high schools in China between 2012 and 2022 (in millions)

Number of students at colleges and universities in China 2013-2023

Number of undergraduate students enrolled at public colleges and universities in China from 2013 to 2023 (in millions)

Undergraduate students enrolled at universities in China 2022, by region

Number of undergraduate students enrolled at public colleges and universities in China in 2022, by region (in 1,000s)

Number of graduates from public colleges and universities in China between 2013 and 2023 (in 1,000s)

Number of college and university graduates in China 2022, by region

Number of graduates from public colleges and universities in China in 2022, by region (in 1,000s)

Monthly salary of university graduates in China 2012-2022

Monthly salary of college and university graduates in China from 2012 to 2022 (in yuan)

Foreign students in China

• Premium Statistic Total number of foreign students studying in China 2014-2018
• Premium Statistic Number of foreign students studying in China 2018, by country of origin
• Premium Statistic Most popular regions among foreign students in China 2018
• Premium Statistic Number of foreign students studying in China 2009-2018, by source of funding
• Premium Statistic Number of students from the United States studying in China 2011/12-2021/22

Total number of foreign students studying in China 2014-2018

Total number of foreign students studying in China from 2014 to 2018

Number of foreign students studying in China 2018, by country of origin

Number of foreign students studying in China in 2018, by selected country of origin

Most popular regions among foreign students in China 2018

Most popular regions among foreign students in China in 2018

Number of foreign students studying in China 2009-2018, by source of funding

Number of foreign students studying in China from 2009 to 2018, by source of funding

Number of students from the United States studying in China 2011/12-2021/22

Number of college and university students from the United States studying in China from academic year 2011/12 to 2021/22

Studying abroad

• Premium Statistic Number of Chinese students studying abroad 2010-2022
• Basic Statistic Number of Chinese students in the U.S. 2012/13-2022/23
• Premium Statistic Leading destinations for Chinese students studying abroad 2015 and 2022
• Premium Statistic Motivations of Chinese students to study abroad 2015-2024
• Premium Statistic Chinese student's intention to study abroad under COVID-19 2023

Number of Chinese students studying abroad 2010-2022

Number of students from China going abroad for study from 2010 to 2022 (in 1,000s)

Number of Chinese students in the U.S. 2012/13-2022/23

Number of college and university students from China in the United States from academic year 2012/13 to 2022/23

Chinese students' preferred destinations for studying overseas in 2015 and 2022

Motivations of Chinese students to study abroad 2015-2024

Major reasons for Chinese student to study overseas in 2015 and 2024

Chinese student's intention to study abroad under COVID-19 2023

Influence of coronavirus on Chinese student's plan to study overseas in 2023

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Education in China

As an ancient civilization with a history of 5,000 years, China has always been attaching great importance to its education. Confucianism and the imperial examination system have a great impact on China’s education. The current strategy of rejuvenating China through science and education puts science, technology and education as China’s priorities. International exchanges and cooperation promote China’s education to a deeper and further level. Not only does it play an important role in inheriting and developing the traditional Chinese culture, but also makes tremendous contributions to the development of world civilization.

I. Status quo

At present, China's education system mainly includes pre-school education, compulsory education, special education, high school education, higher education, adult training, literacy education and private education.

Pre-school education refers to the education in kindergartens for 3 to 5-year-old children

Compulsory education is also referred to as free education, including primary and middle school education, lasting nine years generally, six years in primary school and three in middle school (“6+3 system”), yet with exceptions.

China has basically formed its own special education development pattern, with special education schools as the backbone, regular classes or special classes in ordinary schools as the main form, and sending teachers to families, homeschooling and community education as a supplement.

China’s high school education, including regular high schools, regular technical secondary schools,  adult secondary technical schools,vocational high schools and technical schools, is an important part of the national education system.

China’s higher education includes academic education and non-academic education, in full-time or part-time pattern. It can also be divided into junior college, undergraduate and postgraduate education.

Adult training and literacy education: Adult education is different from ordinary full-time education. Its main purpose is to upgrade the skills and improve the qualifications of the working staff.  Literacy education refers to the process of teaching the illiterate or the semi-illiterate to grasp basic skills of reading, writing and reckoning.

China’s private education, also known as non-public education, is a form of education in contrast to public education or state-run education. It refers to the schools and other educational institutions run by non-state social organizations or individuals using non-fiscal funds for the purpose of benefiting the society.

II. Achievements 

At present, China has about 15,429,000 full-time teachers, 260 million students and 512,000 schools. The total investment in education in the country is CNY 3,612.919 billion. There are 2,852 higher education institutions, enrolling a total of 36.47 million students, 24,900 high schools with 40,376,900 students, 52,400 middle schools with 43,119,500 students, 190,500 primary schools with 96,921,800 pupils, and 223,700 kindergartens with 42,648,300 children.

In terms of investment in education, in recent five years, the national education program have trained 7 million teachers, with CNY 2.92 trillion fiscal fund invested. 80% of compulsory education schools are equipped with multimedia classrooms, and 91.45% with Internet access.

1. Scale of private education

There were 162,700 privately-run schools of various kinds at various levels in China, including 734 private colleges and universities, 2,225 private secondary vocational schools, 2,585 private regular high schools, 4,876 private regular middle schools, 5,859 private regular primary schools and 146,400 private kindergartens.

2. Scale of higher education

There are 2,852 higher education institutions in China, among which 2,560 are regular colleges and universities, and 292 are adult colleges and universities. In higher academic education, there are 326,700 PhD students, 1,584,700 postgraduates, 15,766,800 undergraduates, 10,486,100 regular junior college students and 6,359,400 adult college and adult junior college students.

Among the teachers of regular colleges and universities in China, the full-time teachers in colleges and universities total 1,573,000, of which 68.4% has master’s degree[l1] and 41.9% senior professional titles.

China’s higher education institutions have assigned 44,200 students and received 37,600 foreign students for international academic exchanges and cooperative researches which have attendees as many as 163,900. China has held 2,291 international academic conferences, with 93,500 academic papers discussed and 18,700 invited lectures given.

III. International cooperation and exchanges in education

Since 2000, China has successively established eight vice premier-level humanities exchange mechanisms: China-Russia (November 2000), China-US (May 2010), China-UK (April 2012), China-Europe (April 2012), China-France (September 2014), China-Indonesia (May 2015), China-South Africa (April 2017) and China-Germany (May 2017), which covers many areas such as education, science, technology, culture, health, sport, radio and television, media, film, tourism, women, youth and archives.

1. Inbound and outbound students

From 1978 to 2016, 4,586,600 Chinese students studied overseas and 2,651,100 returned. According to the statistics, in the year of 2016, 544,500 Chinese students went abroad to further their studies and 432,500 returned, and the international students studying in China were 442,800, among which 210,000 received academic education.

2. Sino-foreign cooperation in school operations

Until February 2017, there have been 2,522 Sino-foreign education institutions and programs in China, involving 34 countries, including Australia, UK, USA, Canada and Russia, and 1,746 Sino-foreign higher education institutions, including 785 colleges and universities in China and 961 in foreign countries.

3. Confucius Institute

Until December 2016, China had established 511 Confucius Institutes in 140 countries and regions, opened 1,073 Confucius Classrooms, with 2.1 million students and 46,000 part-time and full-time faculty members in 2016.

IV.Future development

Improving the quality of education in China in an all-round way and making significant progress in education modernization are the main goals of China’s educational development in the future. The main tasks include strengthening students’ social responsibility, innovation, entrepreneurship and hands-on ability; encouraging the development of universal pre-schooling; promoting the balanced development of compulsory education; universalizing high school education; speeding up the development of modern vocational education; transforming the qualified undergraduate institutions into application-oriented colleges and universities; adopting a balanced approach in terms of building world-class universities and disciplines; improving the ability of colleges and universities in teaching and innovation; speeding up the building of a learning society; and making great efforts in promoting educational equality.

The supplementary measures to achieve the main objectives include strengthening the training of teachers, deepening the reform of the examination and enrollment system, improving the education investment mechanism, promoting and regulating the development of private education, promoting education informatization, strengthening international cooperation and exchanges in education, and deepening the innovation and entrepreneurship-oriented educational reform.

• Study in Shanghai
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China
• Tsinghua University

Education system in China

Education in China

Jan 28, 2012

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Education in China. National Consortium for Teaching about Asia Study Tour July,2004. If you think about education in China, what images come to your mind? You may have images which are no longer valid, I know that I learned a lot about modern China from seeing these schools.

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Education in China National Consortium for Teaching about Asia Study Tour July,2004

If you think about education in China, what images come to your mind?You may have images which are no longer valid, I know that I learned a lot about modern China from seeing these schools.

As teachers touring China we had the opportunity to visit several schools. We saw their best schools and sat down to talk with both teachers and students. It amazed us how fluent their English was compared to our Chinese!

Changping # 1 High School

Two groups of American teachers, about 55 people, visited the Changping # 1 High School outside Beijing. We spent about 2 hours touring it and talking with students and faculty.

Students practice English

School is out in July, so the students and faculty returned just to talk to us. The students English was very good but many were very worried they would not say something right and were very shy as a result.

Learning calligraphy

A calligraphy demonstration

Their computer lab

The Professor from Beijing introduces their Principal

Beijing University

Entrance to Beijing Universitry is by exams given in early July. Our Beijing guide was one of 200,000 who took the exam from her province. Only 22 were accepted to study at Beida. It is China’s Harvard, MIT and Princeton all rolled into one university . Admittance carries enormous prestige and can also bring excellent job offers after graduation.

Beijing University is one of the few reforms made in the 1890’s which survived the Empress Cixi’s scrutiny. It’s creation was controversial but it managed to survive and grow.

Professor Zhang & MichelleOUR GUIDE

a typical meal

Serving Peking Duck

The buildings have lovely decorations

No Name Lake

A stone boat

A palace on No Name Lake

Morning lessons in Tai Chi

A sculpture on campus

81 year old Professor Yang lectured on Chinese architecture

Explaining how the Forbiden City is designed to compliment Feng Shui.

The center of the Forbidden City is the Hall of Supreme Harmony where the Emperor held his audiences.

The Forbidden City sits on a north-south axis. It has an “ man made mountain “ created at the north called Coal Hill. The city is surrounded by a moat because a water feature is required for good Feng Shui. This was considered the center of the world by the Chinese and symbolized the power of the Emperor.

A calligraphy lecture & demonstration

Professor Yang is a living treasure in China and celebrated for his exceptional talent as a master calligrapher. His poetry has been carved into a mountain to celebrate this. He has incredible energy which he attributes to practicing calligraphy every day.

“ Spring “ character

How a character evolves

Chengdu, China • Chengdu is in far western China. It is the gateway city to travel to Tibet.Many foreigners only stop here to get the needed permits to enter Tibet. Chengdu is an industrial city with a long history of silk production. The river running through Chendgu is called the Brocade river because it used to be brightly colored by the process of dying silk brocades.

Chengdu Primary School • This primary school takes children 2-6 years of age. It combines daycare and pre-school and is extremely expensive . • It has a teacher to student ratio of 1 teacher for every 5 students. No class has more than 20 students and children help to grow the food they eat at snack and lunch in a small garden plot.

A small waterfall.

A mountain to improve children’s motor skills

A swimming pool for children to play in .

A water element to play on

Pre school children are constantly shown written Chinese characters so they become familiar with them. This is the beginning of learning how to write them .

A padded play ground

A tour of the playground

This school has every possible advantage and a very low teacher to pupil ratio. The tuition makes it unaffordable for the majority of people in Chengdu. The environment was creative and designed to make students more creative.

What questions do you have about Chinese education after seeing these slides? Do you have more choice about your education or do the Chinese students ?

Each students who is accepted into a college or university has to pay for it but it is much less expensive than our own system. There are few scholarships so often families go into debt to help pay the fees.

Upon graduation, you have to find a job yourself, the government no longer gives you one. It is a very competative market. There are financial incentives for people who will work in western China since few want to do so.

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Basic Education in China - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Basic Education in China

Basic education in china wang, dinghua,phd basic education department ministry of education, prc 2006 the choice of china the chinese government has put forward the ... – powerpoint ppt presentation.

• The Chinese Government has put forward the scientific development outlook of putting people in the first place and promoting the harmonious development of economy and society and the idea of building a socialist harmonious society.
• 95 of total population receives 9 year compulsory education.
• High school education grows up quickly.
• Curriculum reforms are undergoing pretty well.
• Teachers are respected.
• A series of educational laws promulgated and revised.
• Pressing Challenges in
• Chinas Basic Education
• Although K-12 education in China has made significant advances, the overall development has been quite uneven and imbalanced. Obvious gaps exist between different schools. It can neither respond well to the needs of rapid socio-economic development, nor satisfy the aspiration of the broad masses for balanced basic education.
• Quality is the lifeline for education. Basic Education in some areas and many schools in some areas can not meet the increasing demand from the public for a high quality education.
• Parents have very high demand for high quality.
• High quality education not only refers to education with better infrastructure, but also refers to qualified teaching contingent, improved teaching process, better management, and proper philosophy of running schools.
• Teachers quality needs to be improved.
• Although innovations are undergoing with entrance examinations into higher education institutions.
• Examination related subjects emphasized.
• Too much learning burden is faced up with students.
• Curriculum Reform
• Conduct comprehensive reform of curriculum, textbook, in basic education.
• Leverage the excellent cultural and educational traditions of China as well as the advanced curricula, textbooks and teaching methods of the other countries.
• 1. To understand Chinas history and her current status thus become ready to assume responsibilities for their personal and national development, in the meantime to respect other nations and their cultures and to be ready to participate in international development and communication
• 2. To master the basic skills for reading, writing and arithmetic operation, basic knowledge for culture and science, necessary skills to express themselves and communicate with others, capacity to process information, to acquire basic labor skills, so that they can adapt effectively to the learning society
• 3. To develop, through observation and experience, a scientific understanding of the environment, sustainable development and ecological ethics, and to be able to identify, analyze and solve problems in their daily life
• 4. To understand and care for the society, to form appropriate moral values and behavioral habits, ready to serve the people and the community
• 5. To develop sound self-consciousness and independent personality thus to take good care of life, learn to rationally plan for and assess ones own development and to cope with frustrations in the social life to be accustomed to engage in regular physical exercise and proper living habits
• 6. To develop healthy interest for esthetic appreciation of the beauty of the nature, society, science and art to be inclined to join in different cultural activities.
• Build upon the current teachers training, attract more talented people to join the teachers profession. Implement the Gardeners Project
• Reward excellent teachers by every Teachers Day
• Set up codes of conduct of teachers
• Improving the qualifications of teachers
• Laying much emphasis on the turning out of qualified teachers in the western part of China.
• Active learning
• Interactive learning
• Hands-on ability
• How to fish instead of giving fish
• Teaching reforms
• Classroom teaching
• Social participation
• Project oriented study
• In teaching process, ICT is widely applied.
• Teaching Assessment
• Grade instead of 100 marks
• More encouragement
• Qualities at all aspect are encouraged
• Continuous innovations toward entrance examination will be conducted
• Any nation belongs to the world. The Chinese nation enjoys a historical and cultural tradition not broken for 5,000 years. Education in China can not and will not sustain without the Chinese cultural traditions.

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• Published: 16 August 2024

Seeing life through life: Unpacking life education in intergenerational learning in China

• Hao Cheng   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3133-9774 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  1048 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Life education is increasingly recognized as one of the potentially effective ways to reduce unnatural deaths. Existing research focuses mainly on classroom knowledge transfer and extracurricular practical activities, which has been criticized for their effectiveness due to insufficient interaction between teachers and students. Creating high-quality life education, therefore, has become a demand for human happiness. Intergenerational learning embedded in life education, developed by collaborating with primary schools and older adult schools in China, has become an effective practice. Two teachers, seven primary school students, and seven older adult learners were interviewed to reveal the characteristics and impact of this effective practice. This model of practice establishes a dual subject of teachers and students in breaking the boundary between teachers as subjects and students as objects, while recognizing diverse lives in the interaction and reflection of intergenerational learning. In addition, this study constructs a classroom teaching model of teachers, primary school students, and older adult learners jointly creating knowledge, skills, emotions, attitudes, and values, and I put forward the life education thought of ‘seeing life through life’. This study has implications for policymakers on improving educational policies and practitioners on innovating life education models in cross-cultural contexts.

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From ancient times to the present, philosophers, educators, and sociologists have regarded life as the original intention and destination of theoretical construction and practical exploration (Sirgy & Wu, 2009 ). Among them, what is life, where life comes from, and how to improve the value of life have become important topics that researchers continue to discuss (Binmore, 2016 ; Grimm & Cohoe, 2021 ). There is a consensus that understanding, revering, and cherishing life should be everyone’s attitude and behavior (Lindseth & Norberg, 2022 ; Wright, Breier, Depner, Grant, & Lodi-Smith, 2018 ). If we understand death in terms of whether it is normal or not, the types of death can be categorized into normal aging death and unnatural death (Pilling, 1967 ). Normal death, such as disease and aging, has inevitable and irresistible characteristics. Increasing medical input and maintaining a positive attitude have become important methods to deal with normal death. Although normal death brings serious physical and mental harm to relatives and friends, human beings often choose to accept it calmly (Clements, DeRanieri, Vigil, & Benasutti, 2004 ). However, many unnatural deaths, such as car accidents caused by drunk driving and suicides caused by depression, often bring negative effects of individual trauma, family breakdown, and social instability that are difficult to eliminate in the short term (Carr et al., 2017 ; Testoni, Russotto, Zamperini, & Leo, 2018 ).

Many studies have shown that most unnatural deaths are characterized by human intervention, which may be prevented by effective methods (Longo et al., 2015 ; Truby, Brown, Dahdal, & Ibrahim, 2022 ; Zalla et al., 2023 ). To minimize the frequency of unnatural deaths, many countries have tried to develop and innovate effective ways to help people revere and cherish life. For example, life teaching materials in China (Ji & Reiss, 2022 ), school and community life training in Japan (Takamura et al., 2017 ), and life care for vulnerable groups in countries such as Italy (Corti et al., 2023 ) profoundly highlight particular practices in improving the quality of life in different countries. In addition, many studies have shown that life education has important value for normal death and abnormal death, and has become one of the effective methods to prolong physical life, enrich spiritual life, and empower social life (Besley & Peters, 2020 ; Nan et al., 2020 ; Ronconi, Biancalani, Medesi, Orkibi, & Testoni, 2023 ).

Globally, the current theoretical research and practical reform in life education are constantly being explored and advanced. The hypothesis of these studies follows the logic that education can achieve the purpose of revering and cherishing life (Mirowsky & Ross, 1998 ; Schuller, Preston, Hammond, Brassett-Grundy, & Bynner, 2004 ). Or rather, how to live a valuable life and enhance the meaning of life can be taught in the form of knowledge and skills. On the whole, many countries implement life education in their education systems, such as primary and secondary schools, universities, community schools, vocational schools, and older adult schools (Bolkan, Srinivasan, Dewar, & Schubel, 2015 ; Raccichini et al., 2023 ; Ryoo, 2016 ). From most recent theoretical research and practical exploration, teachers teach students rich knowledge of what life is, and how to cherish life inside and outside the classroom, which becomes the most important way to carry out life education in the school system (Rodríguez Herrero, de la Herrán Gascón, Pérez-Bonet, & Sánchez-Huete, 2022 ). It can be said that these diversified life education courses and activities have played an important role in improving the awareness and ability of the educated to understand, revere, and cherish life.

However, some studies show that life education is somehow conditional and limited, and many people who have participated in life education courses and activities are involved in abnormal deaths every year (Kim, Choi, Lee, & Shin, 2005 ; Wass, 2004 ). The main reason why life education is inefficient lies in the lack of experience and interaction in the classroom teaching mode in which teachers teach students life knowledge and skills (Akyildiz, Altun, & Kasim, 2018 ). On the surface, students seem to acquire a lot of knowledge and skills about life in this kind of classroom teaching of life education. This knowledge-teaching and skill-enhancing education divorced from life, however, can hardly effectively enable students to fully understand the essence of life and experience its preciousness (Albe, 2008 ; Hilton & Pellegrino, 2012 ). It can even be said that the life education model taught by teachers and learned by students tends to highlight life knowledge and skills, and it is difficult to see living students with life growth and development. Therefore, in the current society full of risks and uncertainties, many countries have called for exploring new methods of life education, which has become an important issue with a sense of the times that theoretical researchers and practical reformers have to face (Kang et al., 2010 ).

As one of the countries with the largest number of students enrolled in schools, China attaches great importance to the physical and mental health of students at all levels and types of schools. Since the reform and opening up, especially in the 21st century, China has issued a range of laws and policies on life education for all ages. For example, on October 17, 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China adopted the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Minors , which clearly states that schools should provide life guidance, mental health counseling, adolescent education, and life education according to the physical and mental development characteristics of minor students (Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, 2020 ). On February 21, 2022, the State Council issued the Notice on Printing and Distributing the ‘14th Five-Year Plan’ National Planning for the Development of the Cause for the Aged and the Service System for the Aged, clearly proposing to strengthen life education for the public (State Council of the People’s Republic of China, 2022 ). From these laws and policies, it can be seen that China attaches great importance to life education to help citizens live a more valuable life. Therefore, to improve the awareness and behavior of different age groups in perceiving, revering, and cherishing life, China, like most countries, incorporates life education courses and activities into the process of healthy growth of students and school brand building (State Council of the People’s Republic of China, 2010 ).

However, unlike the life education model in which teachers teach knowledge and skills to students inside and outside the classroom, older adults and adolescents in China have jointly created a new model of life education through intergenerational learning. Specifically, this new model aims to enable teachers to guide older adults and adolescents to see each other’s lives. Older adults and adolescents better understand, revere, and value life as they share what life is and how to live a worthwhile life (Longhutang Experimental Primary School, 2023 ). Unfortunately, few studies have focused on such cases. Therefore, this study aims to address the paucity of research and answer two research questions: What are the core features of life education through intergenerational learning? What are the implications of life education based on intergenerational learning for older adults and elementary school students? Opening the ‘black box’ of life education through intergenerational learning in China will not only enrich the theoretical framework and boundaries of global life education research but also help to provide practical experience of China’s life education model to other countries.

This article is structured as follows. The introduction of this study maps out life education through intergenerational learning from a global perspective. In the literature review, this study reviews the progress and shortcomings of life education and intergenerational learning, while highlighting the theoretical and practical value of this study. In the methodology section, I briefly introduced how the data were collected from teachers, older adults, and elementary school students. The findings reveal the core characteristics and effects of life education through intergenerational learning. The discussion problematizes the findings and teases out the theoretical value and practical significance of this study. Limitations and future research directions are outlined at the end of the article.

Literature review

Globally, different researchers tend to explore possible effective models of life education from a specific standpoint. On the whole, life education is a kind of educational idea and practice, which aims to cultivate individual respect, understanding, and care for life (Phan et al., 2021 ). The practical exploration and theoretical construction of life education can be divided into formal and informal life education, which constitute common and differentiated life education in many countries (Eshach, 2007b ).

Formal life education refers to life education that takes place in the school education system and is organized and implemented by teachers according to the curriculum and teaching plans for students (Glass, 1990 ). The knowledge of life and how to live a meaningful life becomes the most important teaching content of this formal life education. Systematism and standardization are regarded by many researchers as the core characteristics of life education in classroom teaching mode. For example, a study on life education in Hong Kong found that drug prevention education in primary school classrooms helped increase students’ understanding of the relationship between drugs and life (Chan, 1999 ). For another example, several surveys of Korean college students found that formal life-and-death education helped to increase students’ knowledge of life and strengthen their perception of life (E. H. Kim & Lee, 2009 ; S.-N. Kim et al., 2005 ). In addition, a study of the impact of life-and-death education classes took place at a state university in the southeastern United States found that students who took the classes had significantly lower anxiety and fear of death while being more awed and appreciative of life than students who did not take life-and-death education classes (McClatchey & King, 2015 ). Many studies show that systematic, standardized, and formal life education patterns that occur in school classrooms help to change students’ understanding of life from negative to positive (Katajavuori, Virtanen, Ruohoniemi, Muukkonen, & Toom, 2019 ; Phan, Chen, Ngu, & Hsu, 2023 ; Phan et al., 2020 ).

On the whole, formal life education based on classroom teaching plays an important role in helping students form a positive and healthy life outlook. However, in the face of rising rates of unnatural mortality worldwide and numerous reports of negative attitudes towards life, some researchers argue that formal life education tends to inculcate knowledge of life, while neglecting the growth process of life (Phan et al., 2023 ; Ramos-Pla, Del Arco, & Espart, 2023 ). Therefore, under the background of praising and criticizing life education, seeking the balance between knowledge teaching and experience teaching has become an important direction for many researchers and practitioners to explore a new life education mode.

Along with questioning and criticizing the formal life education curriculum, informal life education activities outside the classroom began to emerge. Informal life education, as opposed to formal life education at school, is often organized and implemented in families (Peniston, 1962 ) and society (Eshach, 2007a ; Golding, Brown, & Foley, 2009 ; Scribner & Cole, 1973 ). Compared with formal and systematic school life education curriculums, informal life education activities in an experiential way tend to enable students to perceive the existence of life and understand the value of life (Sallnow et al., 2022 ). Therefore, informal life education activities are distinguished from formal life education courses by non-systematic, non-standard, non-emphasis on knowledge teaching and emphasis on direct feelings and experiences. For example, a study aimed at promoting children’s understanding of life pointed out that providing an educational environment for informal learning in botanical gardens helps children perceive life changes in the process of seeing plant life (Sanders, 2007 ). For another example, a study has shown that informal life education courses or activities with contextualized characteristics can help improve the professionalism and responsibility of medical interns in the face of aging and death (Ratanawongsa, Teherani, & Hauer, 2005 ). In addition, a survey of 215 Italian high school students showed that informal life education activities were more helpful in reducing students’ anxiety about death than formal life education courses (Testoni, Palazzo, De Vincenzo, & Wieser, 2020 ). On the whole, life education is not only organized in the formal school education system but also implemented in hospitals, botanical gardens, and communities by informal education mode. Some studies point out that, besides the advantages of informal life education for individual growth and social progress, we still need to see that the function of informal life education has not been fully stimulated due to some possible factors such as teachers’ professional level, educational content and physical and mental development of students (Katajavuori et al., 2019 ; Testoni, Ronconi, et al., 2020 ). Other studies argue that lack of teacher-student interaction, student feedback, and communication between different age groups are the biggest shortcomings of informal life education (Stylianou & Zembylas, 2021 ). Therefore, interaction, communication, sharing, and reflection between the same or different groups are expected to become the direction of life education.

With the development of information technology and the aging of the population, the life gap between adolescents and older adults is generated due to differences in knowledge, skills, and thinking. Intergenerational learning, which originated in Europe and America, is characterized by mutual learning among different age groups. This mode of learning plays an important role in reducing conflicts and contradictions between adolescents and older adults in communication and interaction (Andreoletti & Howard, 2018 ; Watts, 2017 ). Current research in the field of intergenerational learning focuses on eliminating adolescents’ negative perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors about age and aging (Powers, Gray, & Garver, 2013 ; Tam, 2014 ), helping older adults cross the digital divide (Cheng, Lyu, Li, & Shiu, 2021 ), and establishing harmonious relationships between different age groups (Andreoletti & Howard, 2018 ; Keyi, Xu, Cheng, & Li, 2020 ). Along with the idea dissemination and practice exploration of lifelong education, lifelong learning, and learning society, intergenerational learning has evolved in today’s uncertain society. Intergenerational learning has been highlighted as a valuable theoretical and practical innovation involving formal and informal learning relationships between different age groups in life and work (Cabanillas, 2011 ). Although intergenerational learning is considered to cover almost all topics in interpersonal relationships, unfortunately, life education, which is closely related to everyone, has not been incorporated into intergenerational learning.

With the dissemination of the concept and practical exploration of active, successful, and productive aging (Badache, Hachem, & Mäki-Torkko, 2023 ; Pfaller & Schweda, 2019 ), how to promote the physical and mental health, social participation, and life realization of older adults has become a challenge. Promoting life values and practices through education emerges as an important solution to this challenge (Lövdén, Fratiglioni, Glymour, Lindenberger, & Tucker-Drob, 2020 ; Raghupathi & Raghupathi, 2020 ). With the continuous exploration and creation of new models of intergenerational learning and life education, intergenerational learning through life education has been created in the process of China’s modernization of characteristic socialist education. To promote the theoretical construction and practical dissemination of the life education model, this study aims to reveal intergenerational learning through life education in China. Seeking the balance between teaching knowledge and experiential learning, pursuing the classroom atmosphere of sharing, interaction, and reflection, has become an innovation of this study to unpacking life education in intergenerational learning in China.

Indeed, in contrast to the above review of studies focusing on life education for younger learners, life education for older learners has not yet attracted widespread scholarly attention and research. The small amount of literature that is highly relevant to life education for older learners focuses on two main areas. The first is to enhance the health and quality of life of older adults. These studies have shown that physiological, psychological, and social factors profoundly affect the value of life and its realization for older adults. In recent years, practitioners, represented by social workers, have aimed to enhance older people’s knowledge, understanding, and practice of life by providing them with psychological counseling services (Liu, Yang, Lou, Zhou, & Tong, 2021 ; Wang et al., 2020 ), information technology training (Chelongar & Ajami, 2021 ; Fischer, David, Crotty, Dierks, & Safran, 2014 ; Talaei-Khoei & Daniel, 2018 ), and opportunities and platforms for social participation (Duppen et al., 2020 ; Hashidate, Shimada, Fujisawa, & Yatsunami, 2021 ; Nivestam, Westergren, Petersson, & Haak, 2021 ). Second, life education for older people has begun to be mentioned indirectly rather than directly in a small number of studies on geriatric education, health education, and intergenerational learning. For example, one theoretical study argued that life education and information technology education should be included within the basic scope of education and learning for older people (Boulton-Lewis, 2010 ). Another study emphasized that education or learning that has a connection to life should perhaps be emphasized in intergenerational programs (Whitehouse & George, 2018 ). Overall, the above studies point to possible directions for understanding and exploring life education for older adults. However, how to construct an appropriate model of life education for older adults in a complex and uncertain society becomes a challenge for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

Methodology

Background information.

Guang Ming Primary School (pseudonym), founded in 1913, is an urban primary school located in Jiangsu Province of China. As the first older adult school in Xinbei District, Xi Yang Older Adult School (pseudonym) not only provides a platform for education and learning for older adults but also adheres to the idea and action of radiating educational resources to a wider area. The ‘Intergenerational Learning Lecture Hall’ was jointly established by Guang Ming Primary School and Xi Yang Older Adult School in September 2019 as a unique educational platform for age mixing based on mutual interests. To ensure the sustainable development of this education platform, the principals of the two schools signed an agreement on intergenerational learning. By linking the two different educational institutions, this agreement empowers primary school students and older adult school students to engage in monthly learning.

So far, the ‘Intergenerational Learning Lecture Hall’ has been hosted to sustainable educational activities, such as paper-cutting, painting of intangible cultural heritage, and UNESCO’s Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030. In recent years, young children have committed suicide due to academic pressure and older adults have committed suicide due to mental depression. These events of unnatural death, which shocked and saddened the whole society, highly inspired Guang Ming Primary School and Xi Yang Older Adult School to organize and carry out a series of life education activities such as what is life and how to cherish life. After reflecting on the shortcomings of classroom teaching and practical activities in life education, teachers of the two schools decided to conduct ‘Life Education Through Intergenerational Learning’ with the help of ‘Intergenerational Learning Lecture Hall’ on May 30, 2023.

Research project

To ensure that this activity can be carried out orderly, Xiao Ming (pseudonym), principal of Guang Ming Primary School, and Ming Xin (pseudonym), principal of Xi Yang Older Adult School, decided to choose an experimental class as the practical starting point for exploring intergenerational learning empowering life education. By soliciting the willingness of primary school students and older adult students to participate in this activity, seven primary students from Class 2 of Grade 5 and seven older adult students from the painting class were finally formed into a teaching class. To improve the quality of this life education classroom teaching activity, Xiao Ming, who has rich educational wisdom, serves as the teacher. Following the physical and mental development characteristics of primary school students and older adult learners, Xiao Ming decided to use Badger’s Parting Gifts , which is a picture book on death created by British painter Susan Varley, as teaching materials for life education.

The badger is a friend who makes other animals rely on and trust, and he is always willing to help everyone. He was very old and he knew he was going to die. But the badger is not afraid of death. He thinks that death just means that he is leaving his body. He was more worried about how his friends would feel after he died. As the badger expected, his death made his loving friends sad. Time is slowly healing the sadness of the badger’s friends. When they talk about the badger later, the sadness is slowly turning into warm memories. His friends express to each other the ‘gifts’ that the badger has given them. For example, the badger taught the frog how to skate. The badger taught the fox how to wear a tie. The badger not only taught his friends skills without reservation but also taught them the value and meaning of life. It can be further expressed as being honored in life and missed in death. This picture book is a vivid story that expresses the meaning of life and how to inspire and realize the value of life. The fun, inspiration, education, and artistry have contributed to the picture book’s wider influence in the fields of philosophy and education.

On June 1, 2023, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., the life education through intergenerational learning was carried out as scheduled. Overall, the classroom teaching process was divided into four interlinked parts. Guiding, interacting, reflecting, and growing in teacher-student interactions were sustained throughout the teaching process. First, Xiao Ming led the elementary students and the older adults to read the picture book Badger’s Parting Gifts wholeheartedly together as the teaching content. Second, after reading and understanding the book independently word by word, Xiao Ming asked the elementary students and the older adults to share and discuss with each other the stories of life and death in Badger’s Parting Gifts in a one-to-one cooperative learning mode. Then, based on discussing and reflecting on the Badger’s Parting Gifts , Xiao Ming suggested that the primary students and the older adults turn their expression of the value of the Badger’s life further towards their views and understanding of each other’s life. Finally, Xiao Ming encouraged primary students and older adults to share their expectations and imaginations about their future lives and how to create a more meaningful life. The life education through intergenerational learning, which lasted for three hours, was brought to an end with discussions, interactions, and reflections among teachers, primary students, and older adults.

Interview method

The interview method is a common research method in the humanities and social sciences. The interview method aims to construct the mechanism of social phenomena by collecting information from the interaction between the researcher and the interviewee (Qu & Dumay, 2011 ). Therefore, the interview method is more suitable for exploring and discovering the complex psychological activities of human beings with a unique method in social science research (Adeoye‐Olatunde & Olenik, 2021 ). Further, meaning construction, process revelation, emotional empathy, cultural understanding, and exploration of the unknown become the core purposes and characteristics of the interview method (Bartlett, 2012 ; Powell & Brubacher, 2020 ). In addition to its aforementioned strengths, the more important reason for choosing the interview method in this study is that the characteristics and meanings of intergenerational learning empowerment for life education form an intrinsic connection with the interview method. Specifically, teachers, older learners, and elementary school students created a new model of life education through intergenerational learning based on complex psychology and practice. The interview method, which is characterized by exploring dynamic and complex processes (Döringer, 2021 ), provides unique value in understanding the characteristics and value of life education through intergenerational learning.

Stemming from shared interests and beliefs with educational practitioners, my relationship with Guang Ming Primary School and Xi Yang Older Adult School was established in June 2019. With the advice, encouragement, and support of my doctoral supervisor and me, Xiao Ming and Ming Xin established an institutionalized platform for the ‘Intergenerational Learning Lecture Hall’. A series of intergenerational learning activities such as poetry recitation, music singing, paper-cutting, and the UNESCO 2030 Strategy for Sustainable Development were planned and created. The intergenerational learning activities for life education explored in this study are the formalized activities of the ‘Intergenerational Learning Lecture Hall’. In my role as an idea transmitter and leader, I tried to stimulate the wisdom of educational practitioners and help this activity to be organized and run smoothly. It should be emphasized that to avoid the negative impact of sensitive topics such as death, this study strictly adheres to the Declaration of Helsinki’s ethics of academic research and has been strictly reviewed and approved by the academic ethics committee of a university in China. In addition, the academic ethics of respect, equality, friendliness, and sincerity were always upheld in the process of activity development and data collection.

After the activity of life education through intergenerational learning, I sent out a recruitment request to Xiao Ming, Ming Xin, seven primary students, and seven older adults who participated in the activity. All participants agreed to participate actively in the data collection. To answer the research questions raised in the introduction, a semi-structured interview method was used. The interview questions for Xiao Ming and Ming Xin are mainly about why carry out life education through intergenerational learning. The interviews for elementary students and older adults included a series of questions. For example, why would you like to participate in life education? How would you evaluate the life education you have experienced before? Did you enjoy life education through intergenerational learning? What do you think are the characteristics of life education? What new understanding of life have you gained through life education? The demographic profile of the interviewees is illustrated in Table 1 .

Before conducting the formal interview, the author explained the motivation and value of the study to each interviewee in detail. To allay the psychological concerns of the interviewees, the author emphasized the research ethics that may be involved in the whole interview process, including the principles of voluntary participation, withdrawal at any time, and anonymity (Allmark et al., 2009 ). Considering the completeness of the recorded information, I asked if the interview could be audio-recorded and all interviewees agreed. Formal interviews were conducted from June 1 to 10, 2023. Overall, each participant was interviewed for approximately 40–60 minutes. Due to the interference and interruption of various uncertain factors, Xiao Ming, a primary school student, and two older adult learners were interviewed twice.

Data analysis

In reviewing existing literature, it is evident that life education has undergone practical explorations that generally exhibit two key characteristics. Firstly, the teacher-student relationship in life education often presents the teacher as the authority and the student as the passive recipient. Additionally, teachers tend to impart abstract knowledge about life education to students. However, these traditional features have been subject to criticism by scholars due to their static nature and lack of interaction. Recent educational theory and practical exploration emphasize classroom teaching that fosters interaction, dialogue, and reflection between both teachers and students (Hennessy, Calcagni, Leung, & Mercer, 2023 ; Muhonen, Pakarinen, Rasku-Puttonen, & Lerkkanen, 2024 ). The practical exploration of life education through intergenerational learning in this study serves as a reflection on traditional educational shortcomings while highlighting new directions for educational reform and development. Existing studies focusing on concepts such as teacher-student dialogue, and reflective teaching methods provide a theoretical basis for understanding life education’s impact through intergenerational learning. Furthermore, this study aims to address questions regarding the impact of life education through intergenerational learning, particularly its influence on enhancing values in life, understanding diverse life forms, and exploring meaningful life practices. (Chaturvedi, Vishwakarma, & Singh, 2021 ; Lövdén et al., 2020 ; Ross & Van Willigen, 1997 ). In exploring the potential impact of life education through intergenerational learning, axiology, epistemology, and methodology become critical viewpoints for evaluating its effects. Therefore, this study endeavors to construct the impact of life education through intergenerational learning from these three aspects.

To ensure the completeness and accuracy of the interview text, I first converted the audio-recorded interviews into Chinese text and then translated them word by word into English text with contextualization. To ensure the accuracy of the translation, the data translated into English were further validated and slightly adjusted by colleagues teaching English. Thematic coding, including deductive and inductive coding, was utilized in the data analysis (Xu & Zammit, 2020 ), which aimed to answer the two research questions. Top-down deductive coding was completed using the theoretical principles of teacher-student relationships, dialogic and reflective teaching methods, axiology, epistemology, and methodology. Bottom-up inductive codes were identified and categorized based on rich and sufficient interview data. The research findings are dynamically interpreted in life education practice and theory, as well as in Chinese cultural contexts.

Specifically, careful reading, refined categorization, and theoretical construction were summarized as the three necessary steps in the process of analyzing the interview data. First, all interview data texts were read in-depth, which aimed to understand and grasp the scope and meaning of the interview data as a whole. Second, the interview data were categorized and reorganized according to the conceptual frameworks of ‘teachers and students as subjects’, ‘pedagogical methods of dialogue and reflection’, and ‘axiology, epistemology, and methodology of life education’. Third, the interview data were further arranged to reflect life education through intergenerational learning. To ensure the reliability and validity of the data, two colleagues were invited by me to participate in separate coding. After careful comparisons and slight adjustments, coding reliability was ensured in consistency, which minimized subjective bias in coding (Mackieson, Shlonsky, & Connolly, 2019 ; Morgan, 2022 ). In addition, to ensure that the interview data provided by the participants were accurately understood, member check was performed to ensure validity.

Two core characteristics of life education through intergenerational learning

Establishing the relationship between teachers and students as the subject.

Through the in-depth interviews conducted with two principals, seven primary school students, and seven older adult school students, it was revealed that both educators and learners alike uphold the fundamental principle of mutual respect and understanding in the realm of intergenerational learning, which underpins life education. Collectively, they devised classroom educational activities that place teachers and students on an equal footing as co-creators of the learning experience, drawing upon their collective educational insights and wisdom. This transformative teacher-student partnership transcends the traditional boundaries that often separate the teacher as the authoritative figure from the student as the passive recipient, fostering a dynamic interplay between the two. Notably, this innovative relationship has garnered immense recognition, endorsement, and accolades from both the two principals and the collective voices of the fourteen students interviewed.

As a teacher with more than 20 years of rich teaching experience, Xiao Ming has experienced the above three kinds of teacher-student relationships. Compared with the previous classroom teaching with knowledge transmission as the main mode, she thought that life education based on intergenerational learning more truly reflects the classroom teaching mode in which teachers and students are the subject. As she stated in the interview:

As a teacher for so many years, I have been exploring and reflecting on what is the ideal teacher-student relationship and classroom teaching model. Before student discussions and teacher-student interaction were often organized, but the teaching effect did not reach the expectations. However, from my initiative to guide students to actively read, dialogue, and reflect, I think this life education activity designed through intergenerational learning realizes classroom teaching in which teachers and students are the subjects. (Xiao Ming)

Ming Xin, 62 years old, has rich teaching experience like Xiao Ming. Before becoming the principal of Xi Yang Older Adult School, he was also a primary school principal. The experience of implementing life education through intergenerational learning with Xiao Ming drives him to reflect on his education work for more than 40 years. He expressed:

I thought before that the unequal amount of knowledge storage makes it difficult for teachers and students to achieve true equality in knowledge exchange. However, this life education activity made me see and firmly believe that teachers and students can be subject to each other. Such a classroom is full of vitality. I am proud and happy to be able to design and implement such courses and teaching. (Ming Xin)

The authentic embodiment of the aforementioned dual principles underscores the full realization of a reciprocal teacher-student relationship within the classroom context of life education. Concurrently, an analysis of the interview narratives from seven primary school students and seven older adult learners reveals a striking convergence with the perspectives of the two principals. All participants assert their individual identities as active subjects and collaborate seamlessly with teachers to collectively devise life education activities. To illustrate, a representative older adult learner articulates:

I have been at Xi Yang Older Adult School for two years, and have taken part in music, dance, and painting courses. These courses practice the classroom model of the teacher as subject and the student as object. I think life education classes create a new classroom model of active guidance by teachers and independent exploration by students. (Qing Xia)

In addition, a primary school student who took into account the views of other participants stated:

Although the education department requires schools to develop students’ core competencies, teachers still use indoctrination to transfer knowledge to students. Fortunately, when we take life education classes, we feel the interaction between teachers and students and the sharing and learning between us and the older adult learners. (Zhang Qiang)

The above presents the understanding of two principals and two representative students on the roles of teachers and students and their relationship with life education. They tended to perceive that the teacher-student relationship is created in life education through intergenerational learning. This judgment interrupted the existing defects about who is the subject and object between teachers and students (Wong, 2016 ). Through comparative thinking, on the one hand, it reveals their criticism and reflection on the previous education mode based on knowledge transmission, on the other hand, it reflects their expectation and yearning for democracy, dialogue, discussion, and reflection in classroom teaching between teachers and students as the subject.

Understanding pluralistic life in intergenerational learning interaction and reflection

Under the backdrop of modern school operational logic, which revolves around subject-based teaching and examination scores, parents and teachers often prioritize knowledge transmission over students’ holistic development after weighing the pros and cons. While some middle-income countries have made significant strides in exploring and implementing classroom instruction that is interactive and embodies the dual subjectivity of teachers and students, educational reforms aimed at fostering interaction and emphasizing life skills remain challenging in many low-income countries. Despite the difficulties in realizing interactive educational formats within subject-focused teaching, such interactions have been successfully cultivated in life education activities grounded in intergenerational learning.

The interviews with participants reveal that, on one hand, they perceive their subjectivity in life education curriculum teaching, and on the other, they profoundly experience teaching interactions and reflections that are often elusive in other classroom settings. Notably, prior studies have predominantly focused on teaching interactions and reflections between teachers and students of similar ages and stages of physical and mental development. In contrast, life education activities fostered by intergenerational learning uniquely enable interactions and reflections between teachers, primary school students, and older adult learners, spanning different ages and stages of physical and mental development. Consequently, classroom instruction that prioritizes interaction and reflection has emerged as a discursive expression for teachers and students to organize, execute, and construct these life education activities.

As a teacher, Xiao Ming expressed her understanding of life education and happiness in her eyes. This positive emotional expression can be attributed to the interactive, reflective, and life-filled education constructed by her, primary school students and older adult learners. As she stated:

I have often tried to integrate interaction and reflection into classroom teaching before, but it has not achieved the ideal educational effect. Therefore, I believe that the listening, dialogue, and reflection between primary school students and older adult learners in intergenerational learning inspired this life education activity to move towards high-quality development. (Xiao Ming)

Similar to Xiao Ming’s evaluation of why this class is of higher quality than the previous classroom teaching, Ming Xin also believes that the interaction between primary school students and older adult learners due to differences in age, psychology, and life experience has brought unexpected positive effects to this life education activity. He said:

Because of the taboo of Chinese culture to talk about life and death, the atmosphere of life and death education in Xi Yang Older Adult School was heavy and there was no communication between teachers and students. A very important reason why this life education activity is full of interaction and reflection is that the differences between primary school students and older adult learners inspire them to listen, communicate, dialogue, and reflect on each other. (Ming Xin)

In addition to the above two principals’ statements, primary school students and older adult learners articulated their reflections on participating in this course or activity with experiences and feelings. For example, Yu Xiu, a primary school student, recounted:

The previous experience of life education is extremely lacking in interaction and reflection, manifested in receiving knowledge from teachers or watching movies. This life education class is unique and interesting because it is full of dialogue and reflection. In the classroom, there are not only our primary school students and teachers but also a group of older adult learners who love learning and are very different from us. (Yu Xiu)

Similarly, Xuan Yu also suggested the ‘live and learn’ attitude and values of life. Having studied at Xi Yang Older Adult School for nearly three years, he, like other older adult learners, deeply felt that the learning experience characterized by openness, freedom, and communication was extremely vivid and unforgettable. What he said during the interview represented the common feelings of other older adult learners about this class.

As older adult learners, listening, sharing, and communicating with primary school students not only increases the teaching atmosphere and updates the teaching model, but also opens up new horizons for us to understand what life is and how to live a meaningful life. (Xuan Yu)

The interview data from the aforementioned participants illustrates how intergenerational learning propels the curriculum and instruction of life education toward high-quality development, leveraging its distinct advantages of dialogue, exploration, and reflection. This form of classroom teaching transcends the traditional static paradigm of ‘teachers teach, students learn’ and fosters a novel dynamic model in the era of lifelong learning, characterized by the interactive engagement between teachers and students, as well as the dialogic exchange between primary school students and older adult learners. Within this innovative teaching model, primary school students and older adult learners not only observe each other’s lives but also view each other as mirrors, facilitating mutual understanding and empathy. Processes such as experiencing, interacting, referencing, providing feedback, and reflecting become the cornerstone of understanding life through lived experiences. These core processes underpin the profound recognition and praise from both students and teachers towards intergenerational learning’s empowering influence on life education.

Life changing through intergenerational learning

Infinite life value: from self-development to contribution to others and society.

The interview data revealed that life education through intergenerational learning raised the awareness of life among primary school students and older adult learners. Before participating in this life education activity, they paid more attention to the development of material and spiritual life, while ignoring the improvement of social life to a certain extent. However, after reading the picture book Badger’s Parting Gifts together and sharing their views on life and its value, they began to foster a strong desire to improve their material, spiritual, and social life.

Wei Min was a primary school student who came to the city with his parents from the countryside to study. He was taught by his parents to earn more money when he grew up to live a richer life. Pursuing the improvement of material life value has become an important goal of his current study and future work. However, thinking about the social life of ‘Badger’ in the picture book made him realize that the meaning of human life includes not only material life but also social life. He said:

Many of my classmates and I thought that we would live a comfortable life by earning more money when we grew up, and we didn’t realize our responsibility for social development too much. Badger’s life of helping others inspired me to be valuable to others and society. (Wei Min)

As Wei Min and other students, Xiao Hong changed his perspectives on life. In addition to emphasizing the reflection on life and its value from the dedicated life of Badger, Xiao Hong also emphasized the understanding of spiritual life and its finite and infinite values in dialogue and mutual learning with older adults. As Xiao Hong explained in the interview:

I used to have a biased image of older adults as senile, sick, and useless. By taking life education classes with them, my perception of them changed from negative to positive. Lifelong learning for older adults is the embodiment of their spiritual life to be infinitely rejuvenated. (Xiao Hong)

The aforementioned exemplary figures, Wei Min and Xiao Hong, embody primary school students’ profound comprehension of life and its inherent value, garnered through their participation in life education activities grounded in intergenerational learning. Similarly, older adults, when engaged as learners, also foster fresh perspectives on the essence of life and its worth. Post-participation in this life-enriching activity, Qiu Jin was deeply moved by the selfless assistance displayed by Badger, which sparked within her a renewed commitment to actively lend support to others in her subsequent life journey. Below are a selection of pivotal phrases extracted from her insightful interview:

The story of Badger offering help to other animals drove me to reflect on the inadequacy of my social life. Badger’s life of dedication has taught me that as I develop my material and spiritual life, I also need to further enhance my value to others and society. (Qiu Jin)

Distinct from Qiu Jin, who underscores the paramountcy of social life, Yun Long, endowed with an ardent and outgoing disposition, actively engages in a myriad of voluntary service endeavors, encompassing traffic order maintenance and community environmental cleanup. Despite his evident dedication to material and social pursuits, he, to a certain extent, overlooked the significance of enriching his spiritual life. Fortunately, the exposure to the commendable learning attitudes and lifelong learning ethos of primary school students served as a catalyst for change. Consequently, enhancing his spiritual life emerged as a pivotal takeaway from his participation in this life education initiative. As he eloquently expressed:

In the process of learning and discussing life and its value with primary school students, I felt the desire of primary school students for knowledge and imagination for the future. Different from material life, spiritual life shows one’s knowledge and sentiment, while social life emphasizes one’s help, service, and contribution to others and society. (Yun Long)

The above presents a new understanding of finite and infinite life and its goals and values by elementary school students and older adults as learners after participating in life education activities based on intergenerational learning. These new understandings confirm and enrich the material, spiritual, and social life of theoretical construction from the perspective of educators. Research has shown that while not everyone can fully realize the value of life, we can help others live meaningful lives by living meaningful lives ourselves (Scripter, 2023 ). It can be judged that the above-mentioned primary school students and older adult learners realize the reflection and reconstruction of their life value from the interaction process of daily life between individuals, others, and society.

Diverse life forms: respect and tolerance for the life course of different individuals

Life education rooted in intergenerational learning encompasses the diverse lifestyles of teachers, primary school students, senior learners, and Badgers alike. Xiao Hong’s aforementioned observation underscores the pivotal role that age discrimination and prejudice play in fostering generational divides and their associated tensions. A meticulous analysis of interview data reveals that subsequent to engaging in this form of life education, both primary school students and senior learners approach the myriad life forms encountered within the realms of humanity, nature, and society with heightened respect and tolerance.

Peng Yi, along with a preponderance of other primary school students and senior learners, harbors a profound affection for animals. His love for these creatures is evident in the four-legged and furry members of his household: two feline companions, a loyal canine, and a fluffy rabbit. Upon arriving home from school, his first priority without fail is to attend to their needs, feeding them with care. While Peng Yi’s admiration for animals stems from their endearing cuteness and their innate ability to provide companionship, he has yet to fully comprehend the intricate bond that constitutes the community of shared destiny between humans and animals. Fortunately, this life education program, rooted in intergenerational learning, has served as a catalyst for an evolution in his perspectives and understanding of this vital relationship. As he eloquently articulated:

I used to only know how to love animals and did not think deeply about our relationship with animals from the perspective of life. The teacher shared a series of reports on the relationship between human beings and nature issued by UNESCO, which made me realize that there is a common destiny between human beings and animals. (Peng Yi)

Different from Peng Yi’s understanding of life, Ze Hui also shared her understanding of the older adult group. Due to the imperfect information filtering mechanism, the image of the older adult is stigmatized on the Internet platform. Influenced by negative information, aging, disease, and worthlessness are Ze Hui’s stereotypes of the image of older adults. The pleasant and memorable experience of attending classes with older adults made her realize that older adults can be positive images of lifelong learners, social volunteers, and family supporters.

The internet media is irresponsible and distorts the real life of the elderly to a great extent. older adults, who joined me in class, shared their positive views of life and its value, expressing their positive identities in family, society, and learning. In this classroom full of life atmosphere, I think we need to respect, understand, and accommodate everyone’s life course. (Ze Hui)

In addition, the older adults also developed respectful and inclusive attitudes towards life after participating in life education through intergenerational learning. In contrast to Ze Hui’s fondness for animals, Liang Zhu dislikes them because he cannot tolerate their hair and smell. After reading, discussing, and reflecting on the life course and value of Badgers and other animals with elementary school students, Liang Zhu felt that animals and humans have similar life growth and emotional development. Liang Zhu experienced a change in how he dealt with animals from intolerable to respectful and tolerant.

After attending this life education class, I deeply reflected and felt guilty about my previous attitudes and feelings towards animals. In the process of discussing badger life and its value with primary school students, I feel that there is no difference between animal and human life. I will face the diversity of life with respect and tolerance attitude and emotion. (Liang Zhu)

Different from Liang Zhu’s emotional changes to animals, Xiang Ning gradually felt that there were great differences in the life course of different individuals after debating with primary school students about how to treat diversified life. Her attitude and views towards friends who had previously been difficult to get along with changed from never understanding to respect and tolerance.

Attending this life education class not only made me see more possibilities in life but also prompted me to constantly reflect on my previous attitudes and behaviors toward others. In the rest of my old age, I consider problems from the standpoint of others on the one hand and uphold the principles of respect and tolerance in interpersonal communication on the other hand. (Xiang Ning)

In November 2020, UNESCO published a report entitled Learning to Become with the World: Education for Future Survival (UNESCO, 2020 ). Based on the theory of common worlds pedagogies, this report challenged the traditional educational ideas and formed rooted in Western philosophy and put forward the future pedagogy of coexistence between human beings and all things. The above-mentioned life education activities through intergenerational learning, which practiced the concept of future education, provided important support for primary school students and older adults to better understand the coexistence relationship between human beings and other life in the world. At the same time, primary school students and older adult learners were renewing and constructing their own unique life experiences across ages, species, and cultures.

Authentic life practice: embracing uncertain life with positive behavior

Within the confines of this life education classroom, where intergenerational learning thrives, primary school students and senior adults converged to forge a shared insight: that the essence of human existence, as well as other forms of life, is inextricably tied to uncertainty. Through the lens of the Badger’s life journey and the intertwining of one another’s life stories, they gained profound reflections. When posed with the question of how to navigate the unpredictable tides of life, their collective response resonated with a common theme: embracing real-life experiences with positivity. This positive behavioral paradigm encompasses a proactive stance towards confronting the uncertainties that both oneself and others may encounter. While the answer may seem deceptively simple, it resonates with a profound sense of practicality and achievability. The following excerpts, culled from interviews with both primary school students and senior adults, offer glimpses into their behavioral strategies when confronted with the realities of life’s uncertainties.

One such example is Xuan Yu, a primary school student who, due to his unconventional personality, found himself with a limited circle of close friends within his class. However, observing the adult adults around him actively contemplating and planning for the future ignited a spark within him. He realized that adopting a positive mindset and taking proactive steps could potentially unlock new avenues for personal growth and fulfillment. As he eloquently put it:

To be honest, I do not particularly like my introverted personality now. From this life education class, I saw the dedicated life of the Badger and the lifelong learning of older adults. Their life experiences inspired me to take ownership of my own life and create more valuable lives with positive attitudes and behaviors. (Xuan Yu)

Similar to Xuan Yu, this life education class has also inspired Guo Qing, who adheres to lifelong learning, as she suggested:

After reading Badger’s life, I regret that I did nothing in my youth. Seeing the growth of the primary school students in class together, I feel that I need to keep my love for life and active practice in retirement to improve the value of life. (Guo Qing)

Secondly, primary school students and older adults alike demonstrate a commendable commitment to approaching the uncertainties inherent in the lives of others and the world at large with a positive and dedicated mindset. In contrast to the inward-looking approach exemplified by Xuan Yu and Guo Qing, Zhang Qiang and Qing Ling embody a philosophy that extends beyond oneself, emphasizing the importance of embracing life’s external dimensions through positive behavioral practices. Zhang Qiang, who had previously engaged in bullying his classmates, underwent a profound transformation within the confines of this life education class. He came to a profound realization of the harmfulness of his past actions and resolved to adopt a new, positive principle: to sincerely respect and care for the physical and mental well-being of others. This commitment has become the guiding force behind his interactions with his classmates, shaping his future conduct with empathy and understanding.

I was ashamed of my previous mistakes in bullying my classmates. I intend to sincerely apologize to my classmates who were bullied by me. I hope they forgive me. I will practice the concept of equality and respect in future interpersonal communication, and strive to be a person who cares and helps others. (Zhang Qiang)

Similar to Zhang Qiang, Qing Ling also embraced the uncertainty of her friends’ lives with positive attitudes. She also expanded the scope of life practice from humans to other species in the world such as animals and plants. She believed that human beings and nature should maintain a harmonious and unified relationship, and protecting animals, plants and other natural environments is to protect ourselves. She stated:

By discussing Badger’s life story with primary school students, I suddenly realized that the earth does not belong to humans alone. Human beings and animals, plants, mountains, and rivers together constitute the earth’s ecological system. For the rest of my life, I will try my best to practice the idea of symbiosis between humans and nature. (Qing Ling)

The above revealed the impact of life education through intergenerational learning on the beliefs, attitudes, and practices of primary school students and older adults in facing life. Infinite life value, diversified life forms, and authentic life practice constitute three organic aspects of this influence with their unique charm.

Discussion and conclusion

The increasing number of unnatural deaths worldwide has caused enormous physical and psychological damage to individuals, families, and societies that is difficult to reverse and repair (Carr et al., 2017 ; Clements et al., 2004 ; Testoni et al., 2018 ). Compared with social work services and mental health counseling, education is considered an effective way to reduce mortality and improve quality of life (Carr et al., 2017 ; Nan et al., 2020 ; Ronconi et al., 2023 ). Life education implemented in Guang Ming Primary School and Xi Yang Older Adult School in China was chosen as the case for this study. This study explored life education through intergenerational learning and revealed its effect on primary school students and older adults on life and its practices. This study found that establishing a double subject between teacher and student and learning in cross-age are two prominent characteristics of life education through intergenerational learning. In addition, this study further found that life education through intergenerational learning could bring positive effects in three aspects of life concept and practice. First, primary school students and older adult learners recognized the infinite life value in their transition from developing themselves to contributing to others and society. Second, they developed a respect and tolerance attitude for the life course of different individuals in the face of diverse life forms. Third, they embraced all uncertain life on earth with positive behavior in the authentic life practice.

Life education implemented in classrooms illustrated a basic pattern of ‘teachers teach’ and ‘students learn’. The greatest advantage of this classroom model is to transmit systematic and comprehensive knowledge about life to students (Akyildiz et al., 2018 ; Testoni, Tronca, Biancalani, Ronconi, & Calapai, 2020 ), which can be called ‘life education in knowledge form’. However, teachers’ indoctrination undoubtedly ignores students’ life growth and practical experience (Glass, 1990 ; Phan et al., 2023 ; Ramos-Pla et al., 2023 ). Therefore, pursuing the balance between objective knowledge and subjective experience became an ideal life education model. Taking life education through intergenerational learning in China as a case, this study described how teachers, primary school students, and older adult learners created classroom teaching patterns that took knowledge, skills, emotions, attitudes, and values into account. This model, which aims to make up for the deficiency of ‘life education in knowledge form’, can be called ‘comprehensive life education of seeing life through life’.

In addition to life education in the school system, informal life education practice activities outside schools such as families, communities, museums, botanical gardens, and zoos are gradually regarded as an effective way to promote life development and life quality (Peniston, 1962 ; Sallnow et al., 2022 ; Sanders & Hohenstein, 2015 ). However, this life education model somehow ignores teachers’ guidance, weakens teacher-student interaction, despises students’ feedback, and has no communication between different age groups (Stylianou & Zembylas, 2021 ; Testoni, Ronconi, et al., 2020 ). Life education through intergenerational learning discussed in this study effectively compensates for the above-mentioned unavoidable disadvantages in two aspects. First, life education through intergenerational learning establishes double subjects of teachers and students in interrupting the separation of subject and object, which provides fundamental preconditions for full interaction and communication between teachers and students. Second, primary school students and older adult learners with great age differences see each other’s state of life in sharing, discussing, and reflecting. The debate over what life is and how to live a more meaningful life opens up possibilities for them to recognize and understand life in its diversity.

Research on intergenerational learning rarely touches on the theme of life education, focusing mainly on age discrimination and prejudice (Powers et al., 2013 ; Tam, 2014 ), the digital divide (Cheng et al., 2021 ), active aging, social volunteerism, and human capital development for older adults (Andreoletti & Howard, 2018 ; Keyi et al., 2020 ). Perhaps it is because many practitioners and researchers are unaware of the possible connection between intergenerational learning and life education. Against the backdrop of gradually strengthening the connection of educational institutions in China, Guang Ming Primary School, and Xi Yang Older Adult School created life education relying on intergenerational learning based on forward ideas and practical actions. The results of this innovative educational practice show that life education through intergenerational learning helps to enhance the positive understanding and action of primary school students and older adult learners about what life is and how to live a meaningful life.

Overall, this study contributes to theory construction, policy improvement, and practice exploration in three ways. Regarding theory construction, this study establishes the connection between intergenerational learning and life education. ‘Life education through intergenerational learning’ or ‘Integrating intergenerational learning into life education’ is a possible conceptual expression of this relationship. On this basis, this study puts forward two prominent characteristics of life education through intergenerational learning, that is, establishing teacher-student double subject in breaking the separation of teacher-student subject and object and recognizing diversified life in the interaction and reflection of intergenerational learning. In addition, this study further constructs the impact of life education through intergenerational learning on the lives of primary school students and older adult learners from the infinite life value, diversified life forms, and authentic life practice. Based on the above concepts, viewpoints, and frameworks, this study attempts to formally put forward the life education thought of ‘seeing life through life’.

How to respect, honor, and value life and how to efficiently stimulate the positive value of life education have become important topics of extreme concern to policymakers. From the evidence from the interviewees, life education through intergenerational learning is considered a valuable and innovative practice. This study has two implications for policymakers. First, policymakers need to incorporate collaborative learning, dialogic education, and reflective learning into educational reform and development while recognizing the premise that teachers and students are subjects of each other. Second, policymakers need to build an education system that serves comprehensive lifelong learning with more inclusive educational thinking and action.

In addition to theoretical construction and policy implications, this study also contributes to promoting the reform and development of life education practice in China and beyond. Although the practice of life education through intergenerational learning was created in the contemporary social culture of China, its understanding of life, education, learning, and their relations has the universal law of human social development. Therefore, this study takes the life education practice of ‘seeing life through life’ in China as a sample and provides a useful reference for other countries to establish the relationship between intergenerational learning and life education, and form interactive, dialogue, and reflective classroom teaching patterns.

However, this study is not without limitations. First, this study discusses the characteristics and influence of life education through intergenerational learning, ignoring the complex influence of age, gender, education, family background, and life course for interviewees. Second, life is complex, rich, and difficult to describe. Taking Badger’s Parting Gifts as a teaching material may be insufficient in constructing the theoretical framework of life education. Third, it may be difficult to fully validate the impact of life education through intergenerational learning in a single session or activity, and perhaps more regular sessions are needed as longitudinal studies. Fourth, theoretically, the impact of life education through intergenerational learning should include both positive and negative or insufficient. However, the interviewees were satisfied with their experiences and feelings of participation. The possible shortcomings and how they can be improved are important directions for future research. In addition, future research on the relationship between intergenerational learning and life education should be carried out from a possible perspective of cross-cultural comparison. This will undoubtedly provide more diversified possibilities for understanding the complex dynamic relationships between human beings, nature, education, learning, life, and society.

Data availability

All data analyzed are contained in the paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (Grade C) of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under Grant Number GZC20230921.

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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the university. Ethical clearance and approval [Reference No. HR 288-2022] were granted by East China Normal University Committee on Human Research Protection (UCHRP) on 5th May, 2022.

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Verbal and signed consent to participate was sought from teacher and student participants in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. For teacher participants, informed consent was obtained at the beginning of each interview on June 1, 2023; for older adult students, informed consent was obtained at the beginning of each interview between June 2 and June 10, 2023. Consent forms for parents/caregivers were distributed in May to obtain their signed consent. Before each primary student interview between June 2 and June 10, 2023, I recruited participants from those who verbally agreed to participate and whose parents/caregivers had signed the consent forms.

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Cheng, H. Seeing life through life: Unpacking life education in intergenerational learning in China. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 1048 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03551-y

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Received : 12 December 2023

Accepted : 01 August 2024

Published : 16 August 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03551-y

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Hong Kong teachers accused of lacking knowledge of national security education

• Education Bureau says some schools fail to integrate national security elements into other subjects and highlights problems elsewhere

Education officials on Friday also hit out at some schools for not “fully referring to” an official national security event planning calendar to help arrange activities designed to boost a sense of patriotism among youngsters.

They added that failure to use the calendar meant that pupils’ understanding of important Chinese historical events and figures was not as good as it should be.

The claims came in the third group of Education Bureau review reports on schools released on Thursday, involving 44 schools.

According to the report on C.P.C. Yao Dao Primary School in Tin Shui Wai, middle management’s grasp of national security education was patchy and only a few subjects had elements of the subject included.

“Schools must strengthen middle management’s understanding of national security education so they can review the curriculum plan of each subject and select appropriate topics to ‘naturally connect’ the subject [national security education],” it said.

The review of S.K.H. Holy Cross Primary School in Kowloon City said the teaching of national security topics was not in-depth enough and the school should improve teachers’ understanding of the subject in a bid to foster pupil awareness of the need to safeguard national security.

Authorities said neither of the schools made the best use of the planning calendar to boost pupils’ knowledge.

“Those activities allow students to reflect on their contributions to society and the country,” the bureau added.

The first reports were released in May and the second group in June, each in reference to 10 schools.

Schools from 2021 were asked to follow the annual calendars drawn up by education authorities.

The calendar for the next school year has 27 important days and occasions earmarked so schools can plan events around them.

Hong Kong And Macau Lutheran Church Ming Tao Primary School, in Tseung Kwan O, was also criticised.

The report on the school said teachers generally had an insufficient grasp of the national security topic and that they should increase their knowledge to boost effectiveness.

“During lessons, teachers have not yet naturally connected the learning content [with the national education elements] and the relevant campus atmosphere has yet to be created,” the report added.

Secondary schools also faced criticism.

The CNEC Lau Wing Sang Secondary School report said teachers had to learn how to implement national security education from the perspectives of “knowledge, emotion and action”.

Officials said the Chai Wan school should learn from counterparts with successful experiences.

The bureau told Henrietta Secondary School in North Point that it had to plan how to connect national security education elements to select subjects to help teachers.

The Mission Covenant Church Holm Glad College in Kwun Tong also came under attack in its report.

The bureau said only a few subjects contained strands of national security education and the school was also advised to follow the event calendar.

But the reports considered more than national security teaching failures, with an elite Catholic school criticised for problems in other areas.

Holy Angels Canossian School in Hung Hom, known for academic excellence, was slammed for its poor coordination with preschools, as well as with St Mary’s Canossian College in Tsim Sha Tsui, its associated secondary school.

“The school’s assessment policy and activity arrangements in non-school days cannot meet the abilities and needs of students,” the report added.

“It must be reviewed as soon as possible to create space for students to help them lay a solid foundation of whole-person development.”

The school was also told by the education authorities that it had to make use of its diversified learning and teaching strategy.

“It included designing challenging tasks and questions to give students more opportunities to exchange and discuss,” the report said.

The school had not uploaded the full report to its website by Friday afternoon.

The reviews are part of the schools’ development and accountability framework introduced by the bureau in the 2003-04 academic year.

Schools were also required to release their full reports to key stakeholders and encouraged to upload the documents online.

The reviews were carried out by analysis of information submitted by schools, observation of classes and other school activities, as well as discussions with management, teachers, parents and pupils.

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The weakest link in china’s debt-fueled growth model, chinese indebted rural banks carry social consequences beyond their size.

China’s property sector crisis, set off by Xi Jinping ’s “three red lines” policy, has taken a huge toll on the economy since late 2020. Property has occupied a dominant position in China’s debt-fueled growth model in the past two decades, taking up anywhere between 23% and 30% of the economy. To stimulate GDP growth, local governments use land as collateral and set up local government financing vehicles to borrow heavily from banks and promote urbanization and property development. Well-connected property developers purchase parcels of land at favorable rates from local governments, and in return they invest in infrastructure in those localities, which then benefit local economies. Local governments also make money off land sales and tax revenues from construction and other business activities from new property development. During the era of China’s rapid growth, when local government officials were promoted based on their local GDP performance, this seemed like a win-win model — until we ask the question, “where did all the money come from?”

The money that fueled China’s rapid urbanization and frenzied construction came largely from ordinary folks — the household depositors who parked their lifetime savings at Chinese banks and retail investors who bought sophisticated wealth management products that promised high returns, only to realize that their monies were thrown into risky property projects that, in more recent years, started generating negative returns. Essentially, the rapid expansion of the once-almighty property sector was funded by household savings. This debt-fueled growth model worked as long as there was money flowing as it did in the past two decades — until Xi’s imposition of the “three red lines” that abruptly constrained the cheap loans extended to property developers made possible by household savings that were underpriced. When the money flows or proverbial “musical chairs” suddenly stopped around 2021, many players found themselves without a seat.

The weakest link in the financial sector are the approximately 3,800 small and medium-sized regional banks, including city commercial banks, rural commercial banks, township and village banks, and rural credit cooperatives, which are more vulnerable than the larger ones. With combined assets of RMB55 trillion (US$7.5 trillion), they account for 13% of the total banking assets. In particular, the smaller rural banks are most vulnerable because they can only absorb savings from local depositors and are thus less financially diversified. Banking regulations bar them from establishing branches or offering online services to clients registered outside their home provinces. Due to their strong ties to local governments, they tend to lend to government-related projects, which renders their financial viability largely determined by the strength of their local economies.

Since the beginning of 2024, more than 60 of these rural banks have been dissolved or merged. These smaller banks have become the exception to the continued robustness of the Chinese banking institutions despite their liquidity issues. The system has not experienced a meltdown because the central government’s socialist system can instruct state-owned entities to absorb bad assets by diktats. Evergrande, the first property developer that became insolvent, has a total debt of US$300 billion, the size of Finland’s GDP. Despite the massive indebtedness of property conglomerates and enormous local government debt estimated between 55% and 75% of the country’s GDP, China’s financial sector has not yet come under severe stress. However, since 2019, bank runs have occurred in some of the smaller banks.

In 2022, when a group of depositors with the Village and Township Banks in Henan discovered they could no longer withdraw their deposits, they staged a protest at the provincial People’s Bank of China in Zhengzhou — only to be beaten up by plainclothes security guards. Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of Henan, is among the most notorious cities for “unfinished apartment projects” ( lanweilou ), a huge mess created by unscrupulous property developers, due to its rapid urbanization during the 2010s. Collaborating with brokers, the Henan rural banks bypassed their geographical boundary to absorb savings illegally from cross-country depositors by offering them higher savings rates. After the widely covered protest, in which the Henan authorities were accused of assaulting ordinary depositors who were defending their legal rights, the provincial banking authorities finally stepped in to honor all deposits (except those that were illegal).

Will the merging of these 60 or so rural banks resolve the banks’ balance sheet problems? Mergers of good and bad apples bring down the average of the good ones, though they may help absorb the bad assets of insolvents. It should be underlined that this is not the first time these small and medium-sized banks have undergone restructuring. As my earlier work on rural banks highlighted, the government tends to allow a proliferation of local banking institutions during boom times to facilitate credit expansion. During periods of rapid expansion, these small lending institutions are set up quickly, with corporate governance and reserve requirements often appearing as an afterthought. Banking regulatory authorities are then forced to clean up the mess during economic downturns. The expansion and contraction of rural banking institutions have mirrored the boom-and-bust growth cycles in the past few decades.

Even though these small lenders constitute only a small proportion of total banking assets in China, bank runs can erode people’s faith in the banking system, with ripple effects on social stability. Although the central bank’s insurance scheme, which guarantees up to 500,000 yuan of individual deposits, has only existed since 2015, deposits have always carried an implicit guarantee from the central government. There is a deeply held belief among Chinese citizens that “all banks belong to the state” ( yinhang shi guojia de ), that the central government will never let a bank go down under, and thus that their deposits are guaranteed even in a private bank. This ethos, though difficult to measure, undergirded the banking system’s stability during times of financial turmoil in the 1990s and 2000s.

Seen in this light, it is no surprise that the depositors in Henan organized collective action to defend their rights when they discovered that their savings were dishonored by the rural banks. And when the protestors were rounded up by unidentified security guards, they made international headlines. Their actions carried far more weight — and social consequences — than the size of the banks’ financial assets would foretell.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lynette H. Ong

Office of the State Superintendent of Education

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