The "National Report on China All People Education" released by the Ministry of Education on November 10 shows that from 2001 to 2004, China helped 8.03 million people rid of illiteracy, averaging more than 2 million annually, the rate of illiteracy among young and middle-aged people was kept at around 4 percent. In its illiteracy elimination work, China focuses on wiping out illiteracy among women.

The report says that the Chinese government has been striving to explore ways and means for illiteracy elimination by diverse forms suited to women's characteristics and to check the birth of new female illiterates and prevent the females who have become literate from falling back to illiteracy, the government also focuses on promoting the work of illiteracy elimination and education among women in poverty-stricken areas and ethnic minority regions.

Among the country's 50.4 million people who have rid of illiteracy from 1990 to 2000, 62 percent were women. In 2004, the illiteracy rates of women aged at and above 15 in China's towns and villages were 8.2 percent and 16.9 percent respectively, falling by 5.7 and 10.5 percentage points respectively compared to 1995.

The illiteracy rate of young and middle-aged women stood at 4.2 percent, down 5.2 percentage points from 1995.

The adults' literacy rate came to 90.9 percent in 2000, placed at the front ranks of large populous developing countries.

By People's Daily Online