BEIJING, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The number of female students in institutions of higher learning in China reached 6,09 million in 2004, accounting for 45.7 percent of all students in such schools, says a white paper on gender equality and women's development.

"The state exerts great efforts to ensure that women have the opportunity to receive secondary and higher education. As a result, the proportion of women in all types of schools at all levels has increased considerably," says the white paper, issued by the Information Office of the State Council, on Wednesday.

In 2004, the proportion of girl students in junior and senior middle schools reached 47.4 percent and 45.8 percent, respectively. The proportion of girl students in secondary vocational schools reached 51.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of girl students in institutions of higher learning nationwide reached 6,090,000, accounting for 45.7 percent of all students in such schools and an increase of 10.3 percentage points over 1995.

In addition, the proportion of female postgraduate and doctoral students was 44.2 percent and 31.4 percent, 13.6 percentage points and 15.9 percentage points higher respectively over the figures for 1995, the white paper says.

The white paper also points out that the Chinese government makes great efforts to eliminate gender disparities at the stage of compulsory education, and improve the educational environment for girls.

In 2004, the enrollment of boys and girls was 98.97 percent and98.93 percent, respectively. The difference in access to education between boys and girls was reduced from 0.7 percentage point in 1995 to 0.04 percentage point.

Last year, the educational appropriation from the state treasury for compulsory education in rural areas reached 139.362 billion yuan (17.2 billion US dollars), doubling the amount in 1995.

According to the fifth national census, conducted in 2000, the white paper says, the average number of years of education of Chinese women was seven - one and a half years more than in 1990 -and the gap between the genders had been narrowed by half a year in a decade.