BEIJING, Nov. 10(Xinhuanet)-- Over 90 percent of Chinese have access to free nine-year compulsory education, said a report issued here Thursday.

According to the National Report on China's Education for All issued by the Ministry of Education(MOE), 93.6 percent of Chinese were covered by"two basic moves"-- basic popularization of nine-year compulsory education and elimination of illiteracy among the young and middle-aged, much higher than 85 percent in 2000.

In 2004, 2,774 counties(cities and districts at county level) made the two moves to facilitate education.

At present, China has 180 million children aged 6 to 14. In 2004, about 112 million children were at elementary schools. The net enrollment rate for school-age children was 98.95 percent and the rate of admission to junior middle schools reached 98.1 percent.

There were 65.28 million students in junior middle schools, witha gross enrollment rate of 94.1 percent, 5.5 percent higher than that of 2000.

China is revising its Compulsory Education Law to promote compulsory education in the country and offer every youngster equal access to education.

According to the report, it will try to grant compulsory education to all in the western region by 2005 and across the country by 2010 and reduce the illiteracy rate of the young and middle-aged in the country to below 2 percent and that of adults to less than 5 percent. Enditem