<P> Investment in education has increased in recent years; the proportion of the overall budget allocated to education has been increased by one percentage point every year since 1998 . According to a Ministry of Education program, the government will set up an educational finance system in line with the public finance system, strengthen the responsibility of governments at all levels in educational investment, and ensure that their financial allocation for educational expenditure grows faster than their regular revenue . The program also set out the government's aim that educational investment should account for four percent of GDP in a relatively short period of time . </P> <P> For non-compulsory education, China adopts a shared - cost mechanism, charging tuition at a certain percentage of the cost . Meanwhile, to ensure that students from low - income families have access to higher education, the government has initiated effective ways of assistance, with policies and measures as scholarships, work - study programs, subsidies for students with special economic difficulties, tuition reduction or exemption and state stipends . </P> <P> The government has committed itself to markedly raising educational levels generally, as evidenced in a Ministry of Education program; by 2020, of every 100,000 people, 13,500 will have had junior college education or above and some 31,000 will have had senior high school schooling; rates for illiteracy and semi-literacy rate will fall below three percent; and average schooling duration across the population will increase from today's eight years to nearly 11 . </P> <P> In the 2009 test of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a worldwide evaluation of 15 - year - old school pupils' scholastic performance by the OECD, Chinese students from Shanghai achieved the best results in mathematics, science and reading . The OECD also found that even in some of the very poor rural areas the performance is close to the OECD average . However, controversy has surrounded the high scores achieved by the Chinese students due to the unusual spread of the numerical data, with suggestions that schools were' gaming' students for the exams . Also while averages across the breadth of other countries are reported, China's rankings are taken from only a few select districts . </P>

What is the average education level in china
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