Topic: Compulsory education: from what age to what age — and whose duty is it
How does China mark Compulsory education: from what age to what age — and whose duty is it?
Everyday topic
Article 46 of China's constitution is a single sentence: citizens of the People's Republic of China have the right and the duty to receive education. Putting both on the same subject in the same sentence is unique among these seven markets — elsewhere the right and the duty are split into separate clauses (as in Japan's Article 26) or only one side is written down. The second paragraph continues that the state fosters the all-round development of young people, adolescents and children in morality, intelligence and physique — casting the state's role as fostering rather than providing. Neither the number of years nor the machinery of compulsory schooling appears in the constitution; the constitution only says, in Article 19, that the state universalises primary compulsory education, and that same article also covers secondary, vocational and higher education and the elimination of illiteracy. China's constitution, in other words, treats education as a national undertaking taken whole, of which the citizen's right and duty is one facet — rather than carving out a separately justiciable fundamental right as India does.
What is this topic?
Taiwan's Compulsory Education Act sets six to fifteen, nine years, and leaves compulsory enrolment itself to a separate statute. Brazil's Article 208, as amended in 2009, runs from four to seventeen — the widest span of the seven. India's Article 21A covers six to fourteen and sits in the Part on fundamental rights, so it can be taken to court. Indonesia's Article 31(2) puts the duty on both sides at once: the citizen must attend basic education and the government must pay for it, with a further clause reserving at least twenty per cent of the budget for education. Japan's Article 26 places the duty on parents. China's Article 46 makes education a right and a duty in the same sentence. The United States has no federal rule at all: each state sets its own start and end ages.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.