Jiangsu province continues to strengthen its position as one of China's leading education hubs, with a comprehensive education system that spans early childhood learning, compulsory education, vocational training, higher education and lifelong learning.

By 2024, Jiangsu had nearly 15,400 educational institutions of various types and levels, serving close to 16 million students. The province employed more than 1.07 million full-time teachers, while its gross higher education enrollment rate exceeded 70 percent.

Strong foundation in basic education

Jiangsu has built an extensive and well-established basic education network.

The province is home to 7,897 kindergartens, serving 1.84 million children. To support families with younger children, 2,584 kindergartens have introduced nursery classes for children aged two to three.

At the compulsory education level, Jiangsu operates 3,918 primary schools with 5.7 million students and 2,359 junior middle schools with nearly 2.9 million students. The province also has 694 senior high schools enrolling more than 1.5 million students.

Vocational education aligned with industry needs

As one of China's manufacturing and innovation powerhouses, Jiangsu places significant emphasis on vocational education to cultivate skilled talent for emerging industries.

The province has 94 higher vocational colleges and 213 secondary vocational schools. The secondary vocational institutions enroll around 660,000 students and employ 48,000 full-time teachers.

A leading center for higher education and research

Jiangsu is widely recognized as one of China's strongest provinces for higher education.

The province has 172 higher education institutions, including 78 universities offering bachelor's degrees and 94 junior colleges. Total enrollment in higher education has reached 2.72 million students, including 2.38 million undergraduate and junior college students and 337,000 postgraduate students.

Jiangsu's universities have also demonstrated strong research performance on the global stage. A total of 304 disciplines from 40 universities rank among the top 1 percent worldwide in the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) database. In addition, 51 disciplines from 17 universities are ranked among the world's top 0.1 percent, while six disciplines from four universities are placed within the top 0.01 percent globally.

Promoting learning throughout life

Beyond formal education, Jiangsu has actively developed a lifelong learning system that supports people of all ages.

Three cities in the province have been recognized as members of the UNESCO global network of learning cities, while six cities have been selected as national learning cities.

Every prefecture-level city in Jiangsu has established at least four universities for elderly adults, and every county-level area has at least one such institution. More than 70 percent of townships and sub-districts are covered by senior education organizations, while over one-quarter of elder residents participate in community education activities each year.

To expand access to learning resources, Jiangsu has also built a digital lifelong learning platform. The platform provides more than 3,800 online courses and over 18,000 hours of educational video content free of charge to the public.