education is the trend, once in one's life schooling has become lifelong learning. International cooperation and education exchanges increase every year. China has more students studying abroad than any other country; since 1979, there have been 697,000 Chinese students studying in 103 countries and regions, of whom 185,000 have returned after finishing their studies. The number of foreign students studying in China has increased rapidly; in 2004, over 110,000 students from 178 countries were studying at China's universities. 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 laid out the government's aim that educational investment should account for four percent of GDP in a relatively short period of time. 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 ways of assistance, with policies and measures for scholarships, work-study programs and subsidies for students with special economic difficulties, tuition reduction or exemption and state stipends. The government has committed itself to markedly raising educational levels overall, as evidenced in a Ministry of Education program; it is estimated that by 2020, of every 100,000 people 13,500 will have had a junior college education or above and some 31,000 will have had senior high school schooling. It is also estimated that illiteracy and semi-literacy rates will fall below three percent and average 관악구 영어과외 신림동 봉천동 수학과외
