The number of students who dropped out of school during compulsory education has declined to 2,419 from 600,000 as of September 15 compared to last year, according to the Ministry of Education.

And all 200,000 dropout students from targeted poor families have all gone back to school, said vice minister Zheng Fuzhi, during the press conference on Wednesday.

Compulsory education plays an important role in China's poverty alleviation strategy, which aims to end poverty across the country by 2020.

In 2019, the net enrollment rate for primary schools in China was 99.94 percent, while the gross enrollment ratio for junior high schools was 102.6 percent.

Furthermore, from 2013 to 2019, the area of ​​newly built and expanded school buildings in poverty-stricken areas was about 221 million square meters across 309,600 primary schools and teaching sites nationwide. About 950,000 teachers have been recruited in recent years at 300,000 schools in about 1,000 counties, he added.

Zheng said efforts in alleviating poverty through education and guaranteeing compulsory education have made great achievements, and the next step is to check previous works and focus on key areas, especially in 52 national-level poverty-stricken counties, to complete the education target.