"Graduating High School at 15, Marriage Allowed at 18"... A Low Birthrate Solution Emerging from China

"Let's Allow Graduation from High School at Age 15 to Accelerate Entry into Society"

At China's annual largest political event, the Two Sessions (Lianghui - the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference), a proposal was made to lower the legal marriage age to 18 as a measure to address low birth rates.

On the 6th, China's largest portal Sina.com and others reported that Gan Huatian, a professor at Huaxi Hospital of Sichuan University and a member of the CPPCC, proposed lowering the legal marriage age for both men and women to 18. Professor Gan said, "Let's lower the legal marriage age to 18 for both men and women," adding, "It is necessary to actively respond to the practical issue of low birth rates." Currently, the legal marriage age in China is 22 for men and 20 for women.

Opinions on education reform were also raised. CPPCC member Hong Mingji proposed an education reform plan to shorten six years of elementary school to five years, three years of middle school to two years, and three years of high school to two years, reducing each by one year. According to Hong, if this reform is implemented, children would enter elementary school at age 6 and graduate from high school at 15, meaning even after graduating from university, they would be only 19 years old, allowing them to enter society earlier. Hong argued, "Through such reforms, issues related to youth employment, marriage, and childbirth can also be resolved."

China's population was 1.41175 billion at the end of 2022, a decrease of 850,000 from the previous year, making population decline a significant issue. This is the first time in 61 years that China's population has decreased. Last year, China's total fertility rate also dropped to around 1.0. Although the Chinese government has allowed second children since 2016 and third children since 2021, the burden of child-rearing costs and employment difficulties among young people have combined to cause a rapid decline in birth rates.

Meanwhile, at the Two Sessions, measures to address employment difficulties were discussed, including making it mandatory to omit the name of the school attended on resumes and lowering lottery prize amounts to increase the number of winners. There was also a proposal that elementary and middle schools should have daily physical education classes to promote student health.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.