The secondary education organizations for adults are adult secondary professional schools, adult high schools and secondary technical training schools that teach primary and secondary professional skills, employment training and ordinary cultural knowledge. The secondary professional schools for adults are established by the state and local governing departments, while the adult high schools and technical training schools are hosted by enterprises or local governments. In recent years, parts of peasant technical training schools are co-sponsored by the departments of agriculture, technology and education.

        The aim of primary education to adults is to combine the illiteracy elimination with primary compulsory education. It is hold for adult illiterates or half-illiterates, or less-educated adults. This kind of primary education is also hold through part time schools and night schools.

        Since the year of 1978, the secondary education for adults has experienced phases of initiation, adjustment, consolidation and enhancement and has formed an initial scale now. In the year of 2000, there were 1967 adult senior high schools with 305,600 recruit students, 325,900 on campus students and 229,000 graduates. There were 4,634 secondary vocational education schools for adults with 749,400 recruit students, 2.4028 million on campus students and 1.114 million graduates, and 53,000 primary education schools for adults with 2.3975 million recruit students, 2.3225 million on campus students and 52,000 teaching staff (including 17,800 professional teachers). The number of students signing for the national secondary self-study examination was 18,400 person times, and 5,600 students had acquired graduation certificates of secondary technical schools.