The World Bank has a long history of investing in China's technical and vocational education and training (TVET), dating back to the 1963 Higher Education Project, which benefited selected tertiary TVET programs in project schools. The initial World Bank projects for TVET in China were designed mostly on the national level, supporting selected institutions in multiple provinces. Starting in 2006, based on strong analytical work and increased demand from various provinces, the World Bank began a direct policy dialogue with interested provinces, and in turn started supporting provincial level...

The Shanghai basic education system has garnered significant attention since its extraordinary performance in the 2009 and 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a global assessment of 15-year-olds' educational abilities. Among the 65 participating economies in 2012, Shanghai-China ranked first on all three major domains of PISA, i.e. mathematics, reading, and science. Shanghai also stands out for having the world's highest percentage of "resilient students," students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds who emerge as top performers. Shanghai's PISA story has...