Two of every hundred elderly Chinese are enrolled in such schools, the report said. In Shanghai, the city with the oldest average population in China, the rate is as high as about 10 per cent, said Liu Pingsheng, secretary-general of the China Association of the Universities for the Aged.

Special school education for senior citizens in China started in the 1980s, and retired people, mostly civil servants, took up calligraphy, painting and gymnastics.

"But now, after nearly two decades of development, China boasts an education system for the aged with varied age structures, knowledge levels and social stratification," Liu was quoted as saying at the 22nd Congress of International Association of Universities of the Third Age, which opened in Shanghai yesterday.

Studies indicate that compared with the 1980s, the percentages of people over 70 people and those below 55 in the schools have been on the rise. The percentage of those with junior college backgrounds has risen from 23 in the 1980s to 34 now.

The variety of education available for these special students has increased. It now includes not only subjects like calligraphy and painting but also foreign languages, computers and sewing.