Ruan Shiwei, a member of the National Committee of the 13th the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top consultative advisory body, called for promoting educational reform featuring a 10-year compulsory education across the country at an appropriate time.

Ruan, also the deputy director of Fujian Provincial Commission of Health and Family Planning, made the remarks in an interview with People.cn ahead of the conference, which commenced in Beijing on Saturday.

Currently, China adopts a 12-school-year system for primary education stage, which normally comprises of six years in elementary school, three in middle school and three in high school.

Ruan, after conducting in-depth researches on the sector, suggested that the time span, usually longer than that of the developed countries, be shortened to 10 years in response to the nation's ever decreasing working-age population.

The 10-year school time portfolios would be five years in primary school, two in middle school and three high school, and high school time, thus, would be included as compulsory education.

In 2012, China declared its first absolute drop in the working-age population. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that in the next three decade, the country's working-age population is likely to experience a decrease of 170 million in total, which registered over 900 million in 2017.

According to Ruan, the average initial employment age of a laborer currently stands at roughly 23 years old in China, in accordance with the current school-year-system, which include two periods – one with 12-year primary education and other with four-year higher education.