The Chinese government invests more in its education system then any other country in the world. In fact this is a growing trend as the number of students and schools grow steadily by the 10's of millions every year. China has recently increased funds for public schools by %50 just over the last two years to a total of almost 100 billion a year. On the other hand the Chinese students study harder and longer then most students in the west with an average 10 hour study day. This is reflected in higher average standardized test scores. Right now there are almost 300 million students in China . (although up to 450 million Chinese citizens are studying English). A major focus of the recent educational system restructuring is English language proficiency. The Chinese Ministry of Education has recently made English instruction a requirement for all Chinese elementary schools from 3 rd grade and above and many elite Chinese universities now teach classes solely in English. Beijing University and Tianjin University , for example, have declared their goals of offering 20% of their graduate courses in English in the next five years. All of this emphasis on English proficiency has been a result of China 's growing economy spurred by acceptance into the WTO. It has been spurred alomg by the recent summer Olympics in Beijing and the World Expo in Shanghai.  With America as China 's number one trading partner English is seen as key to an individual's economic success.