BEIJING -- Chinese senior high school education can meet the popularization target of 90 percent both nationwide and at provincial-level regions in 2020, an official with the Ministry of Education (MOE) said Thursday.

As of the end of 2019, the gross enrollment rate of senior high education was 89.5 percent, up 2.5 percentage points from 2015, Lyu Yugang, head of MOE's basic education department, told a press conference.

"The gross enrollment rate has exceeded 90 percent in 28 provincial-level regions so far," Lyu said, noting that the remaining three provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland will also achieve the 90 percent target this year.

In 2017, the government launched a plan to make senior high school education universally available. The central authority has set up a special fund mainly to support senior high schools in poor areas of the less-developed central and western regions.