BEIJING -- A report on the quality of China's compulsory education, which covers primary and junior middle schools, has revealed that students have a high degree of national identity.

The report, released by the National Assessment Center for Basic Education Quality with the Ministry of Education, found that more than 90 percent of the students surveyed said they are proud to be Chinese.

A total of 96.2 percent of the fourth graders and 97.9 percent of the eighth graders said they were confident about the country's future, the report said.

The report was based on monitoring conducted by the center between 2015 and 2017, which assessed 572,314 fourth graders and eighth graders in 973 county-level regions across China. It also surveyed 19,346 primary and secondary school headmasters and 147,610 teachers.

The report also found sound academic performance among the students. The percentages of students with a moderate level or above of performance in Chinese language, maths, and sciences all reached at least 76 percent.

The report, however, also noted that the students were relatively weaker in the comprehensive competence in application.

In both fourth and eighth graders, the numbers of students who showed sound capabilities in scientific exploration and thinking were slightly lower than those with good capabilities in scientific understanding, it said.