The following are the highlights of China's key education news from the past week:

-- China's annual college entrance exam began Friday as an estimated 10 million students sat the critical exam needed to pursue their higher education. The number of students applying to take the exam this year is the highest since 2010, according to an annual report published by www.eol.cn, an education information service provider.

-- The Ministry of Education has banned commercial advertisements from middle and primary school textbooks. Links or QR codes for supplementary learning materials are also not allowed.

-- Both the number of vocational colleges and enrollments have been on the rise over the past decade, registering 1,418 and 11.34 million, respectively in 2018. Colleges for vocational and technical training accounted for 53.2 percent of all higher education institutions.

-- China has launched a series of events to promote the country's national anthem in middle schools and primary schools nationwide. The events run from late May to the end of October, when students learn how to sing the national anthem, take part in singing competitions and produce videos of them singing the anthem and other patriotic songs, some of which will go into a selection.