Tokyo, Aug. 25 (Jiji Press)–The number of undergraduate students in Japan as of May 1 this year rose by some 14,000 from a year before to a record 2,623,900, an education ministry survey showed on Tuesday.
   

The preliminary result represented the sixth straight year-on-year increase.
   

Female undergraduate students accounted for 1,193,537, or 45.5 pct, of the total, with the proportion rising 0.1 percentage point, according to the fiscal 2020 basic survey on schools.
   

Reflecting a decrease in children, the number of elementary school students and that of junior high school students hit record lows, at 6,300,735 and 3,211,237, respectively.
   

High school students totaled 3,092,351, while the number of students on distance-learning programs topped 200,000 for the first time.
   

The number of students at special-needs schools, which are for children with disabilities, posted a record high of 144,826, with more students being enrolled to the upper secondary departments at such schools.
   

The number of children attending kindergartens fell by some 67,000 to 1,078,499 while that of children at “kodomo-en” facilities that combine the functions of nurseries and kindergartens increased by some 63,000 to a record 758,399.
   

The ministry postponed to December the release of some other preliminary data, including the proportion of high school students advancing to universities and the employment rate for new university graduates, because of a delay in the survey amid the novel coronavirus epidemic.