The growth of the government's educational expenditure should be
ensured, says an article in Beijing News. The following is
an excerpt:
Recent statistics show that one-third of the provinces in China
are not spending enough on education. Although the country has
increased expenditure on education, it only accounts for 3.01
percent of the GDP in 2006, falling short of the target of 4
percent.
It is still one percentage short of the requirement, which can
be translated into 230 billion yuan ($31 billion). At present,
China has more 200 million students at school. It means each
student can get 1,000 yuan if this expenditure can be shared by all
students.
In recent years, economic growth has triggered fast growth in
financial revenues. But the growth in educational expenditure has
failed to keep pace. A main reason is the lack of incentives under
the current financial system.
According to the current system how the local governments spend
their money is largely determined by their officials. Their choices
may go against the wishes of the public and may show little
interest in spending money on education.
It is useless to criticize the local officials since it is the
fault of the system. Officials will naturally choose programs that
can represent their political achievements. Education obviously
does not belong to this category.
The fundamental way of solving the shortage of educational
finances is to build and improve the financial system which enables
the public to participate.
The financial budgeting system decides the efficiency of how
local governments use resources. A better system leads to better
efficiency.
We need to further improve the financial system so that the
public can participate in decisions.
(China Daily January 11, 2008)