China has earmarked 2.24 billion yuan (341 million U.S. dollars) of financial aid to high school students from poverty-stricken families for this spring semester, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Thursday.

About 4.8 million high school students with financial difficulties will benefit from the subsidy, the MOF said in an online statement.

The statement urged local governments to send the subsidy to local schools as soon as possible and give priority to students from rural, underdeveloped and ethnic regions.

High schools should carefully evaluate the applicants and make sure students with real financial difficulties will receive the subsidy, it said.

It vowed to "seriously handle" the activities such as misappropriation of funds and falsification.

China had promised to spare no efforts to ensure "no child shall be allowed to drop out due to family financial difficulties" in its national education plan, known as the Outline of China's National Plan for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020).

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said at the ongoing annual session of China's National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, that education spending will be weighted as 4% of the country's GDP in 2012 fiscal year.

The education expenditure rose 19.3 percent year on year to 1.25 trillion yuan in 2010.