China will continue to spend more on education next year and
spread the free nine-year compulsory education to urban children,
said Finance Minister Xie Xuren.
The government would continue to improve the funding system to
guarantee free nine-year compulsory education currently enjoyed by
150 million rural children, while spreading it to their urban
counterparts next year, Xie told an annual conference of the
Ministry of Finance in Beijing.
Starting from the spring term, China would increase the funding
for free textbooks used for the national compulsory courses, and
the local governments would provide more money for free textbooks
for local compulsory courses, he said.
Local governments would also provide scholarships to cover the
living costs of boarding students from poor families. The central
government would provide half of the education funding for areas in
central and west China, while provincial governments in those areas
would cover the rest of the costs.
Local governments in east China would provide all education fees
with some supplementary funding from the central government.
Xie said the government would issue new standards for per capita
expenditure of students in primary and middle schools, and put
those standards into effect within the next two years.
He said the allowance for maintenance and refurbishing of rural
schools in central and west China would also be raised with special
financial support to high-altitude and cold areas.
In addition, the government would continue free education for
students taking courses for teaching careers at normal schools and
provide scholarships for poor undergraduates and students at
vocational schools.
According to Xie, the first 11 months saw 557.8 billion yuan
(about 74.3 billion U.S. dollars) of fiscal expenditure used for
education, up 32.7 percent compared with the same period last
year.
As a result of the implementation of scholarships for the poor,
about four million college students and 16 million secondary
vocational school students had benefited.
(Xinhua News Agency December 24, 2007)