Free textbooks and living subsidies will be extended to all farmers' children in compulsory education (aged between 6-7 and 15-16 years) in the 31 poorest counties of central China's Henan Province from this autumn, according to Tuesday's Henan Daily.

The local congress approved a provincial government budget report on July 28 that pledged to provide more funds for rural compulsory education, since most students still need to pay for textbooks and other expenses.

Previously, only children from poor rural families were eligible for free books, subsidies and exemption from fees, which benefited 3.93 million students in the province.

The 31 counties targeted are amongst 592 nationwide that had less than 700 yuan (US$86) per capita net income in 1994.

The move is expected to benefit 2.27 million additional Henan schoolchildren, whilst those from poor rural families in other counties will still receive their benefits.

A total of 720 million yuan (US$86 million) will be allocated for the measure this year by central and provincial governments, according to Liang Taixiang, from the Sci-tech division of Henan's financial office.

According to a China Daily report last month, the government aims to provide 14 million students completely free compulsory schooling in all 592 poorest counties of China this year.

(China.org.cn by Wang Zhiyong, August 6, 2005)