China's central government will invest 10 billion yuan (some 1.2 billion US dollars) from 2004 to 2007 in building and renovating 6,400 elementary and middle boarding schools in rural areas in the western part of the country,said a senior official of the Education Ministry on Thursday.

The program is expected to help 3.2 million students from impoverished families gain access to education, said Chen Weiguang,vice director of the ministry's finance department at the Global Conference on Scaling Up Poverty Reduction, held in Shanghai from May 26 to 27.

In 2003 alone, China launched a 6-billion-yuan (723 million dollars) project to renovate dilapidated buildings in elementary and middle schools across the country, and a 9-billion-yuan (1.08 billion dollars) project for offering distance education for elementary and middle schools in rural areas.

In addition, a scheme was also started in 2003 to invest 10 billion yuan (1.2 billion dollars) to popularize the nine-year compulsory education and basically eliminate adult illiteracy in the western part of the country.

China's more than 80 percent of elementary schools and more than 64 percent of secondary schools are located in the rural areas.

(Xinhua News  Agency  May 28, 2004)