Educational mischarge totaling 853 million yuan (US$102.8 million) was found to have been collected throughout China in 2003, and 639 million yuan (US$77.3 million) of it has been returned to students, Minister of Education Zhou Ji said in Beijing Tuesday.

Zhou said at a press conference that correcting educational mischarge was an important task of the educational system in 2003,as the problem really existed and was serious in some regions.

The ministry and six other government administrations carried out inspections in more than 100,000 schools around the country in2003, and 2,488 persons including 395 schoolmasters were punished for levying mischarge on students, he said.

Educational mischarge has aroused attention from the whole society, Zhou said. However, there are still difficulties in rectification because of the big size of China's education system, which he said is the largest in the world.

The minister attributed the rampant collection of educational mischarge to the short of educational financing, a lack of regulations on reasonable charge, and malpractices in some schools and educational administrations.

To solve the problem the government will increase investment in education, clarify the items to be charged and hold public hearings on these items.
 
(Xinhua News Agency January 7, 2004)