More than 1,000 poor students from ethnic minority groups in
southwest China's Yunnan Province will benefit from an aid
project launched this week in the provincial capital of
Kunming.
Starting from this year, each student will receive a yearly
subsidy of 800 yuan (US$100) to cover living expenses until they
finish their nine years of compulsory education.
With a start-up fund of 2 million yuan (US$250,000) from China
Merchants Bank (CMB), the subsidy scheme aims to provide financial
aid to poor students in China's western regions, especially those
from minority groups.
About 1,000 poor students from primary and junior middle schools
in Yunan's Dehong and Diqing prefectures and Kunming will be the
first to benefit from the scheme.
The project also aims to aid more poor students in south China's
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and northwest
China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said
CMB.
As one of the students attending the project's launch ceremony,
14-year-old Sun Yuxiang said she was relieved to know she would not
have to drop school again.
The girl, from the minority De'ang ethnic group in Dehong,
dropped out after graduating from primary school, because of
poverty.
Due to poverty and mountainous surroundings, the education level
in many of the regions where minority groups live lags far behind
that in cities, said He Tianchun, director of the Yunnan Provincial
Bureau of Education.
About 17 counties out of Yunnan's total of 129 have not yet made
the first nine years of school compulsory, and 12 of those are
autonomous counties where ethnic minority groups live, said He.
"Schools in these counties and poor students from minority
groups need more help," he said, stressing that help from society
is an essential supplement to the government's support.
(China Daily June 2, 2006)