The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) on Thursday adopted the amendment to the
Compulsory Education Law, aiming to give equal compulsory education
to children in cities and in the countryside.
The Compulsory Education Law was promulgated in 1986 and the
revised Compulsory Education Law will come into effect on September
1, 2006.
The revised law aims to give children in both cities and the
countryside nine years of free compulsory education but the tuition
charges will not be completely waived for a few years as clauses in
the law still have to be approved by the State Council.
The expenditures will be jointly shouldered by the central
government and local governments. And local governments should put
the expenditure for compulsory education in their budgets.
Chen Xiaoya, Vice Minister of Education said if governments fail
to pay for the compulsory education in time, they will be
disciplined.
She said the main aim of the law is to offer equal education to
children no matter whether they live in the city or in the
countryside.
The revised law said the children of migrant workers will enjoy
equal education rights as children in cities and the education
rights of children with disabilities should be also secured.
In cities, education resources, such as teachers, school
facilities, programs designs and investment, should be equally
allocated among schools. There will no longer be a division of
schools into key schools and common ones, according to the revised
law.
In a bid to improve education quality in rural schools, the law
also requires teachers in urban schools to work in rural schools
for a certain time to make up for the inadequate rural education
resources.
(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2006)