The central government
has set aside 6 billion yuan (US$722 million) to support the
revamping of old and dangerous school buildings in the country's
central and western areas. Dilapidated buildings are one of the
biggest problems hindering local education development.
Finance Vice-Minister
Lou Jiwei announced the funding at a national conference on rural
education development, which opened in Beijing Friday.
Lou said the Ministry of
Finance will allocate another special fund with which school
children in rural areas can be exempted from tuition and textbooks
fees. But he did not reveal the budget for the fund.
He said regional
financial departments should include the improvement of old and
dangerous school buildings into local budgets.
Li Shenglin,
vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission,
said speeding up the development of education in rural areas is
crucial to the country's overall progress towards the goal of a
wealthy and comfortable life for its citizens.
Illiterate people
account for 8 percent of China's rural population of 800 million,
having a huge impact on rural economic and social development, said
Li.
Although no specific
numbers have been decided, Li said his commission will increase
investment year on year, to help push rapid and continuous
education development in rural areas.
He called on regional
planning departments to incorporate rural education improvements in
local economic and social development plans.
At the conference's
opening ceremony, Premier Wen Jiabao said making primary and middle
school-level education universal is the key to the country's
current education work in rural areas.
Wen said the State
Council is determined to finish this job in the western areas by
2007.
About 10 percent of the
country's total population residing in 372 counties in western
areas does not receive such an education, according to the Ministry
of Education.
The rest living in
better developed eastern areas have got a primary and middle school
education, ministry statistics show.
He reiterated that
promoting education in rural areas is important to bridging the
economic gap between urban and rural areas of the
country.
Education Minister Zhou
Ji said more efforts will go into the development of
distance-learning methods, based on television and computer-aided
teaching programs, among rural and remote areas to provide lifelong
studies, since there is an insufficient number of teachers in those
areas.
Adult and vocational
education will be widely introduced to offer skill and
employment-oriented learning programs for farmers, said
Zhou.
(China Daily September
20, 2003)