The Chinese government is to provide more free textbooks to
impoverished primary and middle school students.
A circular, jointly issued by the Ministry of Finance and the
Ministry of Education, also directs regional governments to exempt
poor students from miscellaneous charges and to provide them
subsidies.
A source from the Ministry of Finance said China initiated the
central-government-funded free textbook system in 2001. It covered
32 percent of students from impoverished families in central and
western China, including 56 counties in southern Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region and the region’s border areas.
The budget for the system was raised from 100 million yuan
(US$12.05 million) in 2001 to 400 million yuan (US$48.2 million) in
2003, according to the source.
But many say that it is still nowhere near enough.
Bai Enpei, secretary of the Yunnan
Province Communist Party committee, said on Thursday that
expensive textbooks had forced many rural school kids to quit
school.
Bai said during a teleconference that it is necessary to invite
public bids for the distribution and publishing of textbooks to
bring down prices.
" In Lahu Autonomous County of Lancang alone, for example,
people only receive an average of about three years of education.
Many kids from poor rural families had to leave school because of
the expensive tuition," Bai reported.
"The prices of textbooks must be brought down and the interests
of the ordinary people should not suffer for the hefty profits of a
few departments," he said.
Home to about one-third of China's ethnic minority population,
Yunnan Province is among the nation’s poorest areas and faces a
tough challenge in providing universal education to its rural
population.
In some of China's outlying mountainous areas inhabited by
ethnic minorities, many children of poverty-stricken families still
cannot afford to go to school. Quite a few drop out of school to
help support the family.
Much of the government educational expenditure, however, is
spent on school administration and paying teachers, with only a
small part used to improve teaching facilities and purchase
textbooks.
To solve the problem, the China Youth and
Children's Development Foundation launched Project Hope in
1989. The project seeks public support to help poor school-age
children in rural areas to complete their primary school
education.
(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2004)