The State Council of China issued a notification on Sunday
giving instructions on a nationwide project that aims to provide
constant financial assistance to students from poor families.
The project, jointly launched by the Chinese Ministry of
Education, Ministry of Finance and other central departments, is
dedicated to helping students from poor families go through their
nine years of compulsory education.
The notification said the governments at various levels in China
have the obligation of helping the students from poor families,
especially in the poor backward rural areas, to fulfill their
primary education.
Local education departments across China should try to mobilize
every social force to offer assistance to the poor, and should
organize the assistance activities in diversified forms, the
notification said.
The notification also urges local education departments to set
up a coordination mechanism specially responsible for planning
assistance methods.
The State Council issued the full text of its decision to
strengthen rural education on September 20, which explicitly
defines rural education as the focus of national education
policy.
According to the decision, by 2007, every poor rural student
will enjoy subsidies for boarding in their compulsory education
period and a waiver of tuition fees, and no one will have to quit
school due to financial difficulties.
(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2003)