A total of 870,000 primary and junior middle school students in
urban areas of Hunan Province will be exempt from tuition fees from
next semester, which starts on March 1, an official said on
Friday.
Also, all rural students in compulsory education will be
provided with free textbooks, Li Youzhi, director of the provincial
department of finance, said.
"These are just two of the new measures to improve the
provincial education scheme," Li said at a press conference.
The exemption program will cost the province about 90 million
yuan ($12.4 million), he said.
The money will come from provincial and local finance
departments, he said.
In addition, subsidies paid to primary students will be
increased to 500 yuan this year, from 200 yuan last year, while
those given to junior middle school students will rise to 750 yuan
from 200 yuan.
The new measures reflect the central government's plan to
popularize the nine-year compulsory education system.
The first compulsory education fee exemptions were introduced in
2006 to students from rural parts of western China. The policy was
expanded last year to include those in central and eastern
regions.
About 150 million primary and junior high school students across
the country now benefit from the scheme.
Li said that 6,353 former dropouts returned to school in Hunan
last year as a result of the financial support.
China has 25 million high school students, of which 16.86
million live in western and central regions. Last year, the
Ministry of Finance launched a three-year plan to support rural
education, with funding of 47 billion yuan.
(China Daily January 19, 2008)