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Guangdong Provides Free Educations

Guangdong Province will soon begin providing free nine-year compulsory educations to students throughout the province. Students in five counties in the province will be the first to benefit from the fee-exemption programme, beginning with the new semester in September, sources with the Guangdong Provincial Education Bureau said on July 31.

The programme will later be extended to all rural areas within the province and then into urban areas, the sources said.

"The inspiring move will enable children from underdeveloped rural areas to attend school," said Tang Weiying, vice-chairperson of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress.

Even though students were no longer charged tuition fees in the nine-year compulsory education system, which has been in place for more than 15 years, fees for textbooks and other items have often deterred the children of poor families from attending school.

A recent survey found that about 3 percent of children ages 7 to 15 in rural areas are forced to drop out of school because of poverty.

Preliminary estimates by the Guangdong Provincial Finance Bureau said that more than 6 billion yuan (US$739.8 million) needs to be allocated by the province to finally implement free-of-charge educations.

The money injected will mainly be used for textbooks and exercise books. By implementing the free-of-charge compulsory education programme, Guangdong Province is striving to improve educational development in rural areas.

The province will allocate 187 million yuan (US$23 million) in 2005 for the development of rural education, of which 100 million yuan (US$12.3 million) will be used to improve educational facilities.