--- SEARCH ---
WEATHER
CHINA
INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS
CULTURE
GOVERNMENT
SCI-TECH
ENVIRONMENT
LIFE
PEOPLE
TRAVEL
WEEKLY REVIEW
Learning Chinese
Learn to Cook Chinese Dishes
Exchange Rates


Hot Links
China Development Gateway
Chinese Embassies

Renew Education with More Funding

Since the country has repeatedly stressed renewing education is a key to its revival, the sizzling growth of expenditures in the sector over the past five years is not a surprise.

Last Saturday, People's Daily offered a retrospective look at the country's total expenditure on education, which soared to 548 billion yuan (US$66 billion) last year, up 16.7 per cent annually between 1997 and 2002.

That growth rate is surely impressive. The aggregate spending on education has been doubled within half a decade, far outshining the national economy which amazed the world by maintaining an average annual increase of 7.7 per cent in the same period.

Yet, is it fast enough?

The expenditure hike did raise the ratio of educational spending in line with the gross domestic product, a key gauge of the country's support for the educational undertaking.

However, in comparison with the expansion of the government's fiscal revenues, the source of a better part of the country's total educational spending, the increase in education funds no longer appears as impressive.

Because the quality and efficiency of economic growth has improved constantly, total fiscal revenues rose from 865.1 billion yuan (US$104.2 billion) in 1997 to 1.89 trillion yuan (US$227.8 billion) in 2002.

Such swelling fiscal coffers have enabled the government to invest heavily in many key projects to keep the country's growth momentum even with the impact of the 1997 Southeast Asia financial crisis.

But the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) early this year awakened the country to the reality that non-economic issues are also essential to its development. Education is clearly among those prime concerns to which the government must attach the greatest importance.

The authorities have decided to continue the pro-active fiscal policy next year. That means the government will be financially well equipped to address those problems like salaries in arrears to primary and secondary school teachers and reconstruction of school buildings in poor condition.

Setting additional funds aside through a structural adjustment of budgetary planning for education is imperative.

And a shift must take place from giving funds to higher educational institutes in cities to providing the money instead to primary education in the vast rural areas, which is crucial toward narrowing the development gap between urban and rural areas.

(China Daily December 3, 2003)

Farewell to Teacher's Old Friends: Chalk and Ferule
Teacher Sentenced for Taking Students' Bribes
13% Cut for University Funding
A Stanford Branch School to Be Set up in Peking University
On China and US Elementary Education
China to Enroll 330,000 Graduate Students in 2004
Higher Degree No Guarantee of Better Jobs
Yale Seeks Greater Role in China's Education
Students, Experts Baffled over Exam
Children Seeking Urban Schooling
School Fees Must Be Regulated Fairly
China to Revise Law on Compulsory Education
Schooling Policy Significant
548 Billion Yuan Invested in Education in 2002
Obstacle Courses on Campus
Ma Yan's Diary Giving Voice to the Voiceless
China Education and Research Network
Education in China
Print This Page
|
Email This Page
About Us SiteMap Feedback
Copyright © China Internet Information Center. All Rights Reserved
E-mail: webmaster@china.org.cn Tel: 86-10-68326688