The goals include: to promote nine-year compulsory education and to eradicate illiteracy among young and middle-aged people in the west; to improve the educational quality and reduce the number of dropout students in rural junior middle schools; and to cultivate rural schools into training bases to help peasants find or create jobs and become more affluent through compulsory, professional and adult education.

"We will first take measures to ensure the teachers' salary, the security of school buildings and the normal operation of schools, and eliminate random charging in primary and middle schools," said Zhou Ji, stating the concrete measures the Education Ministry will take to fulfill the goals.

The ministry will promote the development of professional-oriented adult education in rural areas, and to reform the system in employing primary and middle school teachers, he said.

Tools for remote education like the Internet and audio-visual equipment will be used to train teachers and to modernize the rural basic education, he said.

People in affluent areas would be encouraged to help poor students in rural areas.

Statistics show that in the west of China, 327 counties do not enforce compulsory education, with 60 counties failing to promote full primary school education, and 260 counties have illiterate young or middle-aged people.

(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2003)