STARTING this fall semester, primary and middle school students in Beijing can take classes given by the city’s best teachers, all without having to leave their homes. By registering their student ID numbers on the website www.bdschool.cn or on the BGCTV digital cable TV network, students can select from an array of online courses recorded by roughly 2,000 teachers working in schools where cutthroat competition for admission is the norm.
　　This significant step in digital learning is sponsored by the government and aims to ensure equal access to educational resources for all students – a daunting task for a large, populous country where economic development has been uneven.
　　From the founding of the PRC in 1949 through to the 1970s, China had a public education system based on social welfare ideals that greatly raised the education level of the populace.
　　Beginning with opening-up and reform, and in particular since the early 1990s, funding for public education began to diversify. Though government outlays have remained the chief source of schools’ funding, parents are paying at least some tuition fees, public donations are solicited, and schools are encouraged to open for-profit side organizations to bolster their cash reserves.
　　The concept that a child’s education is a key family investment is widely accepted by the Chinese people. But the belief that a public education system is an essential part of the social safety net is still strong, as is the notion that equality must be the goal of this system. Therefore, responsible citizens from all walks of life are doing their part to build an excellent learning environment for youth, in which equality is championed above all else. Beijing’s new digital initiative is a cogent example of this new drive.
　　 schools of Hope
　　China’s “Schools of Hope” project is another great example. When the first School of Hope – schools in poorer rural areas built with donations – opened in Jinzhai County, Anhui Province in May 1990, it consisted of only a few dilapidated rooms. Today that first campus has expanded to 14,000 square meters and accommodates more than 1,600 students in 27 classes at both preschool and elementary school levels. From 1990 to 2011 Jinzhai County alone erected 110 Schools of Hope, significantly boosting the enrollment rate of local school-age children.
　　China Youth Development Foundation initiated the Hope Project in 1989, and the scheme has been lauded as the most influential and well-participated public charity program of the 1990s in the country. Over the past 23 years the project has raised over RMB 5.3 billion and established 15,444 Schools of Hope in which 3.38 million rural students have attended lessons.
　　In addition to building classrooms, the Hope Project provides classroom equipment and trains teachers. The goal is to help children from underdeveloped regions gain access to the same educational resources, tangible and intangible, as their better-off peers.
　　In 1985 the Chinese government announced the goals of making nine-year compulsory education universal and ultimately eradicating illiteracy among young and middleaged people. The country is now very close to realizing these goals – today, approximately 95 percent of children finish junior middle school, having stayed in school for nine years.
　　Despite the improvement, there are still some three million children, mostly in central and western provinces, that don’t complete nine years of schooling due to financial or health reasons. Many leave the classroom to help their cash-strapped families with farm work. It is the mission of both the government and general public to bring these children back to school and prevent further dropouts.
　　During the decade 1996 to 2005 China carried out a special campaign to boost public education in its poorer regions. RMB 20.548 billion was plowed into these areas, with 85.7 percent of funds coming from central and local governments. The money went to the construction of 5,380 primary schools and 2,466 junior middle schools; rebuilding and expanding 27,197 primary schools and 8,035 junior middle schools; the purchase of teaching materials; free textbooks for students, and faculty training. “It was the best funded and most extensive education aid program in the history of the PRC,” said Song Ziming, a Ministry of Finance official who formerly headed the experts panel on the project. To complement the initiative, the central government forked out another RMB 6 billion in 2003 to reno- vate rundown school buildings in 22 provinces/autonomous regions in central and western China.
　　New classrooms alone are not enough to encourage children from the country’s poorest families to stay in school. And so in 2005, the state began to hand out free textbooks to primary and junior middle school students, as well as award subsidies to students in need of board. Of the 130 million rural students in China, as many as 30 million are boarders.
　　Wang Mengmeng, an eighth grader at the No. 1 Middle School of Shangji Town, Xuchang City, Jiangxi Province, had lived with her father and grandmother since her mother died when she was small. All the family’s income comes from their two-mu (about 0.13 hectares) farmland and odd jobs her father takes during the off-season. Earlier this year, Mengmeng’s school put her on its subsidy recipient roster.
　　“The allowance was set at RMB 625 for the four-month spring semester. This gave Mengmeng about RMB 5 per day –enough to cover meals,” explained school principal Su Wenwei. With free textbooks, zero tuition fees and a daily allowance, students like Wang Mengmeng don’t pay a cent.
　　Though many rural students don’t live at school, on average they have at least one meal a day on school grounds. Due to insufficient funding, school canteens have lacked the resources to produce nutritious food for students. In 2010 and 2011 the central budget and the Ministry of Education appropriated RMB 16.9 billion to upgrade living facilities in rural schools, including canteens and dormitories. At the end of 2011 another RMB 10 billion was earmarked especially for school canteens in the countryside.
　　
　　Starting in the fall semester of 2011 China kicked off a nutrition improvement program in its least　developed areas that subsidizes meals for students in primary and junior middle schools at the rate of RMB 3 per head per day. This requires an annual outlay of RMB 16 billion from the central coffers. The first phrase of the program covers 26 million students in 680 cities and counties, accounting for nearly 30 percent of rural students in central and western China.
　　Among the 3,918 graduates of the Jinzhai Schools of Hope, more than 700 received financial aid. Many are now studying in the country’s top universities such as Tsinghua University and the University of Science and Technology of China. Higher education would have been out of their reach without such financial assistance.
　　As Yadie, a teacher at the Central Primary School in Mainling County, Nyingchi Prefecture, Tibet, said about the subsidies: “All parents need to do is get their children to the gate of the school. We take care of the rest.”
　　Since 1985 Tibet has promoted boarding schools among its nomadic rural population, providing children with free accommodation and exempting them from tuition fees. Half a million rural students benefited from this policy. The autonomous region’s enrollment rate hit 99.2 percent for primary schools and 98.2 for junior middle schools in 2010. The difference with 50 years ago could hardly be starker– when the autonomous region was liberated in 1951, more than 95 percent of the local population were illiterate or semi-illiterate.
　　 education Comes First
　　As getting all students through nine-year compulsory education has become the norm in China, many places in the country are now looking toward 12 years of heavily subsidized education as the new benchmark.
　　Policies have been in place since 2008 in Dongguan City’s Shipai Town, Guangdong Province, to offer the three additional years of free education on top of the standard nine.
　　This is only one part of the education revolution in the town. Since 2009, kindergartens have been free there. Since 2010, students at the junior college level as well as undergraduates, postgraduates and doctoral candidates have been entitled to receive an annual stipend of RMB 4,000, 6,000, 8,000 and 10,000 respectively.
　　
　　These measures have technically made possible 25 years of tuition-free schooling. Before these measures, less than 10 people from Shipai Town made it to university every year. In 2009, the number had jumped to 198, and by 2010, 219 were heading on to tertiary institutions.
　　The town and its affiliated villages spend approximately RMB 15 million on the new polices each year. As a coastal area in South China, Shipai boasts comparatively high fiscal revenues, and education expenditures are a relatively small part of the budget. Lu Yibiao, a town official, breaks down the 2009 figures: affiliated villages allocated RMB 5 million to education subsidies, while total revenue for the year was RMB 270 million. Shipai Town spent RMB 10 million for free education, while tax receipts were RMB 360 million. Lu Yibiao says that as the town’s finances stand at present, heavily subsidizing local children’s education from kindergarten right through to university is completely affordable.
　　Unlike Shipai Town, Ningshan County in Ankang City of Shaanxi Province is a poverty-stricken county. But in 2007, the county’s authorities came up with their own way to benefit local students. Nowadays, they offer boarder students free meals, a living subsidy and free vocational training on top of 12 years of free education. Since 2009, the three years of senior middle school, encompassing vocational education, have been free for the whole county. Since the autumn of 2011, kindergartens have also been free of charge.
　　Ningshan had a population of 74,000 and a gross income per capita of RMB 3,812 in 2010. Its fiscal income was RMB 30.75 million. Local government spent 40 percent of this– RMB 12 million – on education, way above the national average of 12.5 percent. The subsidy for senior middle school students alone, RMB 2,000, is almost half of a rural household’s average annual income. Big outlays on education have meant the county government has had to limit its other expenses. For example, the county government’s office building is a renovated student dormitory building from the 1990s.
　　According to statistics, 12 years of free education is a growing trend around China. Regions such as Inner Mongolia, Mawei District of Fuzhou City in Fujian Province, Shuangliu County of Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, Dexing City of Jiangxi Province, Luntai County of Xinjiang and Guangdong Province’s Zengcheng City are leading the way.
　　To ensure the implementation of compulsory education, a series of key education projects have been carried out, with billions of RMB forked out in the process. Wang Dinghua, deputy director of the Basic Education Department at the Ministry of Education, remarked that the government spent RMB 160 billion on tuition fee exemptions and free textbooks for compulsory education from 2006 to 2010.
　　As the Ministry of Education stated in June 2009, the nineyear compulsory education model has been effectively promoted, and now the 12-year model is being encouraged in counties with the budget capacity to offer subsidies.
　　Twelve-year free education has not been instituted as a nationwide program in China. But since the 2010 autumn semester the central and local governments have co-sponsored a grants program to aid senior middle school students from poorer families. It is estimated 20 percent of students from such families have already benefited from the program.
　　 A Fair Chance for All
　　
　　Several factors count against China in the realm of education – its population is enormous and dispersed; its educational foundation is far from solid, and it has embarked on reform relatively late. Up until recently, scarce educational resources were not distributed evenly to all areas, and schools with modern equipment, standout teachers and beautiful campuses were concentrated in big cities and developed areas along the coast.
　　Zhang Li, director of the National Center for Education Development Research under the Ministry of Education, remarked that the inequalities in educational opportunities are largely to the detriment of rural areas. A free market for education resources will not rectify these imbalances; government should assist the poor by offering them more and better opportunities in education.
　　The Hope Project is symbolic of efforts to offer an affordable quality education to all children. The project became part of the public conscience in 1991, when a newspaper photograph of sevenyear-old Su Mingjuan and her piercing gaze touched readers throughout the country. She became the symbol of the project, and was assisted right through to entering university in 2003.
　　In the Finance Department of Anhui University, Su supported herself by working part time until she finished her degree. She secured a white-collar job at the Anhui Provincial Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, shortly after which she began financially assisting two disadvantaged students on her own.
　　“Meeting with them every year and talking with them regularly is more important than giving them money. They deserve our attention. We need to foster students’ interests, passions and potential, and help them plan for the future,” Su said.
　　Every student benefits from compulsory education in China. But to narrow the gap between different regions, more welfare initiatives should be carried out in the country’s poorer areas. If we set a good example for these children and collectively provide them with financial aid, they are more likely to contribute positively to society in the future.
　　Chinese society has been working hard to rid its education system of inequality. In the not-too-distant future, China will be proud to say that a child born in Shaanxi, Sichuan or Guizhou has just as much chance of succeeding in school as a child born in Shanghai or Beijing.