The Ministry of Education will spend 50 billion yuan (US$6.5
billion) this year to help students from poor families.
The money will come from the budgets of central and local
governments. It will go toward the setting of national
scholarships, stipends and student loans to ensure these students
can continue their education, ministry spokesman Wang Xuming said
yesterday.
The funds will cover more than 20 percent of college students
and 90 percent of vocational students.
Most students in vocational schools come from the rural areas,
and their financial situations are worse than college students,
Wang said.
"As the new semester begins in September, students from poor
families will find the road to higher learning much smoother," Wang
said.
More than 4 million college students and 16 million vocational
students will benefit annually, he said.
To guarantee fair distribution of the funds, high achieving
students will each receive an annual scholarship of 8,000 yuan,
students from poor families with high marks and good character will
each receive an annual 5,000 yuan national supportive scholarship,
and ordinary students will each receive a stipend of 2,000 yuan a
year.
In vocational schools, students from poor families will each
receive an annual stipend of 1,500 yuan.
It is expected that 5.7 million students will enter colleges and
universities, and about eight million, vocational schools this
year.
China's institutes of higher learning are one of most expensive
in the world relative to per capita GDP, said Liu Shouren, a member
of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Annual tuition fees have increased to more than 5,000 yuan,
about 10 times that of a decade ago, and incomes have not kept
pace.
According to a report last year by the China Youth Development
Center, education was the No 1 expense of a family.
About 33 percent of a rural family's yearly income went on
education, while the figure is about 23 percent for urban
families.
(China Daily July 3, 2007)