Reflecting the fact that most of China's population live in the
countryside, 95.2 percent of all elementary schools, 87.6 percent
of junior high schools and 71.5 percent of senior high schools are
in rural areas, with 160 million students at the compulsory
education stage. The 1995-2000 “National Project of Compulsory
Education in Impoverished Areas” involved the allocation of 3.9
billion special funds from the central finance and 10 billion yuan
raised by local governments to improve schooling condition in
impoverished areas. In 2004, various special funds allocated by the
central finance for compulsory education in rural areas reached 10
billion yuan, a 72.4 percent increase on the 2003 figure of 5.8
billion.
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The China Agricultural Broadcast and Television School has nearly
3,000 branch schools and a teaching and administrative staff of
46,000. Using radio, television, satellite, network, audio and
video materials, it has trained over 100 million person-times in
applicable agricultural technologies and over 8 million persons for
work in rural areas. After 20 years in development, it is the
world's largest distance learning organ for rural area.
In a Ministry of Education program covering the next five years,
the government will implement measures to realize its aims of
nine-year compulsory education in China's western region and the
basic elimination of young and middle-aged illiteracy and the
popularization of high level, high quality nine-year compulsory
education in east and central rural areas. At the same time,
government will actively promote the development of modern distance
learning for rural elementary and high schools, and further improve
rural compulsory education management systems.?