A TOWNSHIP government in Bama, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has charged four pairs of parents with violating the Compulsory Education Law as they forced their children to drop out of school. Beijing News comments:

None of the four families is too poor to afford their children's junior middle school education, which is almost free in Bama thanks to government subsidies. But all of the defendants urged their children to go to work as migrant workers in cities as soon as possible, believing that education is useless.

Although the four pairs of parents are suspected of violating the law, which stipulates nine years of compulsory education, they should not take all the blame.

It is also the duty of the authorities and the schools to ensure children complete their compulsory education.

But the four families in Bama are not alone in regarding education as worthless, as this idea is not uncommon in rural areas nationwide. This is because of the poor quality of local primary and middle school education in the countryside.

Few students in such a poor mountainous region as Bama can finally secure a seat in a university. Even if they can it is easier for a middle school dropout to find a job as a laborer than a college graduate to land a decent job, and he or she will likely make more money than a graduate at first.

The central government must increase its inputs into education in the poorer rural areas, so that middle school graduates have access to vocational education and training.

To improve the quality of grassroots education is the first step in letting parents see the difference an education can make for their children and thus appreciating the importance of education.