Gov Reports

Report on the Work of the Government [Full Text]

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-19 10:39

3. Strengthening all aspects of social development, ensuring the wellbeing of the people and improving their lives.

We steadfastly carried out overall planning for economic and social development, accelerated the development and reform of social programs in education, health, culture and sports and worked hard to resolve problems affecting the vital interests of the people.

Education. Public expenditures on education in China reached 2.43 trillion yuan over the five-year period, a 126% increase compared to the previous five-year period. Funding for rural compulsory education is now fully provided by the government budget. All the 150 million students receiving compulsory education in rural areas are exempt from paying tuition and miscellaneous fees and are supplied with free textbooks, and living allowances are provided to the 7.8 million students from poor families who stay in school dormitories. The plan to make nine-year compulsory education basically universal and to basically eliminate illiteracy among young and middle-aged adults in the western region was implemented on schedule. The state allocated special funds to support the renovation of dilapidated buildings at more than 22,000 rural primary and secondary schools and the building of more than 7,000 schools with student dormitory facilities. Distance education now covers 360,000 rural primary and middle schools, making quality education available to more rural students. Greater efforts were made to develop vocational education, with the student population reaching 20 million at secondary vocational schools and 8.61 million at vocational colleges in 2007. A total of 11.44 million students were enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs in regular institutions of higher learning. More effort was put into developing key disciplines in institutions of higher learning. A system of government scholarships and financial aid to students in regular undergraduate institutions, vocational colleges and secondary vocational schools was instituted and improved, and its funding from the central government budget was increased from 2.05 billion yuan in 2006 to 9.8 billion yuan in 2007. This enabled over 20% of the students in institutions of higher learning and more than 90% of the students in secondary vocational schools to benefit from financial aid and allowed schools to greatly raise the amount of aid offered. An experiment to provide free education to education students at normal universities directly under the Ministry of Education was launched in 2007. Major progress was made in providing equitable education opportunities for all.

The strategy of reinvigorating China through development of human resources was extensively applied. Great efforts were made to train Chinese personnel, bring in needed personnel from other countries and make wise use of skilled personnel of all types, thus strengthening the ranks of high-caliber, highly skilled personnel in China.

Health. Total government expenditures on medical and health care in China over the five-year period reached 629.4 billion yuan, a 127% increase compared to the previous five-year period. The funding was mainly used to develop the public health service system, the medical service system and the medical security system, and basically complete the formation of the disease prevention and control system and emergency medical response system with a fairly comprehensive range of functions, covering both urban and rural areas. The number of diseases covered by the state plan for immunization and disease prevention was increased from 7 to 15, and AIDS, tuberculosis, schistosomiasis and other major communicable diseases are now treated free of charge. The state allocated funds to renovate or build 18,800 town and township health clinics, 786 county hospitals, 285 county traditional Chinese medicine hospitals and 534 county health centers for women and children, and equip 11,700 town and township health clinics with medical equipment, significantly improving conditions for providing medical and health care services in the countryside. More than 24,000 community health clinics were set up in China, further improving the new system of medical and health care services in urban areas. Further progress was made in carrying out population and family planning programs, and the birthrate remained stable at a low level. People's health continued to improve, infant and maternal mortality rates dropped significantly, and average life expectancy reached 73 years in 2005. These are momentous achievements for China, a developing country with a population of 1.3 billion.