| Making rural education really matter
2003-08-28
China Daily
Setting up a mechanism to ensure an increase in rural educational spending
and guaranteeing a sound development of rural education has become an urgent
issue, said a recent article in the People's Daily.
In wake of the
ongoing tax-for-fee reform, ways of funding rural education have changed and
investment in rural education has witnessed a huge shortfall.
The reasons
leading for this shrinkage are as follows: The allocation of government funds
could not make up for the funding gap left by the cancellation of the former
educational fees. And schools' extra-budgetary revenues have decreased due to
the cancellation of most extra educational charges after the tax-for-fee reform.
Furthermore, appropriations from the higher administrative level could
not be put in place in time and in full.
Currently educational funds are
made up of six parts: Appropriation for the payment of teachers' wages; transfer
payments from upper-level governments after the tax-for-fee reform; operational
funds comprising miscellaneous fees collected by schools; funds for the
renovation of dilapidated school buildings; higher school fees in urban areas;
and local educational funds.
Among the six items, teachers' wages and
funds for the renovation of dilapidated building could basically be guaranteed.
But other funds are used for other purposes or fall short, and are therefore
unable to meet demand.
Therefore, a new mechanism that ensures an input
into rural education and matches the country's fiscal and rural tax-for-fee
reforms should be established.
First of all, the responsibilities of
governments at all levels should be defined.
In line with their respective
fiscal conditions of governments at different levels, the proportion of
educational input should be fixed. And in some underdeveloped areas, a shared
responsibility system on educational input is needed. The government should not
dodge their responsibility and shift it to the lower levels, which used to be
the practice.
Meanwhile, the central and provincial governments should
increase their overall input in education.
The management of compulsory
education in rural areas should be improved.
Responsibility, rights and
interests of governments at the county and township level should be defined.
After initiating the tax-for-fee reform, governments at these two levels should
make efforts to meet the fiscal demands of local education. Educational funds
should be managed in a unified way to prevent it from being diverted to other
uses.
County governments should play the major role of ensuring payment
of teachers' wages.
Funds for teachers' wages should come from the county
governments' budget. And every month the money should enter teachers' bank
accounts in time and in full.
A mechanism to assure schools' operational
funds for public use should be set up.
Standards of operational funds
for different types of schools should be examined and fixed. County governments
should manage and allocate the operational funds strictly according to standards
set by provincial governments.
Apart from fees collected from students,
operational funds should be appropriated from the government budget. And
operational funds must not be used for other purposes, such as payment of
teachers' wages or welfare.
Funds for the renovation of dilapidated
school buildings should be guaranteed. Crumbling buildings should be checked out
and renovated promptly. Debts from schools' renovation of dilapidated buildings
and infrastructure constructions should be paid by county and township
governments.
Helping poverty-stricken students should also be stressed.
Various channels should be explored to ease the burden of needy
students.
Finally, a system of multi-channel funding for education should
be set up.
On the one hand, standard charges on students could be raised
to a certain extent; on the other hand, poverty-stricken students should be
given access to various financial aid and bank loans.
Donations for
education from different sources should be encouraged. Various social forces
should be encouraged to run private schools. And schools should be allowed to
run businesses to raise funds.  |
