From Chinese Press

Increase expenditure on education

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-08 08:08

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The Ministry of Education has pledged to eliminate "school-choosing" fees in the next three to five years. But to ban schools from charging arbitrary educational fees, the ministry has to improve the overall educational system, says an article on www.southcn.com. Excerpts:

The Ministry of Education is taking measures to ban schools from charging "school-choosing" fees and organizing "extra" classes for "special" courses, for which students have to pay big amounts, in the next three to five years.

The extra cost of the classes/courses, along with the arbitrary "school-choosing" fees, has plagued the country's education system for a long time. The ministry's move may stop schools from collecting fees randomly. But to eliminate the problem totally, it is important to find its root, which lies in the absence of an effective mechanism for distributing educational resources.

Expenditure on education is small, accounting for less than 4 percent of the country's GDP. Governments at all levels, busy chasing economic growth, ignore their responsibilities of raising the share of education in their budgets. The resultant dearth of resources is the reason why the quality of education varies from school to school and compels the ones that draw more students to impose extra charges. The absence of parents' or teachers-parents' committees in many schools make it easier for the school authorities to get away with the extra fees.

Hence, an effective mechanism of educational appropriation at the national and local level both should be established to ensure that schools get enough funds to operate properly without charging arbitrary fees.