A special State grant that totals 800 million yuan (US$98.77 million) every year will be issued to poverty-stricken college students starting from next month.

Officials from the Ministry of Education added that children in rural China will start to enjoy a free nine-year compulsory education before 2010.

The grant, allocated by the central government, is to help cover basic living expenses for 533,000 poor students from public colleges. Each student will receive a monthly subsidy of 150 yuan (US$18.52), said Zhang Baoqing, vice-minister of education.

The regulation stipulates that any students who apply for the grant must come from extremely poor families, and certificates of their family background issued by the local authorities are needed.

The standards for determining exactly who qualifies vary from province to province.

Ministry figures indicate that about 2.63 million college students in China suffer from poverty, accounting for 19 per cent of the total 13.5 million students. Among them, 1.22 million are categorized as "extremely poor" students.

Zhang stressed the central government's commitment to helping college students from impoverished families. "We set up in 2002 a State scholarship that annually gives out 200 million yuan (US$24.69 million) to poor students with outstanding academic achievements," Zhang said, adding that 50,000 students receive the scholarship every year.

"Now eligibility for financial aid will be extended to ordinary but diligent poor students."

For those who fail to get the State scholarship and grant, applying for State loans might be another choice. Since 2000, when the loan system was initialized, it has aided 1.53 million college students by issuing 12.25 billion (US$1.51 billion) in interest-free loans. Any student from an impoverished family is qualified to apply.

However, the vice-minister said the loans currently issued are far from what is actually needed. "According to our estimates, to ensure that poor students finish their four-year study in colleges, at least 10 billion yuan (US$1.23 billion) should be granted every year," he said. "But in 2004-05, only half that amount was issued."

According to the ministry, eight provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have not yet granted State loans to poor students: Hainan, Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Xinjiang, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia.

"Because part of the interest is paid from local public revenues, some provinces and banks are looking for excuses to not grant interest-free loans to students, and colleges don't want to be involved," Zhang said.

Education authorities also reiterated that the "Green Passage" program, in which poor students may enrol and defer tuition payments, should be continued this year.

Last year, the program helped 290,000 new students enrol on time, 11 percent of the total number of poor students.

Zhang also revealed yesterday that in the revision of the law on compulsory education, children in rural areas will benefit from free compulsory education in the next five years. Currently, legislators are soliciting opinions from the public for the revision.

The core issue under discussion is how to make sure enough funds are pooled to make up for the funding shortage for compulsory education.

In 2003, the country invested 136.5 billion yuan (US$16.9 billion) in compulsory education, 47.6 billion yuan (US$5.87 billion) short of what was required.

Meanwhile, the country's fiscal spending on education accounted for 3.28 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2003, as compared to the world average of 4 percent.

The compulsory education law currently in force has vague stipulations that governments at all levels should guarantee the education budget. It stops short of clarifying what happens if it is not guaranteed. One of the major tasks of the revised law should be to clear up the grey areas.

(China Daily August 30, 2005)