The Chinese government has banned rises in school and college tuition and accommodation fees for the next five years, a senior education official announced on Monday.

Assistant Education Minister Yang Zhoufu said the Ministry of Education had frozen school fees at the level of the autumn semester of 2006.

"Schools violating the regulation will face penalties," Yang said, though he did not specify what penalties would be set out.

The MOE had earlier stipulated that unwarranted school fees must be refunded and colleges and schools concerned would be banned from enrolling students or have enrolment numbers restricted.

The measure was stated in guidelines for establishing a system to provide financial aid to regular college students and vocational school students from poor households, which was approved by the State Council, China's cabinet, on May 9.

China's college tuition fees were set according to the cost of education, said Yang.

The central budget would allocate funds to recompense schools and colleges for rising costs incurred through inflation over the next five years, Yang said.

The education sector has generated a mass of public complaints because of inflated school fees.

Parents were charged 1.7 billion yuan (US$217 million) in unwarranted school fees since 2002, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

But the corruption watchdog claimed that 1.6 billion yuan had been returned to the victims.

Education at most universities -- tuition, accommodation and expenses -- costs an average of 10,000 yuan (US$1,280) a year per student over a four-year course of study.

(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2007)