Minister of Education Zhou Ji said
Thursday that it is possible for China to increase spending on
education to 4 percent of GDP by 2007.
Zhou made the remark at a press conference sponsored by the
State Council Information Office in Beijing on March 24. He also
introduced the latest phase of the 2003 - 2007 Action Plan for
Invigorating Education.
China’s Education Law requires that government funding of
education grow at a faster rate than government revenue at the same
level.
“We emphasize that this growth rate should not only be
listed in the budget, but should also appear in the bottom line,”
said the minister, adding that this is a new approach taken by the
Ministry of Education for effective implementation of the action
plan.
Since China’s economy will continue to develop rapidly in the
next few years, Zhou is confident that the goal of expanding
educational funding to 4 percent of GDP can be realized within the
term of office of the current government.
The central and local governments increased spending on
education during the 1998 - 2002 period as part of the previous
phase of the action plan. Each level of government was encouraged
to raise by one percentage point the proportion of spending on
education to GDP. Overall, the figure rose from 2.5 percent to 3.4
percent in that period.
“Of course, this is far from enough if we give priority to
developing education,” said the minister. “Accordingly the central
government has called for greater effort and more money flowing
into education.”
In carrying out the current phase of the action plan, the most
recent increase in funding from the Ministry of Education will
mainly go to rural areas to strengthen compulsory education. Other
types of education should maintain their development momentum.
“To this end, we hope the government will increase spending and
we encourage various social sources to invest in educational
undertakings,” said Zhou.
?
(China.org.cn by Chen Qiuping, March 25, 2004)
