Wang Yuan's speech deserves more attention than himself

AFTER THE POPULAR CHINESE entertainer Wang Yuan gave a speech at a UN conference, many of his followers expressed their adoration for him and praised him for being able to speak at a UN event.

Yet many simply know that he delivered a speech, without knowing what he talked about.

Actually, the content of Wang's speech deserves more attention than the fact that he delivered the speech. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

Wang is a UNICEF China goodwill ambassador, and his speech, one of many commemorating the adoption of Convention on the Rights of the Child, was about primary education for children.

He stressed the importance of quality early education, and called for greater resources for primary education for children from remote rural areas and from migrant families so that they acquire the necessary skills to survive in society.

That has hit the point. How to promote sound, balanced development has long been a challenge for China, which faces quite huge gaps between the urban and rural areas.

National policymakers have rendered efforts to solve this problem. For the poorest regions, there is the Hope Project, which rallies donations from nationwide to build primary schools for them.

For the small and medium-sized cities, there are all kinds of preferential policies to help children get higher education as their counterparts in metropolises do.

Latest data show that a total of 5.9 million pupils benefitted from the Hope Project, while the number of pupils that have benefitted from education balancing policies is beyond estimation.

Even Wang himself can be considered a beneficiary of the efforts to balance education resources.

Wang comes from an ordinary working family in Chongqing, which, located in the western part of China, does not enjoy any advantage in education resources over other cities.

Yet he worked hard and attended one of the best high schools there.

We hope Wang's speech can inspire more people to pay attention to the importance of balanced education resources and prompt more efforts toward that goal.