China moves forward in balanced education efforts

All 2,895 counties across China have passed the national assessment of balanced development in compulsory education by the end of last year, thanks to unrelenting efforts from central and local authorities, the Ministry of Education said on Thursday.

A total of 94 counties in six provincial-level regions passed the assessment by the Office of National Education Inspection of the State Council last year, becoming the last batch of counties in the country to pass the evaluation, the ministry said.

Balanced development of compulsory education generally refers to efforts in narrowing inter-school, inter-regional and urban-rural gaps in education conditions and quality.

The State Council issued a guideline on the balanced development of compulsory education in 2012 and the national assessment began a year later.

According to the assessment standards issued by the ministry in 2012, a county needs to meet a set of requirements such as student-and-teacher ratio, education funds in compulsory education, teachers' salary and education quality to pass the evaluation and become a county with balanced development in compulsory education.

China has allocated more education resources and funds to its central and western regions, as well as rural areas, in order to narrow the educational gap between various regions and between urban and rural areas.

Meanwhile, local governments are trying to balance the development of compulsory education at the county level by making full use of quality educational resources and allocating more resources to schools performing poorly.

Education Inspection Committee of the State Council said local governments should continue its efforts in developing compulsory education and prioritize compulsory education in development plans, allocating funds and resources.

They should continue to increase the support for under-developed regions and areas in need to further bridge the gap among different regions in compulsory education, the committee said, adding that a routine re-assessment will be carried out to address any problems in the sector.