The government should work harder to make nine-year compulsory education in rural areas universal, says an article in the South China News. An excerpt follows:

Senior statistician, Xie Hongguang, from the National Bureau of Statistics, filed a report recently, which states China has the ability to expand its compulsory education programme from nine to 12 years. He also noted that the "economy first, education later" development model was short-sighted.

Xie pointed out that the government's current input into education accounts for only 3 per cent of the country's GDP, lower than the world average of 5 per cent. Furthermore, increased input into education is far lower than the increase of the country's revenue growth.

He also claimed that if one-third of the money spent on officials' cars and banquets was used to fund primary schools in rural areas, it would make a big difference.

Though the goal of providing nine-year compulsory education was put forward many years ago, it has not been fully realized, especially in rural areas. The mounting tuition and other fees collected by some rural schools remain a heavy burden on parents in these areas.

The central government has repeatedly emphasized the importance of government input into rural education. Local governments, however, would rather pour public funds into projects such as road building and industrialization, which are believed will offer short-term glory. Input into education does not yield instant results representing their work performance.

Compulsory education in rural areas matters a lot to China's rural development and the prospects of farmers, as well as the country's development as a whole. So, its implementation should be placed higher on the government's agenda.