Free Compulsory Education in Farming Villages: China Can Bear the Financial ResponsibilitySouthern Weekend 03/10/2005 -- When Premier Wen Jiabao made his promise regarding education in farming villages in this year's Government Task Report, the response both inside and outside the meeting room was ecstatic. That same day, the media reported, "Universal Free Compulsory Education in Farming Villages by 2007." Web users emotionally heralded the expectation that all children in China's farming villages would be able to attend school within three years! However, Nanfangzhoumo's journalists have investigated the matter and discovered that this information has been misunderstood by both the media and the general public. The Asia Development Bank reports that out of the world's 190 countries, 170 have already implemented free compulsory education. Even excluding developed countries, most countries in Asia, including Laos, Cambodia, Bengladesh, and Nepal (each of which has less than 1/3 of China's per capita GDP), have already implemented free compulsory education. Strictly from a probability analysis, China must possess the national power and financial ability to support such a system. The well-intentioned expectations behind the misunderstanding "These are their books, you can see they have very few. This one, entitled 'Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow,' is ten years old. How can our children learn what is yesterday, today, and tomorrow when they are reading books this old?" As Zhang Zhiyong displayed the pictures he took of the farming village primary school, the meeting room was veiled in silence. This official from the Shandong Education Department explained frankly that in the 16 years that he spent as an educator, he never actually visited the farming villages; he always visited city schools or central schools of farming villages-but these schools did not truly represent farming villages. Since last year when he started working at the Shandong Education Department, he has visited 100 schools at the county level and lower. "I looked painfully upon the reality of education in the farming villages." He stated that the educational problems that China's farming villages face are far grimmer than previously known, the challenges are much tougher than can be foreseen, and the tasks of reform and development should much more arduous than what is currently being done. [Remaining text untranslated] --Translated By Adrian Lu -------------------------- |