China's central budget allocated 931.6 billion yuan (about $143.86 billion) worth of subsidies to support compulsory education during the 13th Five-Year-Plan period (2016-2020), according to data released by the Ministry of Finance on Thursday.
The subsidies were mainly used to accelerate the balanced development and the urban-rural integration of China's compulsory education sector, according to the ministry.
The country established the rural-urban integrated safeguard mechanism for the compulsory education fund, focusing on the rural side in 2016.
The central budget allocated 587.7 billion yuan (about $90.75 billion) of a fund to the mechanism during the period from 2016-2020 with an annual increase of 5.4 percent.
Data shows the mechanism waived tuition fees for over 154 million compulsory schooling students and granted them free textbooks in 2020. /CFP
In 2020 alone, the mechanism waived tuition fees for over 154 million compulsory schooling students and granted them free textbooks.
Students from over 25 million poor households received subsistence allowance, and nearly 14 million children of migrant workers also enjoyed free education and free textbooks, and the public funding benchmark per student can be transferred if they change schools.
More funds used in the central, western regions
During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, more than half of China's fiscal funds for compulsory education were used in the central and western regions.
It is noteworthy that more than 85 percent of the transfer payments for compulsory education from the central government budget were used to support the central and western regions, with priority given to old revolutionary base areas, border areas, ethnic minority areas and poor areas.
The central government also allocated billions of funds to support the overall improvement of school operation's basic conditions. /CFP
Better schools, healthier students
The central government also earmarked 163.9 billion yuan (about $25.31 billion) to low-performing compulsory schools in poverty-stricken areas to support the overall improvement of school operation's basic conditions.
Meanwhile, 103 billion yuan (about $15.91 billion) were allocated to the national pilot areas, and at the same time, ramping up rewards and subsidies in the areas and support the nutrition enhancement program for students receiving compulsory education in rural areas.
Recruiting more teachers for education in rural areas
Moreover, 37.9 billion yuan (about $5.85 billion) were granted to strengthen the implementation of the Special Teaching Post Project to recruit teachers for compulsory education in rural areas to improve the quality and structure of the rural teaching body.
The central government increased the recruitment plan for special post teachers for four consecutive years from 2017 to 2020, with the number of teachers recruited reaching 105,000 by 2020 and the number of teachers on special posts in central and western regions exceeding 270,000 by the end of 2020.
(Video edited by Hong Yaobin)