China Guarantees Education of Rural Students Moving to Cities

On March 7, Chinese Minister of Finance Xiao Jie and Assistant Minister Dai Bohua attended a news conference on China’s reform of the fiscal and taxation systems and financial work, on the sidelines of the ongoing legislative and political advisory meetings. During the press conference, Xiao emphasized that China has earmarked special funds for subsidizing the education of children who have followed their parents to move from rural areas to cities, regardless of whether they have permanent household registration in those cities.

The country has put in place a unified information system for primary and secondary school students, and the State Council has established a mechanism to ensure that funds are available for urban schools admitting students transferring from rural areas.

China has about 200 million rural people working in its cities, but the education of their children has become a major issue, since many schools in the urban areas cannot admit them due to their lack of a local permanent household registration.

Xiao said the country has provided special subsidies for those urban schools to receive these students, who are subsidized if they are boarders from poor families.