The State Council approved a much-anticipated plan of education reform yesterday with Premier Wen Jiabao calling for the opening of a new chapter in Chinese education history, which promises more spending, equal access, improved quality and less corruption.
The development of education, ranging from pre-school to vocational education in rural areas, will be a priority in the country's overall development programme, according to the plan.
The National Middle- and Long-Term Education Development Blueprint was meant to set the tone for enhancing the country's education sector, which has long suffered from problems ranging from funding shortage to unbalanced development between rural and urban areas.
The blueprint sets the total budget for education at 4 per cent of gross domestic product by 2012, or a 0.52 percentage point increase from 2008. The world's average was 4.5 per cent in 2008.
The seemingly humble target was supposed to have been met in 2000 but local government decision-makers hesitated to spend on schooling.
The blueprint also pledges to narrow the educational gap between rural and urban areas by building more schools, providing more teachers and enrolling more high school graduates into college from rural, ethnic minority-dominated or less developed regions.