Another Directive That Won't Be Carried Out

China Plans to Cut School Fees for Its Poorest Rural Students by Jim Yardley

China will begin eliminating rural school fees this year in response to growing criticism that the education system is increasingly corrupt and discriminates against poor rural students...

Recent studies show that an overwhelming percentage of government education spending is dedicated to cities, despite the fact that two-thirds of the 1.3 billion Chinese live in the countryside...

In February, a group of retired educational officials in Hunan Province published a broader, more blistering critique that detailed how the cost of supporting and building rural schools in Hunan fell largely on farmers who were already among the poorest members of society.

This critique, in China Youth Daily, said rural students were further disadvantaged because a growing number of high schools and universities were lowering standards for wealthier students whose parents could make cash payments for admission, leaving less room for poor students to be admitted on merit. In addition, many universities are required to admit quotas of local city students. At a time when China is annually increasing military spending and pouring money into infrastructure projects, spending on education has fallen below projections established by the government in 1993 and is below the international average of developing countries.

Mr. Wen's promise to eliminate school fees may ultimately be difficult to carry out in a country where changes announced by the central government are often circumvented locally. China already promises nine years of free compulsory education to all students. But faced with reduced government support, schools have attached a variety of special fees to make up for the lost revenues...

Hu Xingdou, a professor of governmental economics at Beijing Institute of Technology, said that Mr. Wen's new policy moved China in the right direction but added that the government needed to assume all costs of compulsory education and eliminate corrupt practices that gave preference to wealthy or politically connected families.

"The rural education system is on the verge of collapse," Mr. Hu said.

When the local officials don't follow this procedure, there is no way for the farmers to make them follow the rules. They can't vote them out of office, and the government interferes in court decisions, typically in favor of the local government.