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China to increase education funding in 1996

BEIJING: China, trying to ensure all its 1.2 billion people receive a basic grounding the three Rs, will allocate 99.4 billion yuan ($12 billion) to develop education in 1996, Xinhua news agency said late on Saturday.

Education costs in 1995 were almost 88.8 billion yuan ($10.7 billion) last year, 14.9 percent up on 1994, it said.

Poverty-stricken regions would be allocated 300 million yuan ($36 million) more this year than last to promote compulsory education, Xinhua said.

China has in the past said 96 percent of the school-age population in developed areas and 66 percent in border regions and regions populated by ethnic minorities should have nine years of compulsory education by 1996.

Officials have complained that efforts to wipe out illiteracy are hampered by lack of money and that investment in education should be increased to four percent of Gross National Product, which in 1995 was 5.77 trillion yuan, by 2000.-Reuter