With the central government identifying expansion of China's pool of human resources as a priority, the time was right for Education Minister Zhou Ji to share his views with the public.

While there's no shortage of opinions on whether China's economy is overheating, few think the development of education has been hot enough. For all the financial resources that can be employed for education, the majority of Chinese agree there should be more.

All Chinese citizens, from workers on ultra-modern production lines in the new development zones to those toiling on remote farms, count on education, both their own and their children's, for future increases in household welfare.

National leaders have repeatedly stressed that education is one of the keys to sustaining China's momentum of world-record economic progress.

Education authorities have also been candid, as Minister Zhou was yesterday, when they talk about the enormous opportunities and challenges they face, and the need for major adjustments of the system.

For all this awareness, however, there remains one problem that will not go away easily: meagre funding.

The inherent difficulty of funding education for a society of 1.3 billion can never be underestimated. And the problem is partly reflected from the complaint that surfaces from time to time about some schools trying to ask their students to pay for the services they are supposed to get for free.

The funding problem is particularly acute here, because education has traditionally been financed solely by government coffers.

In recent years, although not a small number of private schools have been set up, there's still much room for progress in mobilizing non-governmental resources. There are a few national foundations to raise donations, but their fund-raising activities have not been among the nation's most popular public relations campaigns. By-laws are enacted for co-operation with overseas entities in education projects, but successful examples are still few and far in between.

One of the important lessons from China's market-oriented economic reform is that something that was once the sole responsibility of the government can, given a proper arrangement, be shared by society and private investors.

Education is not entirely a business, and nine-year compulsory education is the constitutional right of every Chinese citizen. But education will see healthier growth if it can mobilize greater participation and support from society, from more widespread donations to more significant investment from non-governmental entities.

(China Daily January 7, 2004)