Representatives attending a hearing on a draft plan for an
all-in-one education fee system for East China's Jiangsu
Province have questioned the raising of tuition fees for
nine-year compulsory education by 20 percent.
Nineteen representatives, including educationalists, officials,
students, their parents, members of the public and reporters,
attended the hearing last Friday in Nanjing, the provincial
capital.
The hearing was one of many being held across the nation on the
one-fee system for education which will be introduced this
autumn.
Ma Xinnian, director of the Finance Department of the Jiangsu
Provincial Education Bureau, announced the uniform tuition system
draft plan for primary school (six years) and junior secondary
school (three years) education.
Three kinds of fees would be charged according to a unified
standard, they are tuition fees, textbook fees and exercise book
fees, among which the maximum limit of tuition fees would increase
by 20 percent.
For example, the tuition fees for a junior secondary school
student in southern Jiangsu is currently 108 yuan (US$13) per term,
while the maximum listed in the plan is 130 yuan (US$15.7) per
term.
Besides the fees mentioned, there are another seven service fees
in the draft. Schools can charge these fees when they provide
services such as dormitories, health examinations, organizing
social activities and school uniforms.
The draft plan also said the textbook fee would fall through the
reform of the textbook publishing management system.
A special fund of 11 million yuan (US$1.33 million) will be
established to provide free textbooks to the province's
poverty-stricken students.
And blind, deaf and mute students will enjoy a partial or total
waiver of tuition fees and textbook fees, and a living
allowance.
"The rise in tuition fees is mainly a result of increased
educational costs and increased incomes over the past four years,"
said Ma.
Half of the 16 primary and junior secondary schools covered in a
2003 audit received insufficient income to cover their
expenses.
And teachers in some districts, due to local financial
constraints, are only able to receive their basic wage, but no
bonuses.
Dai Jiucai, an accountant at Tianyuan Accounting Firm, which
conducted the audit, told at the hearing that they had audited both
the education expenditure and income of 16 schools in Nanjing,
Yangzhou, Xuzhou and Wuxi.
He said decisions ought not to be based on the 2003 statistics,
as they only dealt with 16 schools in four cities.
"The tuition fee should not be raised simply because people's
incomes are increasing," said Sun Yimin, a parent representative
and a laid-off worker from Yancheng, "The rise violates the
original intention of one-fee system, which is to reduce the
parents' burden."
Guo Jincheng, a representative of the Jiangsu Provincial
Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference, thought the fee rise was understandable, but the 20
percent margin was too high.
"The price can be increased step by step, and finally reach this
markup in several years' time," he said.
Gong Liting, a businessman from Wuxi, suggested that developed
districts carry out a zero fee system.
"Jiangsu is an economically developed province which should have
the ability to cancel all of the fees for nine-year compulsory
education," he said.
Five school principals attended the hearing, all of whom pointed
to the problems resulting from their inadequate finances.
(China Daily August 16, 2004)