A Sino-British education project that has helped tens of
thousands of poor students return to school in northwest China's Gansu Province, has been extended for another
four years.
According to local education authorities, the Sino-British Basic
Education Program was first initiated in 1999 and funded by British
Department for International Development.
It helped increase the enrolment of school-aged children in four
underdeveloped minority-populated counties in Gansu and provided
training programs for local teachers.
Statistics released by Gansu Provincial Education Department
(GPED) show that the program helped reconstruct 190 schools and
furnished them with tables, chairs, books and teaching aids for
28,000 students.
Over the past six years, more than 70,000 primary and middle
school students have received a total of 6.36 million yuan (about
US$795,000) in financial support to help them resume their
education.
The project has led to a rise in enrolment from 70.85 percent
six years ago to 95.2 percent among the minority population in the
four target counties
The project has also carried out a series of training programs
for 40,000 teachers and 5,000 schoolmasters in the province. As
well, the project has compiled and published over 50 textbooks and
complementary reading material.
Gansu, home to a number of China's minority nationalities, is an
underdeveloped agricultural province in northwest China, where the
national nine-year compulsory education law has yet to be fully
enforced.
In early April, the Britain-funded education program was
extended and renamed the Sino-British Program to Popularize
Nine-year Compulsory Education in Gansu.
This program has received a grant totaling 6.25 million pounds
over four years and will extend its reach to 35 counties. Its goal
is to train some 70,000 teachers and 3,000 schoolmasters in
minority-populated and poverty-stricken mountainous areas.
(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2006)