Special grants offered to poor students By Zhu Zhe (China Daily) Updated: 2005-08-30 06:12
A special State grant that totals 800 million yuan (US$98.77 million) every
year will be issued to poverty-stricken college students starting from next
month.
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Students of a village school in Central China's Hunan
Province are seen at class in this picture taken on April 4, 2005.
[newsphoto/file] | Officials from the Ministry of
Education added that children in rural China will start to enjoy a free
nine-year compulsory education before 2010.
The grant, allocated by the central government, is to help cover basic living
expenses for 533,000 poor students from public colleges. Each student will
receive a monthly subsidy of 150 yuan (US$18.52), said Zhang Baoqing,
vice-minister of education.
The regulation stipulates that any students who apply for the grant must come
from extremely poor families, and certificates of their family background issued
by the local authorities are needed.
The standards for determining exactly who qualifies vary from province to
province.
Ministry figures indicate that about 2.63 million college students in China
suffer from poverty, accounting for 19 per cent of the total 13.5 million
students. Among them, 1.22 million are categorized as "extremely poor" students.
Zhang stressed the central government's commitment to helping college
students from impoverished families. "We set up in 2002 a State scholarship that
annually gives out 200 million yuan (US$24.69 million) to poor students with
outstanding academic achievements," Zhang said, adding that 50,000 students
receive the scholarship every year.
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