Uneven funding to schools worries Chinese parents

BEIJING -- Chinese parents are concerned over uneven funding to primary and middle schools, according to a survey result released Thursday.

The survey, conducted by the China Youth Daily among 10,180 people, shows that 82.3 percent of the respondents think that evident differences in funding exist between primary and middle schools, and 62.9 percent agree that the differences are caused by the more government investment into key schools.

Tian, born after 1960s and living in a county in North China's Hebei province, said that teacher resources are unevenly divided between schools at county level and schools in villages.

"In village schools, the education is of poor quality and the enrollment quotas to a higher education are low," said Tian. "Students choose county-level schools as teachers in villages also need to do farm work," she added.

According to the survey, 62.9 percent of the respondents think that the government gives more money to key schools, and 62.3 percent suggest that the government offers more support to poor-performing schools.

Sun Junyang, associate professor with Beijing Normal University, said the policy of developing key schools has led poor-performing schools to do even worse.

Sun suggested that the government should allocate funds evenly and ensure relatively balanced teacher resources.