UNFADED GLORY: Visitors queue to enter the China Pavilion at the World Expo Park in Shanghai on December 1. After a month's closure and rearrangement, the China Pavilion at the World Expo, which concluded on October 31, reopened to the public (XINHUA)

Quality Kindergartens

Preschools are the "weakest" part of China's education system, according to the Chinese Government, which says it will generally improve the country's kindergartens to ensure a quality start for children.

A State Council document posted on Gov.cn on November 26 said the government will spend more money on building, restoring and expanding kindergartens to raise safety levels and meet increasing enrollment demands.

Acknowledging progress made so far, the State Council noted, "Generally speaking, preschools are still the weakest part of our country's education."

The State Council encouraged more favorable policies to promote communities, rural areas, and social organizations to establish and support kindergartens.

Affordable Health Care

The Chinese Government will alleviate the financial burden on individuals for medical treatment to ensure that by the end of 2015 they pay no more than 30 percent of the total cost of medical treatment, Vice Minister of Health Zhang Mao said recently in an interview with Xinhua News Agency.

The government has invested an "unprecedented" 500 billion yuan ($75.8 billion) in health care since the new round of medical reforms were launched in April last year, particularly helping grassroots medical institutions, Zhang added.

China pledged last year to invest 850 billion yuan ($128.8 billion) in the health care system over three years.

The proportion of government funding in the nation's health system increased from 17 percent in 2006 to 27 percent in 2009 while that coming from the individual dropped from 52 percent to 38 percent in the same period, according to the vice minister.

Campus Stampede

A stampede occurred in a primary school in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on November 29 when a girl bent down to pick up a lost shoe on a flight of stairs. The accident left more than 100 students injured.

The girl, Madina, 8, was knocked over and buried under dozens of children on the 1.5-meter-wide stairwell of the second floor of the four-storey building, Aytursun Metniyaz, head of Aksu No. 5 Primary School, told Xinhua.

Hundreds of other children behind her kept pushing, unaware of the accident, as they hurried to the playground at 11:55 a.m.

Madina was the most severely injured of the 41 children admitted to the No. 1 People's Hospital of Aksu. A total of 123 children were taken to the hospital.

Madina is still being treated in the intensive care unit, but is stable, according to hospital staff on December 1.

Improved Life

Living standards of disabled people in China have improved over the past year, according to a report released on December 1 by the China Disabled Persons' Federation.

The report is based on a survey conducted from April 1, 2009 to April 1, 2010 in about 32,645 disabled persons in 1,467 sample communities.

Annual disposable income per capita of disabled persons' families in cities and townships has increased by 9.2 percent from the previous year, reaching 9,365 yuan ($1,419), the report said.

Also, disposable income per capita of disabled persons' families in rural areas has increased to 4,739 yuan ($718), up by 16.6 percent.

Additionally, working age employment rates of disabled people with self-care abilities in urban and rural areas were 34 percent and 49.2 percent in 2010, the report said.