If the government breaks its monopoly in education, it will save a large amount of money and thus be able to spend its limited capital on the most urgent programs and also extend the free compulsory education to kindergartens or senior middle schools.

Liu Kemei (Changsha Evening News): Nowadays, it is hard to get rid of arbitrary fee charges in senior middle schools. Every time this is criticized, these schools argue that they are not covered by the compulsory education system. So, if the government extends compulsory education to senior middle schools, arbitrary fees can be better curbed.

Although the 12-year compulsory education scheme will not necessarily prevent all kinds of arbitrary charges, at least it will control them. Therefore, if we can realize 12-year compulsory education, it will greatly increase the equality of education.

First things first

Cao Lin (Chengdu Business Daily): Education equality is the foundation of all other social equality. A rational and healthy compulsory education system is one that covers people in every corner of this country. The current nine-year compulsory education system is not a casual decision. It is based on China's current national strength and the population's need for education for basic survival.

In order to realize this basic equality, the government's fiscal support should ensure that education spending per student must not be linked to the wealth of local areas. This demands the central budget play a leading role in providing education input. However, the current education system connects compulsory education closely to local fiscal revenue and leads to inequality at the starting line.

A rational education input system must be able to guide relatively developed regions to help backward regions, as compensation for the latter's supply of human resources to the former. This will also help improve migrant workers' education.

Though some economically developed regions in China have begun to experiment with 12-year compulsory education, they cannot justify the call for nationwide implementation. The country's current education input system depends too much on local fiscal revenue. As a result, developed regions have become very selfish. They only want to perfect their local compulsory education, never offering to help backward regions.

Xia Yucai (hlj.rednet.cn): Compulsory education is education that children are required by law to receive and governments are required by law to provide. China has achieved remarkable results in this cause since it adopted the nine-year compulsory education scheme. However, there are still many problems.

In less developed west China, compulsory education is said to cover only 60-70 percent of the local population. For example, in populous Guizhou Province in southwest China, the rate is only 40 percent.

Besides, while in some regions compulsory education is free of charge, in other regions students still have to pay. Since it is compulsory education, all tuition fees should be abolished, especially in remote areas, where high tuition charges deprive many children of access to education. Therefore, to propose the 12-year compulsory education scheme at this moment seems an inaccessible dream.

The length of compulsory education is based on a country's economic development level. China, still a developing economy, should not slavishly copy developed countries' education development mode. By now, China still has 27 counties that even cannot ensure nine-year compulsory education for local children, and the fiscal input in education is insufficient. That is to say, the time for 12-year compulsory education is not ripe yet.

Xiao Hua (Guangzhou Daily): Today, many children give up the opportunity to go to school due to the huge cost of education. In some places, even kindergartens charge more than 10,000 yuan ($1,430) a year and the tuition of prestigious senior middle schools is about the same amount. Once the high tuition is reduced, many students will not give up the precious opportunity of senior middle school education.

The high cost of education should be blamed on both lax regulation and insufficient government input. However, education is related to the nation's future and thus we must deal with this issue from a long-term perspective. We must send as many children into school as possible. The government must greatly increase its input in education and there must be strict regulation on the use of fiscal input. Never should we allow education to become a lucrative industry, instead of a public service. We know to extend compulsory education is an inevitable trend, but it needs time. Before we realize the 12-year compulsory education dream, we should first try to cut down the high tuition fees.