Wang Xinqiong, an NPC deputy and government official from a township in the southwest of China, said that the well-intentioned government attempt to widen education had brought her mixed feelings of happiness and concern. Since exemption of tuition fees in Sichuan, Wang's region, the province has experienced a sharp rise in enrollment of students at primary schools and junior secondary schools, which has led to overcrowding and a shortage of teachers. She said nearly 7,000 primary school and junior secondary school students could not return to campus at the beginning of the new semester in 2006 because of a shortage of classrooms.

The Chinese Government is taking measures to address the problem of strained school facilities and a shortage of qualified teachers in rural schools. Between 2006 and 2010, the central treasury has planned an investment of 10 billion yuan to upgrade facilities for rural junior secondary schools. To guarantee the supply of enough qualified teachers, this year's work report introduced a policy of offering free education to all students majoring in teaching at the six normal universities under the administration of the Ministry of Education, which are also the best normal universities in China. This could lead to the recovery of a tradition of free education for future teachers that was started in the 1940s and lasted for about five decades. President of Inner Mongolia University Xu Rigan said this policy would help the teaching profession to attract talented teachers from poor families, improving China's education quality as a whole.

For students from disadvantaged families, besides basic education the government is offering increased financial support to help them finish vocational and higher education. The Central Government is paying a fattening bill to establish state scholarships and stipends in senior high schools and vocational academies, expected to jump from 1.8 billion yuan in 2006 to 9.5 billion yuan in 2007 and 20 billion in 2008.

Social security breakthroughs

The total population of China will be covered by government-subsidized medical insurance by 2010, a goal that was unimaginable four years ago. Before pilot programs of a rural cooperative medical care system were initiated in 2003, China's 900 million farmers, about 70 percent of the total population, had mostly not been covered by medical insurance of any type and were unable to afford one-off payments for medication or medical treatment.

In the latest work report, Premier Wen Jiabao said that the government aims to enlarge the rural cooperative medical care system's coverage to more than 80 percent of counties throughout China during the year. In order to guarantee farmers quick and convenient access to medical resources, the Central Government has vowed to support the cause of maintaining at least one public hospital for each township and at least one public clinic for each village. The central treasury will provide subsidies to rural central and western regions of 20 yuan per person every year while offering subsidies to eastern regions according to necessity. In 2007, the total Central Government subsidy for medical care will be increased to 10.1 billion yuan from 4.3 billion yuan in 2006. The Central Government at the beginning of 2006 decided that basic coverage for rural residents would be realized by 2008.

Also introduced in the work report, this year will witness the creation of a new government-subsidized medical insurance program to cover urban residents who fall outside of the urban employee medical insurance plan. The new program, which will cover juveniles and adults out of the labor market among the urban population for the first time, will provide people with security against major diseases and offer government subsidies to disadvantaged groups.

Speaking at a press conference on March 11, Vice Minister of Labor and Social Security Liu Yongfu said the new medical scheme for urbanites would be put in place during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10). That means 2010 will be the deadline for the medical care coverage for the total population of China.

Another groundbreaking policy introduced in the work report was a plan to set up a minimum living allowance system for rural residents, for which the Central Government has earmarked funding of 3 billion yuan in 2007. Vice Minister of Civil Affairs Li Liguo said at a March 11 press conference that the system was expected to come into place in the first half of the year. A total of 30 million farmers are expected to benefit from the minimum living allowance system this year.