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For one year, her parents broke their backs in a field in North China's Hebei Province to see her through university. They managed most of her 5,400 yuan (US$692) a year tuition fees not only by tilling and harvesting the land, but also by borrowing money from friends.

 

But they can rest a bit now, for Jia Lina can be exempted from the fees under a new trial program to improve the standard of education in rural areas. "It will relieve the burden from my parents' shoulders," says the second-year student of Beijing Normal University (BNU) from Hengshui in Hebei.

 

Students in most universities in China spend an average of 10,000 yuan (US$1,280) a year, that is, nearly a year's average disposable income in the country's developed areas. To get the tuition fees waived, a student has to agree to work in a rural school for a minimum of three years after graduation.

 

Jia and thousands of other students like her will benefit from the free tuition program announced by Premier Wen Jiabao at the National People's Congress (NPC) annual session in March. The 100-million-yuan (US$12.8 million) scheme, to be put on trial in six teacher-training universities this year, comes with the express purpose of training more teachers for rural areas.

 

But students from rich and well-off families are not comfortable with the teaching-in-rural-school clause. And that's one of the reasons why the scheme has evoked mixed reactions.

 

Sun Xiaojiao, too, is a second-year BNU student. She says: "It really gives a chance to students from poor families, but I will not consider the waiver. I don't want to spend three years in a remote area because I couldn't bear the hardship. Anyway, my parents wouldn't allow me to do that." Many students like Sun shook their heads when asked if they would apply for the free tuition fee scheme.

 

But poorer students are ready to seize the opportunity with both hands and enjoy the challenge of teaching in rural schools. "I wanted to be a teacher so I chose BNU, and plan to work as a high school teacher in my hometown," Jia says. "Competition in Beijing is too fierce and I don't want to fight for a footing in such a choking crowd.

 

"Three of my six dormitory mates have the same plan. They will go back to their hometowns in the rural area. It's not that bad to work in the countryside as long as I can get a job and become a good teacher. It's just that our parents would be a little disappointed because they sent us away (to cities), hoping we could start a better life there."

 

Students who sign up for the scheme, however, can change their minds after graduation. They only have to pay back the tuition fees in full to walk out of the "contract", according to information available at the universities.

 

Critical voices

 

Deputy Minister of Education Yuan Guiren says details of the trial program will be published for further scrutiny.

 

Despite the absence of details, the scheme has been criticized for some other reasons, too.

 

"Why do teachers always enjoy 'super citizen' treatment?" asks Tengxun, one of China's growing band of netizens. "They are the only group in China to enjoy three months' paid holiday while many would consider themselves lucky if they can stay just a month away from work."

 

"The preferential policy only targets potential teachers in the six teaching schools. It is unfair for the students in other institutions," says Zhang Xinjian, deputy director of the Ministry of Culture's department of culture market. "The trial will need a huge amount of money as investment and should be carried out only after public hearings."

 

Many people have urged that the trial program be extended to local teacher-training schools to boost educational resources in rural areas where primary and middle schools are poorly staffed.

 

"Most graduates from the six elite universities are reluctant to go to the rural areas. It's more practical to carry out the policy in local teaching schools, which actually are the backbone of training teachers for the rural areas," BNU professor Lu Shanzhen said.

 

This might just be what the policymakers have anticipated. According to Finance Minister Jin Renqing, the program is expected to serve as a model for provincial governments to follow.

 

Education Minister Zhou Ji has said the move indeed aims to encourage more outstanding talents to choose teaching as a career. But some experts doubt whether it would prompt more students to enter teaching universities, though many high school students, whose families are poverty-stricken, say they would take teaching schools as a preferential choice.

 

"It could save 40,000 yuan (US$5,128) in four years -- a good choice as my family is poor, and to tell the truth, I really want to be a teacher," says Xie Yulin, a student in his final year at Yiling High School in Hubei Province.

 

As for Jia, whose younger sister will take the university entrance exam later this year, she says her family would not make her sister choose a teaching school against her will. "She has her own dream. People should not abandon their dreams simply because of this (fees waiver)."

 

Free education in teaching colleges had been in practice since the early 1900s. From the late 1990s, however, many teaching schools gradually started charging fees because of policy changes. At the same time, a growing number of graduates from the teacher-training schools began choosing non-teaching jobs after graduation.

 

The education sector has been under fire over the past decade for imbalances in rural-urban resources distribution, an exam-oriented teaching method, soaring tuition fees, recruitment expansion and deteriorating quality of teaching.

 

"Many graduates from teaching schools can't find a teaching job -- there are too many people to compete with," says 24-year-old Du Jun, who graduated from Leshan Normal College in Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

 

Du failed to find a teaching job in Leshan after he graduated last year, and is now working in Beijing as a salesman. "The training schools have been recruiting more and more students, but there are only a certain number of jobs. I hope the government could better study the supply and demand relationship," Du says.

 

Huang Chunchang, director of the Tourism and Environment College of Shaanxi Normal University, says China's huge population is a heavy burden and this situation can only be turned into an advantage by large-scale education. "It's necessary to increase university recruitment because many people are hoping to achieve higher education after graduating from high schools, and thus high-calibre teaching staff are important," he says.

 

But despite many opposing views on the government's new scheme, the move has been acclaimed as a step toward China raising its expenditure on education. Bi Cheng, a researcher with the Chinese National Institute for Educational Research, says: "The most impressive point in the new policy is that the government is finally playing its role in addressing the imbalances in rural-urban education resources distribution - it's a substantial and down-to-earth step in the government's efforts to achieve a fairer education system across the country."

 

(China Daily May 17, 2007)