Ministry of Education: 135 Million Students Received Aid in 2018

The Ministry of Education released a report on financial aid to students across China in 2018. According to the report, with the joint efforts of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, the central authorities, and local governments at all levels, as well as schools at all levels, the national student financial assistance policy system has seen gradual improvement.

The report showed that in 2018, a total of 98.01 million students from preschool to university received government subsidies, up by 2.1 million from the previous year. In addition to this, another 37 million students had access to government-subsidized nutritious meals, making the total number of Chinese students who received aid by governments at all levels reach 135 million in the past year.

In 2018, governments at all levels granted close to RMB 130 billion (US $19.37 billion) to students across the nation, an increase of 6.56 percent over the previous year. During the nine-year compulsory education period, all the students were exempted from tuition fees, textbook fees, and other miscellaneous fees.

The report further mentioned that in 2019, the Ministry of Education will focus on promoting issuing financial aid in a targeted manner, strengthening standardized management and improving public knowledge of financial aid policies.