Box 10 Poverty Alleviation Through Education

Since the launch of the poverty alleviation campaign, poor areas have seen notable improvements in local education services. A total of 99.8% of China’s schools (including teaching centers) delivering compulsory education have met the basic requirements. The number of schools in poor areas that have been connected to the internet has increased greatly. All of China’s elementary and secondary schools (including teaching centers) have access to the internet, and 95.3% have been equipped with multimedia classrooms. There has been an overall improvement in the rural teaching force. Altogether 950,000 teachers have been recruited through the Special Post Program [for college graduates to be teachers in impoverished areas] and an equivalent of 17 million rural teachers in the central and western regions have received training through the National Training Program [for elementary and secondary school teachers, especially those in impoverished areas]. A total of 1.27 million teachers from more than 80,000 schools have benefitted from a program that gives special allowances to rural teachers in contiguous areas in extreme poverty. Altogether 190,000 rural teachers have been dispatched to support schools in remote poor areas and ethnic minority areas on the borders. A funding system covering preschool to postgraduate education has been established, offering assistance to an equivalent of 640 million people. A plan for improving nutrition for students in compulsory education has been introduced to cover 136,300 schools in 1,634 counties, benefitting 40 million students every year.