Compulsory education for 150 million rural middle and primary school students will be free in the real sense when all miscellaneous fees are scrapped in rural schools nationwide starting this spring semester.

Rural families will save 140 yuan ($18) a year on the average for each child receiving free education.

But will every rural student be able to enjoy this benefit? Will every rural student get education of the same quality as before the fees are scrapped? Will rural teachers be paid what they are entitled to?

The Ministries of Education and Finance will jointly organize a team to check for possible problems in nine western and central provinces and autonomous regions, starting next month.

The central government will cover 80 percent of the expenses in underdeveloped western provinces and autonomous regions, and the remaining 20 percent will be locally financed. In the central regions, the central government will finance 60 percent, with the remaining 40 percent locally financed.

Misappropriation of education funds was found in South China's Guangdong Province when the miscellaneous fees were first scrapped there last year.

Some local education authorities withheld funds allocated by the central and provincial governments or put them to other uses rather than deliver them to the schools.

As a result, some schools were forced into even more difficult financial straits and some teachers were underpaid or unpaid.

Such irregularities or even corruption at local levels has undermined the policies of the central government.

The education and finance ministries' team is to make sure the policy is carried out to the letter.

Another important concern the team will examine is whether education conditions in rural schools are improved. This will be key in determining whether the central government policy is achieving its desired goal.

Along with the team's investigations, a mechanism needs to be established to stop local officials from diverting this vitally needed funding.

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