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$1.3B earmarked for free textbooks for rural students
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-13 10:05

BEIJING -- China's Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday that it will spend 8.64 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) to give free textbooks to rural students this autumn.

This added the total free-textbook funds channeled from the central budget to 17.28 billion yuan this year, more than doubled compared with a year earlier, the ministry said.

The country kicked off the free textbook program in the autumn term of 2007. Free text books are for the compulsory education period -- six years of primary school and three years of middle school.

In rural areas, the program can save 90 yuan for each primary school student annually and 180 yuan for a middle school student, according to the ministry.

The program had helped about 150 million rural students in the country, according to statistics from the Ministry of Education.