Importance of education

Whether China will reach its goal of spending 4 percent of its GDP on education by 2012 will depend on whether the central government can get its policy implemented to the letter at the local level.

The latest document issued by the State Council on Friday introduced new measures to meet the target set by the guidelines for education reform and development published last year. They include apportioning a larger share of local and central level taxes and 10 percent of revenue from land sales to education.

This is undoubtedly a significant move by the central government and is more than necessary given the fact the input for education dropped from 3.59 percent of GDP in 2009 to 3.57 percent in 2010.