Target for 2020: No child left behind

As China steps up its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty through allocating more educational resources to poverty-stricken areas, the goal is for no child in China to be prevented from attending school because of poverty by 2020, the Ministry of Education said on Tuesday.

New educational funds, programs and policies will support places where extreme poverty persists - including the Tibet autonomous region, parts of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu - to help markedly elevate educational standards in rural China by 2020, according to a guideline published on the ministry's official website.

"The country will establish records on each child's education situation in these areas as the basis for targeted poverty alleviation through financial input and policy support," the guideline said.