Editorials

Pioneering initiative

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-27 07:49

A small town in South China's Guangdong province has shown the way in education reform.

Shipai in Dongguan will provide education free of cost starting September to children right from the kindergarten level through college. This facility will be available to all of its 42,000 citizens holding residence permits.

The pioneering initiative may well stretch for some 25 years in the educational lifespan of a child, since the support promises to extend right up to the doctoral level.

The bold move is a step in the right direction.

Related readings:  Migrant kids will get education  Rural teaching in exchange for free tuition  Town offers 25-year free education  Every child gets equal education opportunity

Currently, China's nine-year compulsory education policy, launched in 1986, assures free education to all students over six years of age, up to secondary school level.

By extending that time frame to beyond college, local government officials in Shipai have shown uncharacteristic vision, and have correctly understood the vital role played by education in sustaining economic development.

The importance of an educated society cannot be overstated. Shipai has set a model worthy of emulation by its counterparts, and even bigger cities.

China faces few other pressing challenges than preparing its children to compete in a "flat" world. The far-sighted decisions leaders make about education in the coming years will shape our future for generations to come.

These reforms will not only help determine whether China's youth have the opportunity to fulfill their potential, but also whether the citizens will get a chance to build a better life.

More important, it will be key to determining whether we as a nation will continue to be the world's economic locomotive going forward.

(China Daily 05/27/2010 page8)