China acts to address education inequality

BEIJING - China will allocate more educational resources to rural schools and enhance the incomes of rural teachers in an effort to address educational inequality and reduce regional, rural-urban and inter-school education gaps.

A circular on the development of compulsory education issued Friday by the State Council, or China's cabinet, said quality educational resources should be shared by multiple schools and more academic exchanges and teacher training should be organized by advanced schools.

Internet access should be made available in more schools before the end of 2015 and every rural classroom should have multimedia teaching facilities, the circular said.

Local governments should improve dormitories and cafeterias at rural primary and middle schools, it said, adding that senior teachers working at urban schools will be required to have at least one year of rural teaching experience.

The circular said each township should have at least one junior high school in order to shorten students' commutes, and buses should be arranged for the students if public transportation is insufficient.

The circular also states that the average salaries of urban and rural teachers should not be lower than the average salaries of civil servants and should gradually rise.

"Those who have worked in rural areas, especially remote and border areas, should enjoy preferable policies," it said.