英闻天下——374 Advisors Urge Equal Educational Resources

 　　China's central government set the goal of increasing the country's educational expenditure¹ to 4 percent of the GDP 20 years ago.

 

　　This goal was finally reached in 2012, according to Finance Minister Xie Xuren at last year's national fiscal² work meeting.

 

　　Zhong Binglin, Chairman of Chinese Society of Education and a member of the country's top advisor³ body, believes the overall level of education in the country has improved in the past few years.

 

　　"China has universalized its fundamental education and popularized its higher education. There have been different degrees of improvement in conditions and internal systematic⁴ construction in schools in both rural and urban areas, from primary schools to high schools. And these schools started to treat personnel training as their central task."

 

　　However, there is still a serious lack of educational resources in some under-developed parts of China.

 

　　Tu Xue is Secretary-general of a volunteer organization called Our Free Sky, which is working to improve the education and well-being⁵ of children in rural areas.

 

　　He says an example of this is Sichuan Province.

 

　　"There are 164 schools, most of which have only one or two teachers. And those teachers are mainly substitute teachers. There's no electricity or roads to the schools, and you can only get drinking water from several kilometers away."

 

　　According to Zhong Binglin from Chinese Society of Education, the lack of facilities is much easier to improve as long as the government can guarantee educational investment in these areas.

 

　　But he says the investment increase cannot solve all the problems.

 

　　"In order to improve the educational level in western China, the key point lies in the team building of teachers—how to improve the ability and quality of existing teachers through in-service training. And we should improve the economic and social status of teachers to attract more excellent university and master graduates to teach in these less-developed areas."

 

　　The expert says that government support alone is not enough to solve the problem. More efforts are needed from various circles of society.

 

　　Former NBA star Yao Ming, a newly elected CPPCC member, is calling for the government to loosen its policy so that more NGOs can come to help.

 

　　"Many people are willing to help, but different kinds of regulations hinder their way. If the government can adopt more flexible policies, letting more NGOs play their roles in the problem, I believe the result would be better."

 

　　For CRI, I'm Qi Zhi.

1 expenditure   

n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗

参考例句：

• The entry of all expenditure is necessary.有必要把一切开支入账。
• The monthly expenditure of our family is four hundred dollars altogether.我们一家的开销每月共计四百元。

2 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

3 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

4 systematic   

adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的

参考例句：

• The way he works isn't very systematic.他的工作不是很有条理。
• The teacher made a systematic work of teaching.这个教师进行系统的教学工作。

5 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。