FOR Xiang Lian’e, a 29-year-old
　　farmer in Simudi Town in Ningshan County, Shaanxi Province, the best thing that happened in 2011 was the savings she made on her children’s education. In the fall semester, local kindergartens scrapped all charges other than for meals. Before, daycare for her two children cost her more than RMB 5,000 a year. Now the sum is barely over RMB 1,000. “I was overwhelmed when I heard the news, and called my husband, who works out of the town, straight away,” she said.
　　Such joy is well justified in an inland county where rural per capita income after tax is a meager RMB 3,800. The new policy made Ningshan the first underdeveloped region in China to provide 15 years of free schooling from preschool through to high school.
　　The Cost of Education
　　In Shaanxi Province’s oil-rich Wuqi County, the local government not only provides 15 years of free education to local children, but also sponsors free vocational training for adults under 45. Considering their different situations, however, Ningshan’s achievements in free education are perhaps more impressive.
　　Like many of China’s mountainous areas, Ningshan has weak local industry and its farmland has low yields. The absence of sufficient factory jobs and fertile soil sends most adults to cities to seek their fortune. Li Qiuning, 35, is among the few who have chosen to stay. “Even for those who have odd jobs in the city, tuition and fees are heavy burdens. The monthly wage is normally between RMB 1,000 and 2,000, while the schooling for two children can cost thousands of yuan,” Li said.
　　Li Qiuning grows mushrooms, which earned him some RMB 10,000 a year, higher than the yield of cereals but still not enough to support a family of six. His son starts preschool this year and the scrapping of school fees has saved Li almost RMB 2,000. As his daughter is already in primary school, which became free of charge as early as 1986, he no longer needs to set aside a large portion of his income for his children’s schooling.“The new policy makes my life much less stressful,” Li Qiuning commented. “The government made this move to benefit people like me.”
　　Sitting in the hinterland of the rolling Qinling Mountains in northwestern China, Ningshan, with a population of 74,000, is on the central government’s list of priority areas for poverty relief. In 2011, local farmers’ per capita income after tax was a paltry RMB 3,812, and the county’s revenue only RMB 30.75 million. Over RMB 1.2 million of that, or close to 40 percent, was earmarked for education, 12.5 percent higher than the national average.
　　At the time that Ningshan announced the new policy, there were 2,040 children in the area aged between three and six, including those who weren’t officially recognized as permanent residents. Their free pre-schooling costs a staggering RMB 2.4 million, equal to around three quarters of the county’s annual revenue, but this is just a fraction of what the county spends on education.
　　A strong People Makes a strong County
　　“Spending on schooling is the most rewarding investment you can make. To build a prosperous county, we must first cultivate capable citizens,” stressed Jiang Jun, head of the Ningshan education bureau. This attitude is well established here, and similar remarks can be seen emblazoned on billboards overlooking local highways.
　　In 2008, as the aftermath of the global financial crisis was felt across China, the weight of this truth was made clear as large numbers of low-skilled jobs were slashed, forcing a deluge of migrant workers home. A survey by the Ningshan government found that 80 percent of laid-off migrant workers had less than nine years of schooling, which was one of the reasons why they were among the first to be squeezed out of employment when the economy turned sour.
　　As a Chinese saying goes, it takes a decade to grow a big tree and a century to foster a good people, and Ningshan has been working hard for a quarter of that time. As early as the 1980s, when the Chinese economy had barely recovered from the devastation brought by political movements of previous decades, Ningshan was among the first areas in China to ensure safe buildings for every school, separate rooms for each class and desks and seats for each student — which may seem a humble goal today — as well as implement nine-year compulsory education and dig out back pay for teachers. In 2007 it developed a strategy of “rejuvenating Ningshan County through science and education,” improving the nutrition of and providing living subsidies for boarding school students in rural areas, abolishing tuition and fees for vocational, primary and middle schools, and making free breakfasts available to all schoolchildren by 2010.
　　The new strategy demanded a steep increase in spending, and in 2011 annual expenditure had reached more than RMB 70 million. To meet these costs and keep the projects going, the Ningshan government has had to tap every potential source of funding available. Up to 30 percent of local revenue, including that from the central, provincial and municipal governments, goes to education and connected projects every year, and Ningshan has been competing for private donations and funds from various state and public foundations. Meanwhile, the county has been promoting agritourism and eco-friendly mining and food industries. So far 15 tourism projects have been founded, with a total investment of RMB 7 billion, and in 2011 they were already adding several million yuan to local coffers.
　　As it has been searching for more and more sources of income, the county has also reined in government spending to spare every possible cent for its schools and students. According to Qi Zhixiang, chief of the Publicity Department, Ningshan has a full set of austerity rules covering the number and expenses of business trips taken by local officials, construction of office buildings and purchase of government cars. The county government is housed in what was a dormitory building in the 1990s, and they haven’t been refurbished for the past decade. “In Ningshan the most impressive buildings are all schools,” said Qi Zhixiang.
　　Opening Up Education, One Step at a Time
　　Penny-pinching policies have had pleasing results, helping the county find the hefty sums needed to fund its plans. Just two years before the recent introduction of free preschool education, Ningshan extended free education to 1,500 students in senior middle schools and 400 students in vocational secondary schools, three years longer than the national norm. This costs the local government RMB 4 million a year.
　　The policy changed the fate of many teenagers in the county. “I had just finished junior middle school with scores ranking the fifth across the county, and was aspiring to continue my studies all the way to college,” recalled Ding Wei, now a ninth grader. “But my parents said they couldn’t afford school fees for me and my brother any more, and told us to find work.”
　　The Dings live in a rural community 90 kilometers from downtown Ningshan. Here, the soil is poor, and there are no resources that can provide a decent living. The family of six subsists on the RMB 1,000 or so monthly wage earned by Ding Wei’s father, who is a migrant worker. Though constantly aware of the family’s poverty, it was still a devastating blow to the two sons when their mother announced the decision to have them drop out of school. “My mind went blank. My brother and I would certainly not be in school had high school tuition and fees not been scrapped,” he said.
　　As children of low-income families, the Ding brothers are entitled to student subsidies, which offer extra relief to the cash-strapped family. In the fall semester of 2010 Ding Wei brought less than RMB 10 to pay the school. The brothers are well aware of the difference education can bring, having seen it first hand.“The eldest son of my aunt didn’t finish his schooling, and now has to go from one manual laboring job to another. His younger brother graduated from medical school, and is now a doctor.”
　　A Model for the Future
　　The feat of a small underdeveloped county launching 15-year free education has been widely applauded across the country. It triggered off intensive discussion on the Internet on how Ningshan’s success can be replicated in other regions. “Most of the money comes from state finances,” explained Jiang Jun, chief of the county’s education bureau.“The increasing support for education given by the state made us confident we could push through the program for 15 years of free education.”
　　The program has brought instant and marked changes to local campuses. For instance, as many as 92 percent of junior middle school graduates now go on to senior middle school, in comparison with just 44.6 percent in 2007, and up to 98.7 percent finish all three years of senior middle school.
　　Enrollment of Ningshan’s primary schools has also increased significantly which should soon also be the case in counties across the nation. For the 12th Five-year Plan period (2011-2015) RMB 50 billion of the central budget has been earmarked for pre-school education in central and western provinces and the least developed regions in eastern China. The first national program to boost preschool education in the history of the PRC, it is estimated that it will lead to the building or renovation of 90,000 kindergartens all over China, expanding enrollment by at least five million. The central government has also set up a fund to subsidize pre-school education for children of migrant workers, and encourages public institutes and enterprises to run their own kindergartens.
　　China’s long-term goal for 2020 is to extend pre-schooling among children aged three to six, enhance teaching quality among primary and junior middle schools, and increase enrollment rates to 90 percent for senior middle school and to 40 percent for higher education. Meanwhile, adult education will be expanded, with the goal of raising the literacy rate among the young and middle-aged, providing professional training for half of the population in employment. Particular attention will be paid to education in areas with large population of ethnic minorities, and special education schools for the disabled children will be built.
　　It is a national consensus that future interests should never come second to present gains, and education has the power to shape the course of tomorrow. With government working tirelessly at every level, from the central government to counties like Ningshan, to expand the reach of education, students like Ding Wei and the country as a whole have a bright future.