Wang Yuanyuan

    Shenzhen is considering extending its nine years of compulsory education to 15 to comprise three more years of both free preschool and free senior high school education, Guo Yurong, director of the Education Bureau, said at a Municipal People’s Congress meeting held last week.

    The city’s People’s Congress handed over a draft proposal last year, discussing the possibility of the plan. Guo said the government is now working on the financial analysis of the plan and when it will be put into effect is unknown.

    Both hukou and non-hukou students may enjoy the free education, said Guo.

    Last year, the city’s kindergartens enrolled 111,000 children and senior high schools 58,583 students, bureau statistics showed. That means if compulsory education were extended, it would cover an extra 170,000 students each year.

    Statistics also show the city’s budget for education in 2011 was 9.06 billion yuan (US$1.42 billion), accounting for 6 percent of total government expenditure, up 35.4 percent year-on-year.

    By the end of last year, the city had more than 1,700 schools from preschool institutions to senior high schools. The schools enrolled 1.36 million students.

    In August, poverty-stricken Ningshan county in Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province decided to extend compulsory education to 15 years, also from preschool until the end of senior high school.

    In Guangdong’s Shipai town, students do not need to pay any tuition fees from preschool to postgraduate studies, enjoying up to more than 20 years of free education.

    Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, a private, non-profit policy research body, lauded the government’s efforts.

    “Extending compulsory education is a good policy to relieve parents of heavy economic pressure and promote education equality for the whole society,” he said.

    The policy would not yet be introduced around the country because of limited educational resources and concerns among students who preferred to attend vocational school instead of compulsory senior high school.

    In China, all citizens must attend school for at least nine years, according to the law.