The school infrastructure in remote areas is increasingly improved. Photo shows students run on the playground at a primary school in Xiaobaishan town, Jilin province. (PHOTO: VCG)

By CHEN Chunyou

China has always stressed constructing a high-quality and balanced basic public education service system, and in the latest move, a guideline jointly released by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, has set 2027 as the deadline for achieving that goal.

The guideline pledges coordinated development of compulsory education between the eastern and western regions, and between urban and rural areas.

To narrow the educational gap, more resources will be allocated to the less developed regions in central and western China. They will be assisted to build campuses, hire teaching staff, and have teaching facilities as well as improved broadband coverage.

It will be ensured that the children of rural migrant workers who have moved to cities get enrolled in schools where their parents work and that all school-age children have equal access to compulsory education.

Left-behind children in rural areas — children whose parents have moved elsewhere in search of jobs, leaving them in care of relatives or others — orphans and those from impoverished families will be provided support ranging from accommodation and transportation to nutrition.

In addition, governments at all levels will improve the special education service mechanism for children with visual, hearing, speech and other physical disabilities as well as intellectual and mental challenges so that their basic learning and living needs are met.

In order to promote quality education in ethnic minority areas, teachers in developed regions will be encouraged to work periodically in less developed ones to strengthen the teaching conditions in these areas.