BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- The Chinese government will not allow anyone to withhold or appropriate for other purpose the fund for rural compulsory education in the country, said a senior official of the Ministry of Education.

    The fund should not be used to pay debt or teachers' salary and subsidies, said Tian Shulan, who is in charge of discipline inspection, during an on-the-spot investigation into rural compulsory education in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, south China, on Wednesday.

    Governments at provincial, city and county levels are forbidden to reduce their financial input in rural education just because the central government has increased the financial support, said Tian, quoted by Thursday's Beijing News.

    Apart from charges on textbooks, notebooks and students' lodging, schools should no longer collect any other fees from students in their nine-year compulsory education period since the spring semester this year, the official said.

    During the 2006-2010 period, the Chinese government will implement free nine-year compulsory education step by step, and the first beneficiaries will be rural children from poverty-stricken families.

    Last December, the State Council, or China's Cabinet, issued a circular on ensuring the fund for rural compulsory education. Enditem