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China's State Development and Reform
Commission on Sunday publicized a "blacklist" of eight schools, which were
accused of charging exorbitant tuition fees totaling some 22.7 million
yuan (nearly 3 million U.S. dollars). |
BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- China, a country that
traditionally prides itself on its education system, now faces an embarrassing
problem in providing a satisfactory standard of schooling for its people.
China's State Development and Reform Commission
(SDRC) on Sunday publicized a "blacklist" of eight schools, which were found to
be charging exorbitant tuition fees totaling some 22.7 million yuan (nearly 3
million U.S. dollars).
In fact, arbitrary fee collection by schools and
universities has become a major obstacle preventing students from medium and
low-income families from receiving education.
In recent years, Chinese families have found they are
paying much more than before for their children's education. In the early 1990s,
an ordinary university student in Beijing paid about 400 yuan per year, but now
the figure is ten times higher.
Many Chinese parents in rural areas cannot afford the
rocketing fees charged by schools and colleges, even forcing their children to
quit compulsory education, which ends at the graduation from junior middle
school in China.
For two years, the price of education has triggered
the most complaints from the public, followed by high charges in the medical
sector and soaring housing prices in the real estate sector, according to an
investigation by the SDRC on pricing complaints.
In the first seven months of 2005, about 23.8 percent
of the total pricing complaints concerned arbitrary fee collection by schools
and colleges, the SDRC said.
The standard fees for a student majoring in art and
design at China Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts was 9,000 yuan (1,100 U.S. dollars)
for last year, but one student paid 15,000 yuan. Over-charging by the university
totaled 5.59 million yuan last year.
To solve the social problem that aroused public anger
from as early as 2003, China has started to crack down on the arbitrary fees
collection in the education sector.
Last September some government departments including
the SDRC, the Ministry of Education and the National Audit Office took joint
measures, promising to fine schools and punish officials who set their own fees.
The SDRC says the punishment of these schools is
on-going and encourages people to report arbitrary fees collection through the
hot line "12358."
Standardizing tuition fees is one of the measures
China is taking to ease the expense of education, and exposing the offending
schools through the press acts as a major deterrent, insiders said.
Recently, Wu Guanzheng, a member of the Standing
Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central
Committee, once again urged schools to halt arbitrary fees collection in order
to safeguard the people's interests. Enditem | 
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