BEIJING, March 7 -- Education majors at East China Normal University will have their tuition fees and other living expenses covered during their undergraduate studies in return for spending several years teaching in the country's underdeveloped western region.

    Once the program begins this fall, education students won't have the option of paying tuition and staying in the city after graduation. They will be forced to take the subsidies and work in the west. Those who fail to teach in an underdeveloped area after graduation will be forced to pay back all of the money received as well as having a black mark added to their credit records, university officials said yesterday.

    The policy is part of a national scheme involving six universities around the country.

    "The purpose of this policy is clear - to encourage more elite young people to work as teachers," said university President Yu Lizhong, adding that a lack of qualified teachers has become the biggest barrier to the development of the country's education system.

    The university will cover all of the education and basic living expenses for four years of undergraduate study - about 50,000 yuan (6,250 U.S. dollars) - before sending education majors to teach in western regions.

    The central government will reimburse the school, university officials said.

    Currently, the university enrolls about 1,400 education majors a year, accounting for about 40 percent of the school's students.

    Yu said the university plans to double, and perhaps even triple, its admission quota for applicants from western parts of China.

    The policy seems more attractive to applicants from the west than high school students in Shanghai.

    "It sounds like a crazy policy," said high school student Star Zhang. "Almost everybody dreams of a well-paid job after four years of university, but education majors can only see a hard teaching life in the countryside."

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)