CHINA: Higher education inaccessible to rural people

According to a report released by the Institute of Social Science Survey at Peking University, the proportion of rural residents in China with a bachelor degree is only 0.7%. The report has attracted the attention of a number of law makers who have been in Beijing attending the annual session of the National People's Congress, writes China.org. Their view is that the equitable distribution of education resources will be key to solving this problem.


The report points out that the household registration system has an obvious influence on levels of educational attainment. While the proportion of rural residents with a bachelor degree is only 0.7%, the figure for urban residents is 12.3%. Additionally, in urban areas 85 out of 100 people have received junior high schooling or above, in contrast to less than 20 in rural areas.

Early this year, when talking about education issues in rural areas, Premier Wen Jiabao said the ratio of rural students in colleges had been falling. "We need to give our attention to this problem. With social and economic development, rural people are getting wealthier, and their children should be getting more access to higher education. Obviously this is not the case at the moment," said Wen.
Full report on the China.org site