The Ministry of Education: giving priority to tackling problems for children in impoverished rural areas
Original, GPIG, 03-23-2018
Despite the achievements, there still exist problems such as the high number of vulnerable children left behind in rural areas. Especially, under the long-term influence of the urban-rural dual structure, imbalance economic and social development between different regions and other structural factors, the development of rural children and the protection of their rights still face many challenges. Problems still exist in areas like the living security of impoverished rural children, the safety of left-behind children, fair education to migrant children, basic protection towards the disabled children and children enjoying the five guarantees, etc. As those problems exist, it will be difficult to realize both present and future poverty reduction targets.
At the end of 2013, the Chinese government published the latest policy document in the area of poverty reduction - “Opinions on Pushing Forward the Development-Oriented Poverty Reduction Work in Rural Areas by Way of Mechanism Innovation”. This discussed how to distinguish different impoverished groups (with children included) and analyze their characteristics and how to formulate more accurate poverty reduction policies and establish more targeted operating mechanism. In March 2014, Premier Li Keqiang made a commitment in the Report on the Work of the Government that, this year, we will lift more than ten million people out of poverty; we will continue to fight poverty and prevent poverty from being passed to future generations.
The Ministry of Education: giving priority to tackling problems related to food and nutrition for children in impoverished rural areas
Due to harsh natural conditions, family final difficulties, unique living habits, parents’ lack of knowledge on bringing children and parents’ ignorance of nutrition, rural children in impoverished families are often faced with problem such as not having meals on time and a monotonous dietary structure.
According to the investigation conducted by China Agricultural University in 2013 under the support of Oxfam Hong Kong, in 108 villages and towns from 62 impoverished counties, 43.9 percent of parents of guardian of children under three have little knowledge about pediatric diet and nutrition requirements and 53 percent of parents of children above four take no account of the nutrition value when preparing children’s food. According to a research of the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF), there are obvious urban-rural and regional differences in the nutritional status of children in China, and nutritional problems are especially prominent among children in impoverished rural areas. In 2010, 20 percent of children under five in poor areas of China suffered from growth retardation; the anemia prevalence rate among rural children between 6 months and 12 months is as high as 28.2 percent, and the anemia rate among children between 13 months and 24 months reaches 20.5 percent.
In an impoverished village in northwest Gansu, the 12-year-old sister and 11-year-old brother both studied in the village school. Both of them were short and small, thin and frail. They seemed to be one meter tall and not like the other children in the same age group. At the first glance, investigators mistakenly assumed that they were only seven or eight years old.
“Is there free lunch in school?”
“Not, but there is free breakfast.”
“So what do you have for breakfast?”
“Rice and steamed bun soup.”
“So you go back home for lunch?” the investigator was quite confused.
“No, we don’t have lunch; we only go back home in the evening for dinner.”
“Do you feel hungry without lunch?”
“No...” the little boy whispered.
The children’s mother made an explanation. The school was at the foot of the mountain and about seven kilometers away from them. The children’s father sent them to school every day before dawn. When they went to school, the breakfast was not prepared yet, but luckily the free breakfast in school started at about ten o’clock (residents there often have breakfast at ten o’clock). As the children had breakfast late, they didn’t bring lunch to school, so most children didn't have lunch to eat when the school didn’t provide lunch. As the family was poor, the sister and brother had no pocket money. These kids began to eat dinner after coming back home from school at about 4 o’clock. And both kids and adults ate only two meals a day. What children eat was the same as that of adults, and there was no extra money to prepare some nutritional food for them. Most of the time, the family ate potatoes, and sometimes their parents went to the valley to buy some vegetables. They also reared chickens that obsessionally laid eggs. And the eggs were mainly given to the children but the family could eat meat only on festivals.
On October 26, 2011, Wen Jiabao, premier of the State Council proposed at the executive meeting of the State Council, to launch nutrition improvement programs among rural students who were enrolled in compulsory education. It was suggested to launch this program from the 2011 fall semester and pilot programs should be first initiated in contiguous poverty-stricken regions. In pilot regions, subsidies for nutritional meals provided by central finance should be three yuan per student per day. Pilot programs should cover 26 million students in 680 counties and the central government should bear the cost which amounts to more than 16 billion yuan; at the same time, the central government encouraged poverty-stricken areas, ethnic minority areas, border areas and old revolutionary bases in particular as well as other areas to launch nutrition improvement pilot programs according to local conditions and the central government should render them rewards and subsidies; reconstruction project should be launched in rural primary and secondary schools, with the cafeteria as a key construction content, and dining conditions for students should be improved; living allowances for boarding students from impoverished families should be increased by one yuan per student per day, so that primary students could get 4 yuan per day and junior high school students five yuan per day and central finance should render the local government rewards and subsidies.
The implementation of the nutrition improvement plan for the rural compulsory-education students
In May 2013, at the press conference of the assessment results of the national nutrition improvement programs for rural students enrolled in compulsory education, Fufeng County in Shaanxi Province was rewarded as an advanced county to launch the national nutrition improvement program since it ranked among the twenty advanced counties. It is known that there are 37,500 rural students receiving compulsory education in its 126 schools in Fufeng. Since 2012 when the nutrition improvement pilot program for rural students at the stage of compulsory education was launched in the first batch of counties, it has successfully increased 280 million yuan to build 10 standardized primary and secondary schools with standardized cafeteria; invested 5.62 million to purchase disinfection cabins, sample refrigerators and install storage rooms for 116 schools; in addition to central government invested, provinces, cities and counties invested more than 2.62 million per year.
Based on the county’s actual conditions, Fufeng County gave out nutritional breakfast and nutritional lunch. That is to provide nutritional lunch with complete range of foods for schools with complete infrastructures and a large number of students and provide nutritional breakfast with bread and milk, eggs for schools with poor conditions and few students.
Original, GPIG, 03-23-2018
Despite the achievements, there still exist problems such as the high number of vulnerable children left behind in rural areas. Especially, under the long-term influence of the urban-rural dual structure, imbalance economic and social development between different regions and other structural factors, the development of rural children and the protection of their rights still face many challenges. Problems still exist in areas like the living security of impoverished rural children, the safety of left-behind children, fair education to migrant children, basic protection towards the disabled children and children enjoying the five guarantees, etc. As those problems exist, it will be difficult to realize both present and future poverty reduction targets.
At the end of 2013, the Chinese government published the latest policy document in the area of poverty reduction - “Opinions on Pushing Forward the Development-Oriented Poverty Reduction Work in Rural Areas by Way of Mechanism Innovation”. This discussed how to distinguish different impoverished groups (with children included) and analyze their characteristics and how to formulate more accurate poverty reduction policies and establish more targeted operating mechanism. In March 2014, Premier Li Keqiang made a commitment in the Report on the Work of the Government that, this year, we will lift more than ten million people out of poverty; we will continue to fight poverty and prevent poverty from being passed to future generations.
The Ministry of Education: giving priority to tackling problems related to food and nutrition for children in impoverished rural areas
Due to harsh natural conditions, family final difficulties, unique living habits, parents’ lack of knowledge on bringing children and parents’ ignorance of nutrition, rural children in impoverished families are often faced with problem such as not having meals on time and a monotonous dietary structure.
According to the investigation conducted by China Agricultural University in 2013 under the support of Oxfam Hong Kong, in 108 villages and towns from 62 impoverished counties, 43.9 percent of parents of guardian of children under three have little knowledge about pediatric diet and nutrition requirements and 53 percent of parents of children above four take no account of the nutrition value when preparing children’s food. According to a research of the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF), there are obvious urban-rural and regional differences in the nutritional status of children in China, and nutritional problems are especially prominent among children in impoverished rural areas. In 2010, 20 percent of children under five in poor areas of China suffered from growth retardation; the anemia prevalence rate among rural children between 6 months and 12 months is as high as 28.2 percent, and the anemia rate among children between 13 months and 24 months reaches 20.5 percent.
In an impoverished village in northwest Gansu, the 12-year-old sister and 11-year-old brother both studied in the village school. Both of them were short and small, thin and frail. They seemed to be one meter tall and not like the other children in the same age group. At the first glance, investigators mistakenly assumed that they were only seven or eight years old.
“Is there free lunch in school?”
“Not, but there is free breakfast.”
“So what do you have for breakfast?”
“Rice and steamed bun soup.”
“So you go back home for lunch?” the investigator was quite confused.
“No, we don’t have lunch; we only go back home in the evening for dinner.”
“Do you feel hungry without lunch?”
“No...” the little boy whispered.
The children’s mother made an explanation. The school was at the foot of the mountain and about seven kilometers away from them. The children’s father sent them to school every day before dawn. When they went to school, the breakfast was not prepared yet, but luckily the free breakfast in school started at about ten o’clock (residents there often have breakfast at ten o’clock). As the children had breakfast late, they didn’t bring lunch to school, so most children didn't have lunch to eat when the school didn’t provide lunch. As the family was poor, the sister and brother had no pocket money. These kids began to eat dinner after coming back home from school at about 4 o’clock. And both kids and adults ate only two meals a day. What children eat was the same as that of adults, and there was no extra money to prepare some nutritional food for them. Most of the time, the family ate potatoes, and sometimes their parents went to the valley to buy some vegetables. They also reared chickens that obsessionally laid eggs. And the eggs were mainly given to the children but the family could eat meat only on festivals.
On October 26, 2011, Wen Jiabao, premier of the State Council proposed at the executive meeting of the State Council, to launch nutrition improvement programs among rural students who were enrolled in compulsory education. It was suggested to launch this program from the 2011 fall semester and pilot programs should be first initiated in contiguous poverty-stricken regions. In pilot regions, subsidies for nutritional meals provided by central finance should be three yuan per student per day. Pilot programs should cover 26 million students in 680 counties and the central government should bear the cost which amounts to more than 16 billion yuan; at the same time, the central government encouraged poverty-stricken areas, ethnic minority areas, border areas and old revolutionary bases in particular as well as other areas to launch nutrition improvement pilot programs according to local conditions and the central government should render them rewards and subsidies; reconstruction project should be launched in rural primary and secondary schools, with the cafeteria as a key construction content, and dining conditions for students should be improved; living allowances for boarding students from impoverished families should be increased by one yuan per student per day, so that primary students could get 4 yuan per day and junior high school students five yuan per day and central finance should render the local government rewards and subsidies.
The implementation of the nutrition improvement plan for the rural compulsory-education students
In May 2013, at the press conference of the assessment results of the national nutrition improvement programs for rural students enrolled in compulsory education, Fufeng County in Shaanxi Province was rewarded as an advanced county to launch the national nutrition improvement program since it ranked among the twenty advanced counties. It is known that there are 37,500 rural students receiving compulsory education in its 126 schools in Fufeng. Since 2012 when the nutrition improvement pilot program for rural students at the stage of compulsory education was launched in the first batch of counties, it has successfully increased 280 million yuan to build 10 standardized primary and secondary schools with standardized cafeteria; invested 5.62 million to purchase disinfection cabins, sample refrigerators and install storage rooms for 116 schools; in addition to central government invested, provinces, cities and counties invested more than 2.62 million per year.
Based on the county’s actual conditions, Fufeng County gave out nutritional breakfast and nutritional lunch. That is to provide nutritional lunch with complete range of foods for schools with complete infrastructures and a large number of students and provide nutritional breakfast with bread and milk, eggs for schools with poor conditions and few students.
