Beijing has further expanded its policy for free compulsory education.
Starting from this year's autumn semester, students under the compulsory education stage in Beijing's eight downtown districts will no longer need to pay textbook fees. This follows the same policy being adopted for their fellow students in the rural areas and means that from September 2009, compulsory education will also be free in all of the city's urban and suburban districts.
At present, primary schools and junior middle schools in Beijing which belong to the compulsory education category are charging students from CNY90 to CNY120 each term for textbooks. From the autumn of this year, parents will no longer have to pay this fee on behalf of their children.
Beijing began the policy for free compulsory education in 2006 by exempting 300,000 students in the city's countryside from incidental expenses. In September 2007, it expanded the policy to students with a permanent Beijing residence, or hukou, in the city's eight downtown district public schools and exempted students in rural areas from paying textbook fees. In the autumn of 2008, the city canceled textbook fees for non-rural permanent resident card holders in primary and junior high schools of the countryside of 10 suburban districts and the countryside of the downtown districts of Chaoyang, Haidian, and Fengtai.
