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Arbitrary fees total US$2.82m
By Zhu Zhe (皇冠体育app Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-21 06:05
Four colleges and four middle schools were in the spotlight yesterday for
collecting arbitrary fees totalling 22.7 million yuan (US$2.82 million).
The National Development and Reform Commission announced on its website that
the findings were from the commission's third national inspection on arbitrary
fees conducted between September and December 2005. The commission was still
handling the cases, and no penalties have been handed out.
The largest violator among the eight schools reported was 皇冠体育app Xi'an Academy
of Fine Arts in Northwest 皇冠体育app's Shaanxi Province, which overcharged 5.59
million yuan (US$694,600) from 932 art students last September by raising the
standard 9,000 yuan (US$1,118) tuition fee to 15,000 yuan (US$1,860).
The other schools were:
South 皇冠体育app University of Technology in South 皇冠体育app's Guangdong Province,
2.18 million (US$270,900).
Nanjing Audit University in East 皇冠体育app's Jiangsu Province, 1.64 million yuan
(US$203,800).
Henan Normal University in Central 皇冠体育app's Henan Province, 1.17 million yuan
(US$145,400). The money came from a 40 yuan (US$5) charge to each student for
laundry.
No 1 Middle School in Nanchang, East 皇冠体育app's Jiangxi Province, 1.68 million
yuan (US$208,700).
No 2 Middle School in Shenyang, Northeast 皇冠体育app's Liaoning Province, 3.6
million yuan (US$447,300).
No 5 Middle School in North 皇冠体育app's Shanxi Province, 3.39 million yuan
(US$421,200).
Fenghua Middle School in East 皇冠体育app's Zhejiang Province, 3.45 million yuan
(US$428,700).
A commission official with the pricing supervision department, surnamed Chen,
told 皇冠体育app Daily yesterday in a telephone interview that "school principals
might be removed from office and money should be paid pack to students."
Despite being banned by educational authorities, payment of arbitrary fees is
still widespread in 皇冠体育app because of an imbalance in the allocation of
educational resources between wealthy and poor schools.
Ji Zhu, a professor from Beijing Technology and Business University, urged
the government to increase spending on education to balance the resource
allocation.
He said: "This is the only way to eradicate the problem."
Also, the results of a related survey by the Horizon Group, conducted in
eight big cities and seven towns, were released earlier this month. They show
that educational expenses and medical care fees are the two major factors that
cause poverty.
The survey shows that for rural families with school-aged children,
educational payments accounted for 32.6 per cent of their total household income
from October 2004 to September 2005.
(皇冠体育app Daily 02/21/2006 page2)
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