2011-03-28 15:51:59
Xinhua Web Editor: liuranran
Authorities of China's education, finance, and health sectors are working together to push forward the improvement of nutrition for students across the country, especially in rural areas of western China, an education official said Monday.
They are working on guidelines to push local authorities to pay more attention to the nutrition of students, Xu Mei, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Education, told a press conference.
Due to efforts from the central and local governments, the overall nutrition conditions of primary and junior middle school students have improved much, but it is still a "grave challenge" in underdeveloped rural areas, Xu said.
Some boarding schools have no dining halls, plus students' poor financial background all called for more attention from local authorities to improving nutrition of students, she said.
In China, the central government pays textbooks of primary and junior middle school students who are from poor families, while the local government offers food subsidies to those poor students living and studying at boarding schools.
Starting from autumn last year, a primary student from a poor background could receive an annual food subsidy of 750 yuan (around 114 U.S. dollars), and a junior middle school student could receive 1,000 yuan per year, Xu said.
Also, since 2007 China has initiated a national project to renovate buildings at junior middle schools in rural regions in the country's central and western parts.
Of the total 12 billion yuan invested in the project by central government, a quarter is arranged for the renovation of dining halls.
