China student aid development report 2017

3. Remarkable growth in funding

3.1 Funding totaling over 180 billion yuan

In 2017, more than 95.9 million students in preschool education, compulsory education, secondary vocational education, high school education and higher education received financial aid, marking an increase of over 4.64 million from the previous year (not including tuition exemptions, free textbooks and nutrition subsidies during compulsory education).

A total of 188.21 billion yuan was spent on subsidizing needy students in 2017, an increase of 19.34 billion yuan, or up 11.45 percent from the previous year. The amount of funding for student aid has maintained a rapid growth rate for the past 11 years.

Nearly 9.32 billion yuan was spent to subsidize about 8.9 million preschool children, an increase of 2.5 billion yuan, or up 36.7 percent, from the previous year. Some 17.91 billion yuan was allocated to boarding students in compulsory education, supporting around 16.05 million students, an increase of 1.4 billion yuan, or up 8.48 percent, from the previous year.

About 15.1 million students at secondary vocational schools received financial support totaling about 36.53 billion yuan, an increase of 3.32 billion yuan, or up 9.98 percent, from the previous year.

A total of 13.1 million regular high school students received financial subsidies, the sum of which reached 19.38 billion yuan, an increase of 2.63 billion yuan, or up 15.7 percent, from the previous year. Nearly 42.76 million college and university students were supported by subsidies totaling over 105.07 billion yuan, an increase of 9.49 billion yuan, or up 9.93 percent, from the previous year.

3.2 A total of 20.31 billion yuan spent on free textbooks

In 2017, 17.59 billion yuan was provided by financial departments at all levels for the national free textbook fund, benefiting 142 million students in compulsory education.

Some 14.93 billion yuan came from the central government and 2.66 billion yuan was from local governments. Local financial departments provided 2.72 billion yuan for the local free textbook fund, benefiting 83.04 million students in compulsory education.

3.3 Some 28.5 billion yuan spent on nutritional meal plans

In 2017, student nutritional meal plans were introduced in about 82,000 schools in 710 county-level pilot sites nationwide, including 19 army-supported farms, benefiting about 21 million rural students in compulsory education. Some 18.5 billion yuan of central government funding was provided for the meal plans (including national and local pilot sites). Pilot programs were developed in 886 counties in 29 provincial-level regions, covering about 59,000 schools, supporting about 16 million students. Around 10 billion yuan was provided by local financial departments.