Closer scrutiny for education spending

The central government will keep spending on education at current levels while stepping up monitoring of how money is used, according to top government officials.

Government spending on education was 7.79 trillion yuan ($1.25 billion) over the past five years, with an average annual increase of 21.58 percent, or 4 percent of the nation's GDP in 2012.

This is according to the Government Work Report for 2013 delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao during the opening ceremony of the 12th National People's Congress on Tuesday.