A welcome move to bridge urban-rural education gap

Plan will see teachers' salaries rise and number of students in each class decline in countryside

China plans to establish a balanced compulsory education system in county seats and villages by 2020, especially by raising rural teachers' salaries and reducing the size of classes, says a notification issued by the State Council, China's Cabinet, on July 11.

The nine-year compulsory education starts from primary school and ends with middle school. By 2020, the gap between the quality of education in rural and urban areas will be drastically narrowed and teachers in rural schools will get the same salaries as their counterparts in county-level schools, says the notification.