Writethru-China Focus: China issues guideline for development of children, women over next decade

Writethru-China Focus: China issues guideline for development ofchildren, women over next decade

BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- China issued the Outline for theDevelopment of Chinese Children/Women (2011-2020) on Monday, vowingto expand coverage of high school education and crack down on sex-selective abortion for non-medical purposes in order to balance thegender ratio.

The outline, issued every ten years by the State Council, China'sCabinet, aims to boost children's physical and mental health, aswell as to narrow the development gap between urban and rural womenand children.

It said children's development faces challenges, such as a largegap between rural and urban children, rising birth defects, animbalanced gender ratio, inadequate pre-schooling resources, unevendevelopment of compulsory education in different regions, a lack ofprotection for poor children, orphans, abandoned babies, childrenwith disabilities, street children, and the difficulties stemmingfrom the growth in the number of migrant children.

In order to deal with these challenges, the document establishednew goals in the fields of health, education, welfare, socialenvironment and legal protection.

EXPANDING EDUCATIONAL COVERAGE

The outline said that enrollment rates for China's high schoolswill reach 90 percent over the next decade.

According to the outline, the enrollment rate reached 82.5percent as of the end of 2010, a result of the implementation of theprevious outline.

China's law states that each citizen is entitled to nine years offree compulsory education, which includes six years of primaryschooling and three years of junior high school education.

The outline said that China will accelerate educationaldevelopment in high schools by gradually boosting financialinvestment and aid to schools in its impoverished central andwestern regions.

It also vowed to ensure compulsory education for migrantchildren.

"The education of migrant children should be supervised by thegovernment in the children's current dwellings," it said, addingthat measures should be taken to ensure students attendmatriculation exams in the areas in which they are currently living.

The education of migrant children has often been ignored by localauthorities, as previous regulations only ensured their education intheir birthplaces.

Rural children whose parents have left their hometowns to work incities have also been promised access to rural boarding schools, theoutline said.

It also vowed to popularize preschool education and increase thenumber of public kindergartens in urban areas.

"About 95 percent of children should receive preschool educationone year ahead of primary schooling, while 70 percent of them shoulddo so three years ahead," the outline said.

The enrollment rate for preschool education was 56.6 percent asof the end of 2010, statistics showed.

The country has also pledged to step up efforts to improveeducation for ethnic minority children.

China will "vigorously promote bilingual education" for bothChinese and ethnic minority languages and "respect and safeguard therights of ethnic minority children to receive education in their ownlanguages," said the outline.

The country will also intensify its training of teachers inethnic minority areas while further enhancing educational supportfor developed regions and large- and medium-sized cities, it said.

SEX-SELECTIVE ABORTION CRACKDOWN

China is vowing to harshly crack down on sex-selective abortionfor non-medical purposes in order to balance the gender ratio in acountry that traditionally holds that male heirs can ensure theirfamilies' bloodline is preserved, according to the outline.

Efforts should made to "eliminate discrimination against girls"and continue promoting gender equity, it said.

"Using ultrasonic techniques to conduct non-medical sexdetermination" should be strictly prohibited, it said, adding thatthe economic and social status of rural families raising girlsshould be enhanced.

China has implemented family planning policies for about threedecades that have restricted urban couples to just one child, whileethnic minority families are permitted to have more children.

Although the country's population has been controlled, illegalsex-selective abortions thrived in many parts of the country untilthe government launched several crackdowns.

The outline also promised to reduce the country's infantmortality rate to below 10 per 1,000 by 2020.

SOUND LEGAL ENVIRONMENT

China has vowed to purify the Internet environment for childrenand provide guidance for their online activities in order to preventthem from addiction, the outline said.

It said China will "facilitate a healthy Internet environment forchildren" by providing free or low-priced public Internet accessexclusive to children, and applying special software to "filtrateaway harmful information."

The outline highlights efforts to crack down on illicit cyberbars in the next decade.

"Cyber bars should post notices that forbid minors fromentering," it said, adding that families and schools should guidechildren to use the Internet properly.

It also vowed to severely crack down on the rape, abduction andtrafficking of children and other violations of children's rightsover the next decade.

China will also take serious measures to combat offences such asthe organizing, coercing and deceiving of children into theft,begging and prostitution, it said.

"Children should be protected from any form of sexual assault,"the outline said, adding that a mechanism will be set up to protectchildren from violence-induced injuries and provide emergencerescue, treatment and counseling for injured children.

"Recruiting children under 16 is strictly prohibited andemployees between 16 and 18 should not be overworked or engaged indangerous operations," the outline said.

The outline also stressed gender equality, vowing to guaranteewomen's participation in politics.

"Local governments above the county level should employ morewomen in leadership positions to ensure the country's women areproperly represented in political affairs," the outline said.

It said the central government will continue to boost women'sparticipation in the management of state and social affairs,stressing that the number of female leaders should be graduallyincreased over the next decade.