According to China Association of Poverty-Alleviation & Development (CAPAD), the Poverty Alleviation through Education Project of Private Universities in China, since its launch in September last year, has been developing quickly with a great breakthrough in key index.

Initiated by CAPAD and other organizations, the project plans to provide 20,000 scholarships with full waivers and partial waivers of tuition fees to poor students in over 100 private universities nationwide over the next four years, including diploma courses, non-diploma courses and vocational education.

The total amount of donations for the project has thus far reached 836 million yuan (US$108.16 million), with forty-eight private universities among the first batch of donators. This involvement marks nearly 50 percent of the four-year goal, with funds enough to sponsor up to 75,011 poor students, 3.75 times of the planned figure.

The project is expected to be an effective means to solve the financial difficulties of poor students in receiving diploma education and vocational training, so as to promote the process of building a new socialist countryside and constructing a socialist harmonious society, said Liu Xinyuan, President Assistant of CAPAD and the office director of the project.

So far, three vocational education bases, including Beifang Auto Education Group, Hainan Polytechnic School and Yishen Electronic (Dongguan) Poverty Alleviation and Education Center, have been set up, focusing on vocational training, with diploma education as a supplement, to encourage more private institutions to provide free training to poor students.

In addition, the association and the office of the project are expanding their undertaking through multiple channels, communicating with public institutions, social organizations, enterprises, and local governments and discussing potential cooperation on poverty alleviation through education.

Recently, the office of the project launched a number of joint ventures with the Beijing Foreign Studies University to bring advanced teaching methods and modern knowledge to the poverty-stricken areas so as to improve their teaching capabilities and the knowledge of the students.

Founded in June, 1993, CAPAD is a national organization under the guidance of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.

(China Development Gateway by Xu Lin April 14, 2007)