国内英语新闻:Drop-out rate at primary schools stable: ministry

BEIJING, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- The country's drop-out rate at elementary schools has been kept below one percent for more than a decade, according to the Chinese government.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) was responding to a report that claimed that the primary school drop-out rate last year rebounded to similar levels of those in the late 1990s.

However, a MOE statement Friday said, "In the past ten-plus years, our country's elementary school drop-out rate, although experiencing certain fluctuations, has remained below one percent -- the state control level."

The statement came after an NGO report, issued by the Beijing-based 21st Century Education Research Institute, stated that an average of 63 rural primary schools and three junior high schools disappeared each day between 2000 and 2010.

It claimed this was a result of excessive restructuring or merging in order for a fairer resource distribution.

The report claimed that the country's primary school drop-out rate in 2011 rebounded to 8.8 percent -- the same level in the late 1990s.

According to the ministry statement, the figure in the NGO report is not correct due to the researchers' lack of information on compulsory education coupled with outdated calculation methods.

The ministry noted that calculations used before 2006 did not take into account the increasingly strong population flow of students against the backdrop of fast urban construction.

Also, state-level departments resorted to electronic files of students as a more efficient supervision measure.

According to the ministry, the government's routine publication of the drop-out rate at elementary schools stopped after 2006 as the rate was kept below one percent. Also, the country's compulsory education drive shifted its focus from coverage expansion to boost quality.

Meanwhile, the ministry vowed to further regulate the distribution and restructuring of rural schools for compulsory education. This will be done through detailed admission guidelines for the nearest possible schools as well as improved financial support and school management.