China made remarkable achievements in the promotion of fairness in education last year, according to the government's 2013 work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao at the opening ceremony of the 12th National People's Congress.

According to the report, the allocation of the government's educational resources prioritized rural, remote, poverty-stricken and ethnic-group areas.

Financial aid to poverty-stricken families for their children's education increased, with about 100 billion yuan ($16.07 billion) spent annually in financial aid for students from those families, benefiting about 80 million students.

Progress has also been made in terms of promoting equal education opportunities for the children of migrant workers.

The problem of providing compulsory education to the children of rural migrants working in cities was basically solved, with 12.6 million children with rural-residence status now receiving compulsory education in cities.

The government's education spending totaled 7.79 trillion yuan during the past five years, with an average annual increase rate of 21.58 percent to 4 percent of the nation's GDP in 2012, according to the report.

However, despite the achievements in the last five years, there is still a long way ahead to make the education system more equitable, such as bridging the gap between the quality of education in urban and rural areas, said Zhong Binglin, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and president of the Chinese Society of Education.

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