Statistics from the educational authority of Henan, a province with the largest population in the country, shows that the number of school-age children has been decreasing since 1996. The number of primary school students in the province is expected to drop from 11.3 million in 2000 to 8.3 million in 2005.

Analysts have said that the dramatic cut in the number of newborns has made it possible for the nation to improve its educational services.

In early September when the autumn semester began, the educational department of Henan Province began to amalgamate primary schools whose enrollments were far below their projected number.

In the past, 70 to 80 students packed into one classroom was not an uncommon sight in Henan.

To meet the soaring demand for education, the province mapped out a school quota which required a middle school be placed in each area with a population of at least 15,000 and a primary school that served people living within a distance of 1.5 kilometers. As a result, by 2000, nearly 40,000 primary schools were scattered in the province's rural areas.

According to the figures collected in the nation's fifth census, 85 percent of the province's population had received schooling no lower than primary level in 2000, 16 percentage points higher than that in 1990.

Liu Junzhe, an expert on demography, said, "the positive effect of population control is telling on the country's juvenile education."

Nationwide, 85 percent of Chinese people had received the nine-year compulsory education by 2000, while some 99.1 percent of school aged children were enrolled.

Implemented in the 1970s, the family-planning policy, which advocates a one-child family, has effectively curbed the nation's rapid population growth. In the late 1990s, China began to witness a low birthrate, a low mortality and a low population growth rate.

In rural China where the family planning policy was hard to implement because most farmers habitually wanted to have as many children as possible, changes are now taking place.

Most farmers now prefer one well-educated child to many poorly educated kids. The size of a family perhaps does not matter as much as the nation's future development hinges more upon science and technology.

Qin Jinquan, a farmer who has seven siblings but only one son, said that he hopes his son can get into college.

Qin couldn't complete primary school when he was a child because there were too many kids waiting for support from his parents.

Specializing in the transportation business, Qin makes an annual income of more than 20,000 yuan (US$2,400).

Like many parents in rural China, Qin would like to invest as much as possible in his child's education, including employing a tutor or buying a musical instrument.

As rural China's education service constantly improves and farmers' education awareness gets stronger, experts believe that more talented people will be cultivated and the prosperity of China is just around the corner.

(Xinhua News Agency October 22, 2001)