The Beijing municipal government has approved the earmark of 208 million Yuan (30.422704 million U.S. dollars) to narrow down the salary gap between teachers of compulsory education and civil servants, Beijing Morning Post reports Thursday.

The information was disclosed by Liu Limin, Director of Beijing municipal commission of education, on Wednesday.

The move is to ensure teachers engaged in compulsory education enjoy the same average salary as civil servants, as required in the newly-revised Compulsory Education Law. Beijing is expected to be the first city to implement the regulation.

According to the plan, 47 schools will be changed to public or privately-run institutions. So far, 26 schools under the system have finished being transformed.

Liu Limin said public schools will enroll more migrant workers' children. To avoid high educational fees in private kindergartens, the city government will increase the number of public kindergartens and improve their quality, he added.

(CRI September 18, 2008)