Full Text: Report on China's economic, social development plan(23)

10. We will comprehensively strengthen social development, and raise our capacity for providing public services and the level of public services.

1) We will accelerate the reform and development of education. We will further increase funding for education, and in 2012, government spending on education nationwide as a percentage of GDP will reach 4%, with education accounting for about 7% of investment funds from the central government budget. We will give preference to schools in the central and western regions, rural areas, remote areas, and ethnic minority areas, and to weak urban schools when allocating compulsory education resources. We will consolidate the progress in making compulsory education universally available, continue to implement the project to ensure the safety of primary and secondary school buildings, promote standardization of compulsory education schools, make rational development plans for boarding schools, and increase construction of dormitories for teachers at rural schools in remote and hardship areas. We will work to set up a sound school bus management system. We will establish a sound long-term mechanism for ensuring that rural students receiving compulsory education have nutritious food in their schools. We will improve the infrastructure for vocational education as well as operating conditions for senior secondary schools in counties of ethnic minority areas where the educational infrastructure is weak. We will promote the development of preschool education in rural areas; improve the special education system; implement the project to alleviate poverty through education in contiguous areas with particular difficulties; support colleges and universities in the central and western regions in improving their conditions; and work to make education more IT-based. In 2012, the retention rate of nine-year compulsory education will reach 91.8% and the gross enrollment ratio for senior secondary education will reach 85%. Plans call for enrolling 6.85 million undergraduate students and 584,000 graduate students in regular institutions of higher learning.

2) We will improve the system for medical and public health services. We will strengthen health emergency response and prevention and control of major diseases. We will speed up the development of the children's medical service system, the major disease prevention and control system, and the community-based medical and health service system; and carry out the basic and major public health service projects. We will continue to develop the population and family planning service system, make the free cervical cancer and breast cancer screenings available to a larger number of women in rural areas, and extend the pilot project of free pre-pregnancy checkups to cover 60% of the counties or county-level cities and districts nationwide. In 2012, we will allocate 23 billion yuan of investment funds from the central government budget to support the development of medical and health care. The number of hospital and clinic beds per 1,000 people will reach 3.72, up 6%, and the number of general practitioners per 10,000 people will reach 0.89.

3) We will promote the great development and flourishing of socialist culture. We will promote the development of the system of core socialist values; deepen reform of the cultural system; and vigorously develop nonprofit cultural programs and improve the public cultural service system covering both urban and rural areas. We will continue to implement key cultural projects that benefit the people, including the national cultural information resource sharing project and the project to extend radio and television coverage to all villages. We will launch the project to build prefecture-level libraries, cultural centers and museums. We will strengthen the protection of all forms of cultural and natural heritage; promote the flourishing of philosophy and the social sciences; and actively develop the press and publishing, radio and television, and literature and art. In 2012, radio and television coverage will reach 97.26% and 97.92% of the population, respectively. We will promote restructuring of cultural industries and innovation in cultural science and technology; vigorously carry forward the fine traditional culture of the Chinese nation; implement a number of major cultural industry projects; develop and expand traditional cultural industries; quickly foster new forms of cultural businesses; and promote integrated development of cultural and other industries. We will improve the public sports service system and elevate the level of recreational sports.