Rural students in the relatively backward western region are to get free education from next year, Xinhua reported yesterday.

The report quoted a document released after a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday as saying rural students from eastern and central regions would also get free schooling from 2007.

Students from poor rural families will get free textbooks and students who board will get subsidies to cover their expenses.

A survey conducted by the central committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy this year found that the average dropout rate in rural junior high schools was nearly 40 per cent.

Among the dropouts, 16.7 per cent had chosen to earn a living away from their home town, while 48.3 per cent had stayed at home to work as farmers. The Xinhua report added that funds would be guaranteed for school building maintenance and to make sure teachers were paid on time.

Beijing would share the cost of maintaining school buildings in western and central regions with local authorities, it said.

"Various localities and departments should give priority to the development of rural compulsory education and strive to address the problem of inadequate input to ensure sustained and healthy development of the sector," the report quoted the document as saying.

Teachers in rural schools have often found their salaries held back for months or years.

Experts blame the lack of a separate budget for education at the local level, with spending on schools being lost amid other government expenditure.

Education Ministry Deputy Director-General Lu Yugang last week said rural teachers were owed more than 10 billion yuan in back-pay up to last year.