Vice premier urges education's role in poverty reduction

LANZHOU - Vice-Premier Liu Yandong Saturday called for enhancing education in underdeveloped areas amid efforts to fight poverty.

"Education is the fundamental way to stop the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Children living in poor areas must be ensured conditions to receive education and pursue their dreams," Liu said at a conference on poverty reduction held in northwest China's Gansu Province.

She called for improving school conditions in compulsory education, increasing the quantity and quality of teachers in rural areas and providing special care for left-behind children whose parents work away from their hometown.

"Children should receive fair and sound education at the beginning of their life," she said.

She also called for developing occupational education and providing students with economic assistance to help them enter higher schools and obtain employment.

China plans to lift all its poor rural population above the poverty line before 2020. At the end of last year, there were still 43 million rural people living in poverty.