My friend, a Swiss journalist posted in Beijing, enjoys going to small Chinese restaurants. Apart from the temptation of good food at low prices, another thing fascinates him seeing how the waiters and waitresses take his orders.

"Many of them are young people fresh from the countryside, and it's amazing that they write the names of the meals with such ease on their slip of paper," my friend said. "To me, the eradication of illiteracy is one of the most important accomplishments of the Chinese Government, having so many people to take care of."

In today's Internet age, it is tempting to forget about the issue of illiteracy, especially given the very tangible progress that has been achieved in this regard.

That should not escape our minds. The International Anti-Illiteracy Day, happening today, offers a precious opportunity to both celebrate past achievements and set out new goals.

The battle against illiteracy is not over yet in China.

According to the fifth national census completed in 2000, the illiteracy rate decreased to 6.72 per cent of the total population, a drastic change from the 80 per cent figure recorded in 1949 when the People's Republic of China was founded. But the absolute number of illiterate people stands at 85 million, and 90 per cent of them lived in the countryside where educational resources are very limited compared to urban areas. Reaching out to them is a challenging task.

Among school-age children, reportedly 99.1 per cent are attending school nowadays. The remaining 0.9 per cent, however, translates into around 1 million kids who could be the new illiterate generation in the making.

Take the southern province of Hainan as an example. It has around 1 million primary school-age children. Those who don't go to school at all and the dropouts amount to around 8,200.

At the same time, among the adults who were declared to have become literate after participating in government-sponsored illiteracy eradication programmes, 11 per cent are found to have become illiterate again. There are around 5,000 such people every year.

In a nutshell, around 13,200 of Hainan's residents every year can be counted as part of the illiterate group. The province has yet to solve the traditional problem of illiteracy eradication, much less the modern-day problem of computer illiteracy, the official local media reported. The same holds true for most of China's provinces and regions.

This is not to dampen the momentum and optimism from China's anti-illiteracy drive, which has attracted the government's significant support and investment. The western province of Qinghai is a telling example of how adversities can be overcome.

Not known for good infrastructure or economic development, this inland province has been committed to wiping out illiteracy, especially among women and minority people, many being farmers and herdsmen. In the four years leading to 2004, as many as 104,000 of its residents bid farewell to illiteracy. UNESCO awarded the province for this achievement last year.

UNESCO highly commended its measures of encouraging mutual learning assistance among residents and opening reading rooms, libraries, and school facilities to farmers and students' parents. If Qinghai can do it, there's no reason for other provinces to fail.

Qinghai's experiences should be spread to other parts of the country. Sadly, apart from some sporadic reports on Qinghai getting the award, there seems to be no efforts to promote Qinghai experiences.

Illiteracy is a result of poverty. But it has been a policy of many countries around the world that being too poor to attend school must not happen, and it is where the government must come in and foot the bill.

To say that access to compulsory education is a basic human right is not an overstatement. Compulsory education was effectively carried out in China in most of the four decades from the 1950s to 1980s, when children had almost free education. Then in the late 1980s, things seemed to take a downturn. Primary school became expensive, in cases even unaffordable, involving sundry fees. At least two groups of families are significantly affected: low-income farmers in landlocked areas and migrant workers in cities.

In a recent press congress, Vice-Minister of Education Zhang Baoqing admitted serious inadequacy of government investment in education. At the same time, he blamed local governments for randomly charging fees to shift the financial burden to the residents. Zhang made it clear that the government should be the major investor in all kinds of education, and brought the much-awaited news that compulsory education in the rural areas will be totally free in the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10).

With farmers taken care of, policies regarding the migrant workers in cities should also be rolled out soon. No one should be left out. Meanwhile, regarding the existing illiterate group, government investment and efforts must be sustained.

The eradication campaign faces two challenges. For one, some local governments show no long-term commitment. Some governments even bend the rules. It has been reported that people taking part in illiteracy eradication programmes were told not to take part in the final exams. Those who can read and write took the exams for them. In this way, the local governments have yet to show their achievements.

These, of course, have to be changed. Sporadic campaigns must be replaced by long-term commitment. One simple measure would be to put illiteracy eradication professionals on the government payroll. Moreover, a complete legal network should be set up to guide efforts at all levels.

Recently, the Argentina Government has enacted a plan called "My Computer" to eradicate the so-called digital illiteracy, using subsidies to allow residents to buy computers. China has to work hard to catch up. First, of course, by finishing the traditional task of illiteracy eradication.