8.5bn to improve 7,992 schools' conditions

North China's Shanxi province plans to invest 8.5 billion yuan ($1.37 billion) to improve the basic conditions of schools that are providing compulsory education in poor areas over the next five years.

According to the plan released by Shanxi Department of Education on June 9, 7,992 schools in the province's 98 counties and other county-level administrative regions will be covered in the project. With a fund of 8.5 billion yuan, it plans to build 2.15 million square meters of school buildings, purchase 14.8 million volumes of books, 286,000 computers and equip teaching devices worth 2.8 billion yuan as well as, desks, chairs and furniture in dorms.

The project's funds were sourced from central subsidy, which is estimated at 5.35 billion yuan from 2014 to 2018 and financial support at the provincial level of 1.07 billion yuan over five years, in addition to the supporting funds at county and municipal levels will be 2.08 billion yuan in total.

The project was designed to improve basic school conditions in rural areas and to promote the balanced development of compulsory education.