North China's Shanxi province increased financial investment to provide solid support for basic education in 2020, according to an announcement from the Shanxi Provincial Department of Finance on April 12.

Over the past year, the department focused on basic education in poverty-stricken areas, allocating subsidies for students at schools in poverty-stricken counties. The subsidies are higher than Shanxi province's average subsidy amount. 

Starting from the spring semester of 2020, the benchmark quota of Shanxi's annual public expenditure for primary school and middle school students was raised by 50 yuan ($7.65). The living allowance given by the Shanxi Provincial Department of Finance to students from families with financial difficulties benefited 375,000 students. 

Shanxi also adjusted and improved its student nutrition subsidy policy, with 580,000 rural students benefiting from the policy. A total of 704,000 students from 2,266 schools in poverty-stricken areas in the province studied in school buildings renovated by Shanxi authorities. 

In addition, the province recruited 3,500 outstanding teachers for rural boarding schools and teaching sites in remote mountainous areas, subsidized 24,600 rural teachers and sent hundreds of volunteer teachers to rural areas in the past year.