SOLID FOUNDATION: As the first step of individual growth, elementary education is vital for the nation (XINHUA)

Allowance Questionable

When it comes to transport allowance for government officials, northeast China's Liaoyang, Liaoning Province, leads the way. Since April 2008, the mayor of Gongchangling District, under which the city falls, has been enjoying a transport allowance of 80, 000 yuan ($11,500) per year, which is the most given to any Chinese official.

The ongoing campaign to reduce the total number of government vehicles and their high operating expenses has seemingly become a financial windfall for some officials.

In most cases, officials themselves decide the allowance amount. The government neither makes the policymaking process transparent nor asks the public for feedback. Some officials argued that, as the reform had already helped slash expenditures on government vehicles, a transport allowance is completely reasonable and necessary.

Currently, China still has no universal model for the government vehicle reform, so different regions can set their own standards. But that does not necessarily mean local officials can do as they wish.

Procuratorial Daily

Imbalanced Education Structure

Since 1993, China has seen the number of its primary schools decreasing from 696,700 to 300,900 in 15 years, a sharp drop of 56.8 percent until 2008. In contrast, in 1990, the country's graduate schools recruited a total of almost 30,000 students, but in 2008 the number soared to 446,000. This is an embarrassing trend. If we allow it to continue, we will face terrible consequences.

The decrease in primary school students to some extent reflects social inequality. The children of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have no access to primary schools in cities where their parents work, because the high tuition fees there are beyond their families' means.

On the other hand, employers are complaining about the decline of postgraduate students' academic excellence, which should largely be blamed on higher learning institutions' overstretched capacities.

Primary education is the foundation of the whole education system, so it is necessary to ensure its coverage of all school-age children. The postgraduate education, however, is high-end and should be limited to a reasonable size. It's time to take actions to prevent the already imbalanced education structure from worsening.

Yangcheng Evening News

Behind Water Price

As many Chinese cities are now raising or planning to raise prices of tap water, the issue has found its way into many conversations among urban dwellers. In a hearing on water pricing in Lanzhou, northwest China's Gansu Province, an increase of between 0.3 yuan ($0.04) and 0.4 yuan ($0.06) per cubic meter was tabled. Local residents said they could accept a price adjustment, but they were skeptical about the report on the calculation of the end-user prices and production costs.

What the public needs is transparency of relevant information: How is the water price adjustment worked out? How much has the government invested in urban water supply system construction? Is it true that water suppliers are losing money because of unsustainably low sales prices?

If reasons behind the proposed water price hike are not made clear to the public, quite possibly, the additional income from the raised water prices will not be used properly, or may be embezzled by corrupt officials for personal benefits.

Water prices directly relate to people's daily life and any adjustment will also involve many interest groups, such as water suppliers and also the government. Pricing regulators need to be more careful in auditing water production costs and revealing to the public detailed statistics on proposed price adjustments, so as to eliminate public concern over possible water price fraud and boost the government's responsible image.

Qilu Evening News

Message in a Bottle

Due to growing security consciousness in Chinese society, spectators of large stadium events are usually barred from taking in their own bottles of water. However, once inside, they have no choice but to buy water and other drinks in designated shops for several times the market price.

Actually, there are many ways to solve the drinking water problem in large stadiums, such as offering everyone a bottle of water for free.

If stadium operators believe that a bottle of free water will eat into their income, they may choose to allow the spectators to take their own water. In order to ensure security, they may ask water carriers to take a sip of the water as it is done in Beijing's subway stations. In any case, water sold in stadiums should be offered at a reasonable price.

Many stadiums, such as the National Stadium in Beijing, also known as Bird's Nest, are operated as a business. The average daily operational expense of these stadiums is about 130,000 yuan ($20,000). It's understandable that they try to make money through hosting exhibitions, concerts and sports events, but it goes too far to sell expensive bottled water.

The Beijing News