BEIJING - A total of 500 million yuan ($79 million) out of China's lottery earnings has been used to financially support underprivileged high school students and teachers, new figures from the Ministry of Education show.

According to the ministry, 200 million yuan of lottery funds was pooled into the pilot "Zihui" program, providing 2,000 yuan each to 100,000 promising high school students from poor families in Yunnan, Guizhou, Gansu and Henan provinces in 2011.

Another pilot program named "Ligeng" has financially supported 30,000 poor high school teachers with 10,000 yuan each in seven provinces and regions including Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

Jointly carried out by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Finance, a third pilot program is being planned and will be fully implemented by the spring semester in 2012.

China has made unprecedented efforts to boost education at all levels in the past year, as the central government put in more than 30 billion yuan to financially support four million college students and 16 million occupational school students.

Since 2007, China has drawn 300 million yuan of lottery funds to support 300,000 poor senior high school students in 22 western and central provinces and regions.