The Ministry of Education has said one of its crucial tasks this year is to try and raise the country's expenditure on education to 4 percent of GDP. But this is a disgrace because that figure should have been reached 10 years ago, says an article in Changjiang Daily. Excerpts:

The central government planned as early as 1993 to raise the expenditure on education to 4 percent of GDP by 2000. But the most the education sector has got was 3.48 percent of GDP in 2008.

The intractability of the issue has nothing to do with State funds or the willingness to solve it. The country's GDP has been growing every year and the government has always prioritized the development of education. The question is whether this priority is reflected in administrative practice and whether it can be measured?