Fund tries to keep talented students in hometown

A private fund has been set up in Guangdong province to grant 30 million yuan ($4.89 million) to students admitted to two of China’s top universities over the next seven years, Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Tuesday.

From 2015 to 2021, students that graduate from high schools in the city of Enping and will attend college at Peking University or Tsinghua University will each be given about 1 million yuan. The teachers who taught them from primary school through high school will also be awarded at least 600,000 yuan each.

The student recipients need to have been registered residents of Enping for at least five years and to have studied at a local high school for at least two years before taking the college entrance examination in Enping.

The fund, set up by Feng Huoling, who was born in the city and now lives in Macao, is to help alleviate the situation in which many top students prefer to study prior to college in other places where conditions and exam polices are better, rather than study in Enping.

A Beijing netizen going by the name of Tianyaluyuan0505 commented on the reward that it is good to encourage and award students for their outstanding grades, but granting such a large amount of money is not appropriate.

Another netizen from Enping said many children in the city do not like studying and plan to go abroad to work when they are older. The best students often go to other cities where they can enjoy more favorable education policies. The netizen hoped the fund would encourage more young students to stay in their hometown.

The Enping government also has an official fund, which distributes 6 million yuan to schools with good performances each year.

zhangyu1@chinadaily.com.cn