The principals of primary and middle schools caught charging students illegal fees will be removed from posts, Education Minister Zhou Ji vowed in a working conference on Thursday.

The stern warning is very timely, as the new school semester is just around the corner.

While we appreciate the sincerity of education authorities in addressing the problem, it remains to be seen whether the warning will actually be heeded.

The random and excessive fees often charged to students have long been the subject of fierce public condemnation. Although education authorities have repeatedly tried to crack down on such practices, they still run rampant.

A survey released late last month by a local company in Nanjing, in Jiangsu Province, indicated that along with such sectors as real estate, automobiles and telecommunications, primary and middle-school education were on the list of the 10 sectors in the province making exorbitant profits.

Jiangsu's situation might mirror the situation in the country as a whole.

Money paid for the "right to choose schools" constitutes the main part of charges that go beyond normal tuition fees.

The country's educational resources have yet to meet the demands of society. Worse than this, the resources that do exist are unevenly distributed, with a relatively small number of key schools having a disproportionate share of the most advanced teaching facilities and expertise.

Preying on parents' eagerness to have their children receive a better education, the key schools levy unjustified fees.

If the parents of students who are not eligible for key schools - due to their household residence registration for primary and junior middle-school, or failure of their children in entrance examinations for senior middle-schools - want to enroll their children in such key schools, they have to pay tens of times for the expenses.

The past 10 years have witnessed a steady climb in such extra charges.

While unfairly burdening the parents of such students, these charges also lead to inequality in educational opportunity.

To root out such excessive charges, the government should do more to bridge disparities among schools. The education watchdog recently put a ceiling on the number of unqualified students a key school can enroll and also put a cap on charges levied against such students.

But this is only a first step.

The amount of money collected from such charges is enormous and the key schools have long been free to use this money as they see fit. This practice should be changed: These fees should become part of local revenues and their use should be decided by local bodies.

And a good part of such funds should be allocated to schools which need to upgrade their facilities.

By managing these funds in this way, all schools, both key and ordinary, can achieve an even development, thus improving the overall quality of education in the country.

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