Appendix 1: Calculation of Non-personnel Expenditure Standards
3.4 Study on the Boarding Student Living Costs
With the implementation of a new policy for boarding student living subsidies, the subsidy standard increased to 2 Yuan per primary school student per day and 3 Yuan per junior secondary school student per day; the central government will take 50 % of thefinancial responsibility. Much progress has been made in living sub- sidies for indigent boarding students. However, we are still not sure that such a subsidy standard can cover all of a boarding student’s living costs.
To set up a subsidy standard, we should get full information on boarding stu- dents’living costs. Thus, a study on boarding students’living costs is imperative. In general, the boarding students’ cost is comprised of three parts: food, dormitory, and transportation expenses. The dormitory fee consists of rent, water, electricity, and other relevant fees the student submitted to the school. In this section, we
estimate a boarding student’s living costs by two sets of data: a sample school student survey and a household survey.
3.4.1 Study Based on Sample School Student Data
We sampled a class of students at grade 5 in sample primary schools and a class of students at grade 2 in sample secondary schools. However, the proportion of boarding students to sample students is small. In order to make this study repre- sentative, we selected sample students in four sample counties where the proportion of boarding students in sample students was higher: Yongfu of Guangxi, Wuxue of Hubei, Ji’an of Zhejiang, and Mishan of Heilongjiang. The descriptive statistic results are shown in Table3.12. Both the average living cost per boarding student and its composition are presented.
The living cost for a primary school boarding student in Wuxue is 144 Yuan per month, which is the lowest. The living cost for a junior secondary school student in Wuxue is still the lowest, just reaching 176 Yuan per month. There are 10 months in one school year. Based on this, a primary school boarding student may pay at least 1440 Yuan for his or her living expenses and a junior secondary school student may spend 1760 Yuan on his or her living expenses in one school year. However, the new policy just supplies 2 Yuan per day or 500 Yuan per school year for a primary school indigent boarding student and 3 Yuan per day or 750 Yuan per school year for a junior secondary school indigent student. The living subsidy
Table 3.12 Living cost of boarding students in the four sample counties in Spring 2007 Primary school Junior secondary school Total Food Dorm Transport Total Food Dorm Transport Yongfu (farmer’s per-capital income in 2006: 3175 Yuan)
Average (Yuan per month)
153 135 10 8 194 156 21 17
Composition (%) 100 88.24 6.54 5.23 100 80.41 10.82 8.76 Wuxue (farmer’s per-capital income in 2006: 3401 Yuan)
Average (Yuan per month)
144 138 5 1 176 143 7 26
Composition (%) 100 95.83 3.47 0.69 100 81.25 3.98 14.77 Mishan (farmer’s per-capital income in 2006: 4273 Yuan)
Average (Yuan per month)
166 127 25 14 210 162 25 23
Composition (%) 100 76.51 15.06 8.43 100 77.14 11.09 10.95 Ji’an (farmer’s per-capital income in 2006: 8031 Yuan)
Average (Yuan per month)
147 119 19 9 262 208 36 18
Composition (%) 100 80.95 12.93 6.12 100 79.39 13.74 6.87
supplied by the government does not satisfy the true living expenses for a boarding student. There is still a big gap between the standard of the subsidy and the true cost of living. The standard of the subsidy should be improved to a higher level.
In next few years, dorm fees will be exempted. However poor student still are faced with high living costs. These students’ families also are faced with heavy financial burdens. The proportion of dorm costs to living costs is very low, how- ever, whereas the proportion of food costs to living costs is the highest. Although the dorm is free, the standard of living subsidy implemented now is still not enough.
3.4.2 Study Based on Household Survey Data in Rong ’ an, Guangxi
Table3.13 indicates that the primary school boarding student’s monthly average living cost is 123 Yuan, of which 74 % is for food, 20 % for dorm, and 6 % for transportation. At junior secondary school, the boarding student’s living cost averages 185 Yuan per month, consisting of 80 % for food, 12 % for dorm, and 8 % for transportation. The subsidy standard is 150 Yuan per year for both primary and junior secondary school boarding students from indigent families, which means that the yearly subsidy can roughly be a monthly living cost for a primary school
Table 3.13 Living cost of boarding students in Rong’an, Guangxi, in Spring 2007 (UnitYuan per month)
Primary school Junior secondary school
Total Food Dorm Transport Total Food Dorm Transport
123 91 25 7 185 148 21 15
Township
Yayao 188 113 62 12 273 214 42 17
Dajiang 176 143 8 26 196 158 20 17
Fushi – – – – 195 145 13 37
Tantou 76 67 8 0 93 80 9 4
Dongqi 88 85 3 0 115 104 7 5
Wealth index
0 59 55 4 0 140 115 17 8
1 85 71 11 2 169 138 13 18
2 144 91 48 6 173 135 21 17
3 145 115 18 12 189 148 23 17
4 242 135 83 24 201 168 24 9
Whether boarding student receives the subsidy
N 142 102 31 9 188 149 22 17
Y 61 53 7 1 155 114 26 15
Sample size
32 32 32 32 95 95 95 95
student, but not enough for a junior secondary school student to cover his or her monthly costs.
Table3.13 also shows that the higher the economic development level in the township is, the higher the boarding student’s living cost is. For instance, the average living cost in the most developed area, Yayao, is as more than twice that in the least developed areas of Tantou and Dongqi. In view of the relationship between the living cost and household economic condition, both primary school students and junior secondary school students have high living costs if their household wealth index is high. In addition, the living cost of the students receiving the subsidy is lower than the ones without the subsidy.
For primary school students, there is big difference in food, dorm, and transport expenses between the ones with the subsidy and the ones without. However, such a difference for junior secondary school students mainly presents only in food. We set up a multiple linear regression model for further analysis of the factors influencing the living cost of the boarding students. The dependent variables are monthly living costs of boarding students (unit: Yuan), such as total cost, food expenses, and transportation expenses. Explanatory variables are as follows:
Children gender: 1 for female and 0 for male
School type: 1 for junior secondary school and 0 for primary school Household economic capital: measured by wealth index
Household cultural capital: measured by householder’s education background, with 1 for grade 9 and above and 0 for under grade 9
Household social capital: measured by job of relatives. The bigger the value is, the stronger the household social capital is.
The distance from home to school: valued as 0 for a distance less than 1 km, 1 for a distance between 1 and 5 km, 2 for a distance between 5 and 10 km, 3 for a distance between 10 and 50 km, and 4 for a distance above 50 km.
The results of Table3.14show that the family’s economic condition has a great influence on the total living cost and food expense, but no significant relationship Table 3.14 Multiple linear regressions for living cost of boarding students at Rong’an, Guangxi, in spring 2007
Explanatory variable Total cost Food Transport
Children gender 36.27** 29.24** 28.97** 27.95** 4.18 3.15 School type 41.25** 27.99* 37.21** 37.15** 5.58** 1.38 Household economic
capital
15.95** 10.06* 11.18** 9.49** −1.80 −1.34 Household cultural capital 2.12 13.99 13.21* 16.54* −3.89 −3.99 Household social capital 11.28* −0.66 8.73** 5.35 2.14** 1.69* Distance from home to
school
21.02 2.33 15.97** 9.99 8.99** 6.08*
Township None Yes None Yes None Yes
Sample size 122 122 177 177 146 146
**p< 0.05;*p< 0.1
with the transportation fare. The food expense is higher for students from families with higher cultural background. The higher the household social capital is, the higher is the living cost for all items. The farther the travel distance from home to school is, the higher are the food and transport expenses. Additionally, all living cost items for junior secondary school students are higher than those of primary school students.