For seven years, pensioner Zhang Jingxuan has struggled to keep Zhang Jiuzhou, his 13-year-old grandson, in school, in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province. He and his wife earn 800 yuan ($107) a month, from which they have to pay at least 2,000 yuan a year for the tuition and other school fees of Zhang Jiuzhou, a student at the middle school affiliated to the Shaanxi No.10 Cotton Textile Factory, where he used to work. The couple were cheering when they heard that the central government promised to make free compulsory education universally available in both rural and urban areas from this autumn. The pledge was made in the government work report issued on Wednesday, a measure to promote fair education and discourage school dropouts. It came the year after the government implemented free compulsory education in rural areas. "I borrowed money from almost all my relatives before the fall semester starts,' says Mr. Zhang, 65, whose daughter divorced eight years ago, and went to live in the southern city of Shenzhen, leaving her son with her parents. "I did not know form whom I could borrow money for this fall semester,' says Mr. Zhang. "It's a really, really good news and I hope the measure will be implemented as soon as possible.' Wu Ni, director with the Education Development Research Department, of China National Institute for Educational Research, points out that Premier Wen Jiabao's government work report, which will be examined and discussed by NPC deputies before being approved, will have far-reaching significance. "Every child has the same access to education, and 'dropout' may become a term of the past,' says Mr. Wu. In the report, delivered at the First Session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), Mr. Wen said that this year the central government allocation for education would increase from last year's 107.6 billion yuan ($14.35 billion) to 156.2 billion yuan ($20.8 billion), and that local governments would increase their spending. Wang Xiaoshan, 35, a laid-off worker living in a government-subsidised residential quarter in western Beijing, said he and his wife had been worrying about the tuition fees for their six-year-old daughter who will go to school this fall. Mr. Wang and his wife earn 2,000 yuan a month in total; their daughter's one-semester tuition and miscellaneous fees were set to cost 600 yuan, a heavy burden. "China cannot modernise if education is not made universally available and if its quality is not improved,' said Premier Wen in the government work report. The government stopped collecting tuition and other school fees in rural areas last spring, benefiting 150 million students, including the 7.8 million from poor families. "This is another major measure for promoting the balanced development of compulsory education and equal access to education,' Mr. Wen said. Mr. Wu said the measure would reduce the economic burden of urban low-income families. "It's crucial that the government should monitor the fund allocating process, to ensure smooth implementation.'