education by providing help to the children of poverty-stricken families. One is Project Hope launched by China Youth Foundation to help primary school dropouts in poor areas to resume study, and the other is Project Spring Bud launched by China Children's Foundation to help girls who have discontinued studies because of financial difficulty to attend school.

       By 1999, junior middle school education had been made universal in big and medium-sized cities and economically developed rural areas in China, primary school education in areas with 90 percent of the national population, and nine-year compulsory education in areas with 85 percent of the national population.