When describing the importance they attach to education, local officials like to say that no matter how financially constrained they are, they will never let education suffer.

But it seems there is a discrepancy between what some of them say and what some of them do when it comes to putting their money where their mouth is.

The central government's allocation of funds for free textbooks for rural students since the autumn of 2007 and its financial support for free lunches for rural poverty-stricken kids since last year have set good examples for local governments.