Premier wants more rural students at school to end poverty cycle

China will beef up efforts to cut the dropout rates of rural students and improve their college enrollment numbers to stop poverty from passing down to the next generation, according to the Government Work Report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang at the annual gathering of the top legislative body that opened Tuesday.

"We will launch an initiative to address school dropout rates and ensure attendance, and achieve clear reductions in rural student dropout rates in poor areas," he said.

Li added a quota system will also be used to boost attendance of rural students at top universities.

The move came as China aims to achieve its zero-poverty goal by the end of 2020.

To make sure that rural residents could enjoy living standards of moderate prosperity like their urban counterparts by then, the central government will continue to prioritize rural development and strengthen poverty relief and rural vitalization.

The central government will continue to see to it that the rural population have access to compulsory education, basic medical services and housing, Li said.

His office will also prioritize the relief efforts in China's most underdeveloped regions and the most vulnerable group, referring to the childless rural seniors and those with disabilities.

China had almost 100 million rural poor in 2012, when China ramped up the precision poverty relief that boost more targeted relief approaches.

As a result of the effort, the numbers of rural poor has fallen to around 16 million by the end of last year.