The Chinese government's effort to promote the education of girls in poverty-stricken areas has paid off, according to a recent symposium on education of girls held in northwest China city of Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

In 1998, 97 percent of school-age girls in 11 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in western China entered into schools, compared with 92 percent in 1990.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Chinese government sponsored an education program for girls in poverty-stricken areas in cooperation with the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the UN Children' Fund, the U.N. Development Program and the World Bank.

A three-year experimental program in 28 primary schools in 16 poverty-stricken counties in Ningxia, and the provinces of Guizhou, Gansu and Qinghai, has proved successful.

Now 93.6 percent of the school-age girls in the counties have enrolled in schools compared with 70.9 percent before the program started.