LHASA/CHENGDU, March 6 -- When registering for the new school semester last Sunday, Lhamo was surprised to find out she did not need to pay a penny.

Lhamo is a student at a senior middle school in Kangding county in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze in southwest China's Sichuan province. The new school semester should have cost about 1,000 yuan (162 U.S. dollars), a large amount for her family.

Authorities in Garze extended the reach of its free education project to cover around 10,000 additional students, at a cost of 20 million yuan.

In addition, kindergartens have been built to offer free education to kids in Garze.

"There were no kindergartens here in the past. Our kids used to just play. Now we have a beautiful, modern, free school. It was unimaginable before," said Leji, whose granddaughter studies at a local kindergarten in Luhuo County, Garze.

Katrug Yungdrung, head of the Garze Education Bureau, said parents are more willing to send their kids to school now and almost all the prefecture's schools are full.

China has a free nine-year compulsory education system, from the primary school level, but this has been extended to include kindergartens and senior middle schools in many ethnic minority regions.

In some underdeveloped areas, parents were reluctant to encourage their children to continue their education beyond the nine-year compulsory education.

The Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba began offering free education for 15 years in 2013, its kindergarten enrollment rate rose from 16 percent in 2010 to 81 percent last year.

"Education can address poverty," said Cai Cunming, an official with the Sichuan Education Department.

The province will strengthen the training of teachers to enhance education, said Cai.

The government-funded project also covers vocational schools, as education is regarded as an effective way for remote regions to develop.

Free senior middle school education is also in place in ethnic minority areas in northwest China's Gansu and Qinghai provinces, parts of the northern autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. The southern areas of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will also roll out the same policy.

Tibet started to offer free education for 15 years in 2012. Last year, the region invested more than 4 billion yuan in free education and subsidies for students.

The kindergarten enrollment rate reached 59 percent in Tibet last year, or a 7.3 percent increase year on year. The enrollment rates of primary, junior and senior middle schools were 99.6 percent, 98.6 percent and 73 percent, according to the Tibet Education Department.

In 2015, the region will increase investment in education, and build or renovate 237 kindergartens and 156 schools, said Ma Shengchang, director of the department.