Legislature studies practice of laws on labor contract, compulsory education

The third plenary session of the sixth session of the 11th Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress(NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on Dec. 25, 2008. Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the NPC, attended the session.(Chinese media Photo)
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BEIJING, Dec. 25 (Chinese media) -- The Standing Committee

of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, studied the

implementation of the Law on Labor Contract and the Law on Compulsory Education

Thursday at a plenary session.

The legislative session was

attended by Wu Bangguo, chairman of the NPC National Committee, and presided

over by Chen Zhili, vice chairwoman of the NPC Standing Committee.

Lu Yongxiang, vice chairman of the top legislature,

read a report at the session on the practice of the Law on Compulsory Education,

which was put into force in 1986 with an overall revision in 2006.

The top legislature checked the implementation of the

law in 2007 and 2008, respectively.

Over the past two years, Lu said, the law has entered

the stage of an overall popularization throughout the country as it has been

fully supported by the state finance and the policy of free compulsory education

has been achieved.

But there have been difficulties for the

implementation of the law in rural areas, including the lack of funds and

quality teachers and the existence of safety problems for school buildings and

management in the countryside.

Hua Jianmin, vice chairman of the NPC Standing

Committee, made a report on the implementation of the Law on Labor Contract,

which went into effect on Jan. 1, 2008. The top legislature checked the practice

of the law from mid-September to mid-October, he said.

According to Hua, the implementation of the new law

is good in general as the number of labor contracts signed has witnessed a

remarkable rise this year and the rights of transient workers from rural areas

have been better protected.

However, the practice of the law has met new problems

since October, when the impacts of the current global financial crisis spread

and the growth of world economy slowed down, he said.

Hua urged that more efforts should be made to

publicize the law, so as to better implement it and give greater attention to

the protection of laborers' rights.

At the session, the lawmakers also heard reports on

the handling of 462proposals and 6,279 pieces of suggestions, comments and

criticisms from NPC deputies during the First Session of the Eleventh NPC in

March 2008.

Meanwhile, the meeting heard reports on the

amendments of the Law on Earthquake Relief and the Patent Law. The NPC Law

Committee suggested that the top legislature approve the two amended laws.

It also heard a report on Wu's recent visit to five

African nations and the Commission of the African Union.