The Macheng education bureau bought 32,800 desks and chairs in March and June, aiming to cover all middle schools and some of the primary schools in the area.

About 3,000 sets were sent to Shunhe township, to boost supplies at three middle schools and at the Shunhe Central Primary School. The statement also announced a new investment worth 5 million yuan.

Xiang Mingxiu, the only teacher in the Changchong Primary School in Shunhe, said about a dozen sets of desks and chairs were delivered by local authorities to the school on Sunday.

Xiang recalled that her son, who now studies at a middle school in the city, also had to take his own desk when he went to primary school.

"I borrowed one for him from a relative," she said.

Yuan Guilin, a professor at Beijing Normal University, who is an expert on rural education, said the school supplies shortage is not a widespread problem in rural China.

"Only a few remote areas and villages are affected by this problem," Yuan said, adding that a shortage of school buildings and the safety conditions in existing schools are more pressing issues.

About the broadcaster:

Rosie Tuck is a copy editor at the China Daily website. She was born in New Zealand and graduated from Auckland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Communications studies majoring in journalism and television. In New Zealand she was working as a junior reporter for the New Zealand state broadcaster TVNZ. She is in Beijing on an Asia New Zealand Foundation grant, working as a journalist in the English news department at the China Daily website.

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