Students practice writing calligraphy at Hanjiawa Middle School in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Feb. 28, 2019. China's efforts to promote the "balanced development" of compulsory education, which usually means narrowing inter-regional, rural-urban or inter-school gaps in terms of education conditions and quality, has borne fruit, the Ministry of Education said Tuesday. According to the ministry, the balanced development of compulsory education has been achieved in 2,717 counties, representing 92.7 percent of counties across the country. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaofeng)