BEIJING, Aug. 5-- China has decided to grant one billion Yuan each year for national scholarship and grants scheme to help poor college students.

A college student in Sichuan Province gets his student loan card from the bank. China's Ministry of Education says the central government has decided to grant one billion yuan(123 million US dollars) each year for national scholarships and grants, beginning this year.

China Central Television quoted the ministry as saying the decision is part of their effort to help poor college students in China to finish their higher education.

According to the scheme, the assistance funds are to be divided into two groups.

One is called the assistance program that grants 150 yuan(about 19 US dollars) each month for each of the 530,000 poor recipient undergraduate students studying at public universities.

The other is called the merit-based scholarship for encouraging academic excellence. A total of 50,000 scholarships will be available from this program, offering 4000 yuan(approximately 500 US dollars) for each poor student, renewable on a yearly basis based on continued academic excellence.(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)