The distinction between modern and traditional-style schooling was an important one, for it coincided with and reinforced the urban-rural dichotomy. Traditional elementary schooling was diffused throughout the countryside and was not confined to towns and cities, although it was prevalent there. Another institution was the public elementary school inherited from the late imperial era, which was intended to serve children from poor families. In this manner, education in Republican China became more differentiated: The new Westernized learning was concentrated at the national and elite levels and in the cities, while the rural areas remained to a greater degree the preserve of traditional values and learning. The authority of the education bureaucracy was bypassed at the central as well as the local levels of the Border Region Education Department to an advisory capacity. The conference announced the new principles that would guide the education work plan drawn up to coordinate educational development with the first year of the 1st Five-Year Plan.