Just before this year's Teachers' Day on September 10, top rural
teachers were invited to a symposium in Beijing. One of their
activities was to visit schools in the capital city. Yet several
representatives beat a retreat after visiting just one school.
A school headmaster from the hinterland of Qinghai
Province told reporters frankly: "We felt more upset while
visiting the school because there is too much of a difference and
probably we can never catch up with them."
This episode is telling enough to urge us to examine the state
of China's rural education.
China's rural education has progressed greatly in recent years.
The system of nine-year compulsory education has been popularized,
and illiteracy among young people has reduced greatly. A
county-township-village training system has been set up to promote
agricultural technology and adult education. Government input to
rural education also increased substantially to 99 billion yuan
(US$11.97 billion) in 2002 from the 43 billion yuan (US$5.2
billion) in 1997.
Yet rural education is still struggling.
The loss of teachers, increasing number of student drop-outs and
growing gap between urban and rural educational levels ... all
these problems can be summed up in one: lack of money for rural
education.
According to Liu Bing, former vice-minister of education, the
country's spending on education is increasing. Yet the expenditure
per capita for primary and middle schools has actually dropped
slightly since 1999.
By 2000, 85 per cent of the Chinese population were covered by
the nine-year compulsory education scheme. This goal was achieved
14 years after the law on compulsory education was introduced in
1986. It was achieved partly because funding for education was
raised through various channels, including collecting extra fees
from farmers.
But, looking back, the target was met at the cost of burdening
farmers, Liu said.
Then in 1999, tax-for-fee reform took place. It played an
important role in reducing the burdens on farmers but at the same
time undermined the fund-raising system for rural education.
County-level governments later took over the management of
personnel and finance for compulsory education in rural China.
Funds for rural education are co-sponsored by the central,
provincial, municipal and county-level governments.
According to a Xinhua News Agency report, by the end of May,
more than 98 per cent of county-level divisions had taken back the
task of managing teachers' salaries. Ninety-four per cent had taken
control of personnel management.
In 2002, the central government transferred 24.35 billion yuan
(US$2.94 billion) to local governments for rural education. This
money played a key role in guaranteeing salaries for rural
teachers. A special fund worth 9.58 billion yuan (US$1.16 billion)
has also been launched for compulsory education in the countryside.
Government spending on education has reached 3.41 per cent of the
gross domestic product.
But it still falls short of the needs of students. And the gap
between rural and urban education in China is widening.
This gap has far-reaching implications.
Underdeveloped education systems in rural areas constrains their
ability to upgrade the skills of rural labourers.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, there were 482
million rural labourers in 2001, accounting for 70 per cent of the
country's total labour force. Of them, 7.4 per cent were illiterate
or only partly literate, 31.1 per cent had received a primary
school education, and 49.3 per cent had a junior middle school
education. Only 12.2 per cent had a senior middle school or higher
education.
The low educational level of labourers in rural areas
undoubtedly affects the development of the rural economy and
national economy as a whole.
Statistics from the agricultural department show that technical
personnel only account for 0.71 per cent of rural labourers. There
is only one agricultural technician for every 467 hectares of land,
one forestry technician for every 1,258 hectares of forest, and one
veterinarian for every 7,000 head of livestock. As a result, around
70 per cent of technical advances cannot be popularized in rural
areas due to the lack of technical personnel.
The development of rural areas, where 64 per cent of the
country's total population live, is of vital importance to China's
modernization campaign. Yet without a well-educated labour force,
rural areas are unlikely to prosper.
Fortunately, the authorities have realized the importance of
rural education and are trying to improve the situation.
A national conference on rural education was held on September
19 and 20 to discuss the issue and come up with recommendations for
improvement.
Premier Wen Jiabao stressed at its opening ceremony that rural
education is a driving force in the building of a well-off society
in an all-round way.
The State Council issued its decision to strengthen rural
education after the conference, making it a priority for national
education policy.
It aims to meet the "two basic targets" of universal nine-year
compulsory education and eradication of illiteracy among young and
middle-aged people in the less-developed western regions in five
years. Promoting adult education among farmers to increase the
efficiency of agriculture and farmers' incomes is also
stressed.
The decision directs the State to divert central funding to
rural education. New poverty-relief funds from the central and
regional governments will be used to support educational causes in
poor rural areas.
The central and regional governments share responsibilities for
meeting the basic requirements of compulsory education in rural
areas. County governments are expected to do more to meet expenses
for compulsory education through increased central funding. New
increases in educational spending will mainly go to the rural
areas.
And a mechanism will be established to ensure that children of
poor rural families can go to school. By 2007, children of poor
families will all have access to free text books, accommodation
subsidies and be exempt from miscellaneous expenses.
All this news is really encouraging. And people can justifiably
expect that, given it has become a top priority of the central
government today, rural education will become much better
tomorrow.
?
(People's Daily October 9, 2003)