NN37, May 2006
Special Theme on Education and Training out of Poverty? A Status Report
UNIVERSALIZING NINE-YEAR COMPULSORY EDUCATIONFOR POVERTY REDUCTION IN RURAL CHINA
By Zhang Tiedao, Zhao Minxia, Zhao Xueqin, Zhang Xi, Wang Yan, Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences, China
Lack of access to opportunities to acquire basic education leads to the human incapability to pursue both personal and national development goals and hence into a vicious cycle of poverty. Therefore, to provide an equitable education system for meeting the basic learning needs has been recognized as a basic human right for any empowerment endeavours for poverty reduction, promotion of productivity and sustainable development.China is the most populous developing nation with its majority residents dwelling in rural areas. According to the 2000 census, the rural population reached 810 million, 64% of the whole population. Over 80% of primary schools and 64% of lower secondary schools were set in rural areas. The poorer population was concentrated in rural areas due to the economic gap between rural and urban contexts. Therefore, the Government of China (GOC) has been committed to universalize nine-year compulsory education among school-aged children and to eliminate illiteracy among 15-45 youths and adults, known as ¡§Two Basics¡¨ as a major national priority strategy to upgrade human resource development for poverty alleviation and social development.
Since promulgation of the Law for Compulsory Education of the People¡¦s Republic of China (LCE) in 1986, China had achieved the national goal for ¡§Two Basics¡¨ by the year 2000. The national average years of schooling have been raised from less than five years in the early 1980s to above eight years by the end of 2002, three years of increase with a coverage of universal nine-year education extended from 40% to 91% of the populated areas and illiteracy rate for the 15-45 age cohort reduced from 10% in the early 1990s down to below 4.8% over the last decade. Consequently, the enrolment rates at primary and lower secondary levels have reached respectively 98.6% and 90% in 2002. The ¡§Two Basics¡¨ were achieved in 2598 counties, 90% of the total in the country.
Successful universal compulsory education has provided rural population with equal access to schooling and enabled the rural populace to acquire income-generation skills and to engage themselves in non-farming occupations and actively adapting to the rapid urbanization. As a result from integrated approaches including empowerment endeavours the poorer segment of the population in China was reduced continuously from 250 million in 1978 down to 80 million in 1995 and further down to 30 million by the end of 2000.
From an educational perspective China¡¦s lessons from its successful universal compulsory schooling for poverty reduction in rural areas are summarized as follows:
* Setting universalize compulsory education as a long-term national strategy for poverty alleviation and human resource development;
* Legitimizing the equitable distribution of basic education by law and formulating feasible plans and strategies for ¡§nine-year compulsory education¡¨, namely ¡§planning by region, implementing by phase and guiding by category¡¨, taking into account regional differences in economic development status;
* Strengthening government roles in education financing along with the economic improvement since 1980s. In 1980s the villages and rural community members were encouraged to support the schooling with financial, material contribution and physical labour when the economy of the state was less self-sufficient and the government could not ensure the equal distribution of the funding for schooling throughout the nation. Ever since 1990s, along with the economic reform, GOC, in partnership with the provincial and county governments, has accumulated an increasing financial reserve and begun to assume the primary role for provision of the schooling programme particularly in disadvantaged areas;
* Developing mechanisms to maintain an efficient operation of the nine-year compulsory education programme, such as national annual review meetings organized by governments at various levels to monitor progress and exchange successful experiences. A special inspection and reward system was developed to evaluate the government performance. Effective publicity of the programme and achievement has been maintained through the public media. Best practices of international community were introduced, such as project management expertise, monitoring and evaluation of children¡¦s learning, gender sensitivity, research-based project planning, implementation and dissemination of successful experiences;
* Promoting quality education as an approach to improve quality of compulsory education along with the quantitative expansion. The curriculum reform was launched in the middle of 1990s with an overriding paradigm shift from teacher/textbook-centre dominance to learner-centered practice. In this light the curriculum has been renewed, new textbooks reproduced and massive teacher training initiated. Besides, new approaches on assessment and examination are encouraged to motivate learning;
* Incorporating international expertise and funding support for promoting compulsory education in the rural context. China¡¦s efforts has been strengthened with strong support from international agencies including World Bank, UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, Asian Development Bank, DFID/UK, and many other overseas donor agencies. Jointly with various levels of governments, plenty of cooperative projects have been implemented for improvement of educational infrastructure, teacher training, curriculum and pedagogical renewal, educational quality upgrading, capacity building, management system reformation, and educational resources development;
* Sharing compulsory education commitment and best practices in the society through mass media to create a supportive social environment. National policies, regulations, progress of universal education and accumulated experiences were disseminated among all walks of life through various approaches to create a favourable atmosphere for rural education and thus to mobilize communities¡¦ support for promoting compulsory education.
The case study also makes an effort to report on the current problems, challenges and forthcoming trends in the national new initiative in achieving the quality universal basic education objective by the year 2007.