published report in efa website

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2008/ED/EFA/MRT/PI/82

Country profile prepared for the

Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2008

Education for All by 2015: will we make it?

China

country case study

Zhao Jing, Wenbin Hu2007

This profile was commissioned by the Education for All Global Monitoring Report as background

information to assist in drafting the 2008 report. It has not been edited by the team. The views

and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and should not be attributed to the

EFA Global Monitoring Report or to UNESCO. The profile can be cited with the following

reference: Country Profile commissioned for the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2008,

Education for All by 2015: will we make it? For further information, please contact

[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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EFA CASE STUDY: CHINA

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

China has the largest education population in the world. In the past decade the Chinesegovernment has made great efforts to achieve the 6 goals of EFA and great progress has

been made since the Dakar Action Plan. The enrolment rates of primary school and junior middle school students have increased; the differentials in primary schoolenrolment between genders have been reduced; the adult literacy rate has increased and

the illiteracy rate among young and middle-age groups has decreased significantly.

However, there is still a huge gap between eastern and western China in terms ofeconomic, social and cultural as well as educational development. There are many

significant challenges for the Chinese government to reach the goal of education equality.

After 2003, the Chinese government prioritised universal compulsory education in

western areas and the elimination of illiteracy as the national education strategy, andinitially set up a strategic plan for the first 20 years of the 21st century which covered all

EFA aspects. There have also been some notable policy drives on national level since2000, including revising Compulsory Education Law, reforming the finance system of

compulsory education, and implementing the National New Curriculum.

The key dimensions of disparity and barriers to education in China are poverty, gender,social exclusion, people with disabilities and children in exceptionally difficult

circumstances. Some of the children may well match two or three dimensions and they

suffer from social exclusion even more. To promote education equity, the Chinesegovernment set up a series of strategies, including reforming the central rural education

finance system, providing more funds for scholarships, building new school buildings,and providing ICT support in rural areas all of which have helped to reduce the educationburden of rural families. However, most of the governments policies and programmes

are mainly targeted at poverty and many disadvantaged groups in other categories have

not been targeted or only targeted in a very tangential way.

With regard to promoting good quality schooling in hard-to-reach areas, the Chinese

government has developed several policies aimed at raising teachers qualifications and

providing more teachers in remote areas, improving the capacity of teacher traininginstitutions at county level and improving teaching and management quality. Bilingual

education is encouraged in minority areas and special programmes are targeted at the

illiterate especially in poor areas, minority areas and for illiterate women. However, ifthere are not enough funds to translate policies into reality, or no practical guidance to

solve problems raised during the implementation or policy, or no monitoring system to

review the progress and adjust policy, many good policies would only be effective onpaper.

In conclusion, from the viewpoint of national strategy, China has put education as the

highest priority among all the priorities. The current premiership has taken many

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actions and tried to give higher preference to rural education. However, there are stillmany challenges ahead if China is to fully achieve EFA goals. For example, how to

monitor the funds used in an efficient way is a great challenge to the national

government ; how to identify the different groups of disadvantaged people ; how to havespecial strategies to target their needs ; how to set up a good EMIS to have more accurate

data for EFA and how to improve the teaching quality in rural, etc. all need to beexplored by policy makers.

2. INTRODUCTION

This is a report for the 2008 GMR, on progress towards EFA in China. It will form part

of a synthesis of case studies of selected countries ofEast/Southeast Asia, at the mid

term point between Dakar and the target date of 20151.

The GMR 2008 will provide a global stock-taking of efforts for the achievement of EFA,

with an emphasis on Reaching the Unreached. Given its focus on all the EFA goals,the 2008 Report will be a general and non-themed report. In addition to emphasising

effective country efforts and educational policies, the report will also highlight countries

that are off track with regards to the achievement of the EFA goals.

The main purposes of the 2008 GMR are to:

Provide a detailed mapping of progress towards the achievement of all the EFAgoals since they were agreed at Dakar. This will identify where the challenges are

greatest and where more effort is needed.

Critically examine the efforts of government, international agencies, donors, and

civil society with regards to the achievement of the six goals. It will highlightpositive examples of progress and point out what more needs to and can be done,

if the goal of providing education for all by 2015 is to be realised, particularly forcountries off track.

Identify and elaborate on the strategies and actions required by all EFAstakeholders to accelerate progress, this based on the assessment of the extent to

which the EFA goals can be achieved by 2015.

The study has been primarily a desk study, based on secondary data and documented

information. However, some use was made of informal interviewing and discussions tofurther explore particular issues and perceptions.

The study focuses on analysing and exploring why some policies and programmes workand why some do not, with a particular emphasis on the needs of marginalised and

vulnerable children, youth and adults. The aims are to give an account of progress, and

1 The synthesis report will cover separate studies for China, Vietnam and the Philippines, adding data from

Cambodia and, to a lesser extent, Indonesia and other countries in the region.

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to explore the challenges faced, and to relate these to the wider socio-economic andpolitical context.

3. BACKGROUND

China has the worlds largest population - over 1.3 billion. About 57% of the population

live in rural areas. Over 20% of the population are under 14 years old. The adult illiterate

population was 85.07 million by 2005, or 6.72%2, a decrease from15.88% in 1990.

There is a rich diversity among ethnic groups and 55 minorities are legally acknowledged

by the government. But, in comparison to the majority Han, 90.56% of the totalpopulation, minorities account for only 9.44% in total3 . This is despite the fact that

minority groups have a more flexible policy on birth control and their populations have

increased much faster than the Han majority (Han population increased by 2.03% andminority population increased by 15.88%, when compared to the statistical data in 2001) 4.

One outstanding characteristic of China is the huge gap between eastern and westernChina, as well as the urban and the rural areas, in terms of the development of the

economy, society and educational standards. For example, in 2006 the GDP in Shanghai,

the richest city in China, was about 7,000 USD but was only 700 USD in Tibet. InBeijing, the investment for building a public primary school might be as much as 80

million RMB (about 10 million USD) while in western rural areas this amount could

build 400 schools ! This is a real case which vividly illustrates the huge differences

between the urban schools in most rich cities and the rural schools in poor areas.

In China, children go to school at 6 to 7 years old, which is the starting point of the nine-year compulsory education normally it consists of 5 to 6 years primary education and

3 to 4 years junior/middle school education. The Compulsory Education Law was

introduced in 1986 and revised in 2006. Before going to primary school, most of the

children in cities (over 90%) would have had kindergarten education since they were 3years old, but unfortunately most of the children in the rural areas would have one-year

pre-school class education or none. The overall enrolment of age 3 to 6 in China is only

41%. In some of the western provinces, such as Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region, theenrolment is only 18%5. After compulsory education, some students could select to go to

high school for three years leading to university education, or could go to vocational

schools.

2 Public Notice of Main Data from 1% of Sample of National Population Survey, by National Statistic

Bureau (2005).3 However the minority population is still over 120 million which is bigger than many countries in the

world.4 Public Notice of the Fifth Universal Survey of National Population No.1, by National Statistic Bureau

(2001).5 Early Childhood Development in China: Challenges and Policy Issues. By Dr Anjana Mangalagiri,

UNICEF China.

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After the Jomtien Conference on Education for All in 1990, the Chinese government

issued several government documents and implemented a series of policies to promoteEFA. The objectives in the 1990s were mainly called the two basics breakthrough

campaign meaning basically universalized 9 years compulsory education and basically

eliminating illiterate adults among young and middle-age groups. By 2000, the Chinesegovernment announced success in realising Universal Primary Education and basically

eliminating illiteracy6.

After the Dakar Action Plan in 2000, more strategic measures have been implemented to

promote EFA. According to the latest national data, the net enrolment rate of primary

school students is 99.2% and the gross enrolment rate of junior middle school students is95.0% in 2005 (See detailed figures in Table 1). The differentials in primary school

enrolment between genders was reduced from 0.7% in 1995 to 0.04% in 2004. The adult

literacy rate increased from 77.78% in 1990 to 90.92% in 2000 and the illiteracy rateamong young and middle-age groups decreased significantly (See details in Table 2).

However, according to the data in 2002, there are still 85 million illiterate people in

Chinasecond only to India, and every year there are half a million new illiterates in the

population.

Table 1. The NER of PS and GER of JMS from 1995 to 2005 (%)7

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

NER

of PS

98.5 98.8 98.9 98.9 99.1 99.1 99.1 98.6 98.7 98.9 99.2

GER

ofJMS

78.4 82.4 87.1 87.3 88.6 88.6 88.7 90.0 92.7 94.1 95.0

Table 2. The Adult Literacy Rate Comparison (%)8

Adult Literacy Rate

National Rural Areas

Illiteracy Rate

among Young andMiddle-age Group

1982 65.51 62.26 24.06

1990 77.78 73.77 11.85

2000 90.92 88.45 4.80

6Basically is a deliberately vague term which, in primary education for example, meant over 85% net

enrolment.7 Data collected from National EFA Report (2005) printed by National Committee of UNESCO and

Educational Statistics Yearbook of China (2005), from MoE.8 Data collected from National EFA Report (2005), printed by National Committee of UNESCO.

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The overall figures seem very positive. However, the accuracy of national data is limitedby several elements. First of all, the education management information system (EMIS)

in China has not been fully developed and this has restricted the capacity of MoE in

collecting the data of EFA in a comprehensive and reliable way. Secondly, there aremany schools in very remote areas which are almost inaccessible so data collection is

very difficult. Thirdly, there are many unregistered migrants and some ethnic minoritiesin remote areas are missing in the population data collection, so the total Chinesepopulation number may not be very accurate. This may have an impact on the enrolment

rate in the calculations. Fourthly, because of the large population in China, the data

easily hides the huge differences between different areas, different minorities and other

differentials.

It is also always the case that the last 1% to 5% of enrolment in any country is the mostdifficult target to reach and sometimes it takes years for people to realize the needs of

disadvantaged groups since the very positive overall figures tend to obscure continuing

problems. But, the 1% of children out of primary school is about 1 million - larger than

the population of school age children in many countries. Thus it is a big challenge for theChinese government to reach equity in education and make a reality of the so-called

balanced education development of basic education.

4. THE POLICY ENVIRONMENT

4.1 Government Education Policy Related to Universal Access to Quality Basic

Education

The Chinese government prioritised basic education at the strategic level nationally after

the Dakar Action Plan. The key legal document called the Decision on the Reform andDevelopment of Basic Education was issued by the State Council in 2001, and covered

all the important aspects of basic education, including the objectives of the 10 th 5-year

plan (2001-2005), the fiscal management system of basic education (especially in ruralareas), the curriculum reform and improving quality of education, teachers education

system and personnel reform in education areas, as well as encouraging the non-

government education system, etc. This document drew a very comprehensive picture

for the next few years and some of the reforms were implemented and are in practicecurrently.

In this document, the national government urged local governments to take the universalnine years compulsory education and the eliminating of the illiteracy rate among young

and middle aged adults as the highest priority of the priorities. Within the period of the10

th5-year plan (2001-2005), the enrolment of JMS should be over 90% and the literacy

rate of young and middle aged adults should be maintained above 95%, the enrolment of

high school should be around 60% and early years education should be improved further

through encouraging different forms of childcare and early years education.

Nonetheless, the gap between urban basic education and rural basic education grew larger

and larger in the early 2000s. The national government began to pay a lot of attention to

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the equity issue in basic education after 2003, the first year of the new prime ministerWen Jiabao and his cabinet. In that year, the State Council hosted its first conference on

rural education since the foundation of PRC in 1949. A Decision on Further Enhancing

Rural Education was issued. It was decided in the conference that comprehensivecampaigns would be mobilized to : realize the Two Basics in western areas ; use ICT to

improve teaching and learning in the western areas ; and provide free textbooks and aliving allowance to students from poor families. These later developed into the TwoExemptions One Subsidy (TEOS) policy9.

Regarding the objectives of Education for All, the Chinese government initially set up a

strategic plan for the first 20 years of the 21st century10

. The objectives include:

Universalise nine years compulsory education thoroughly and eliminateilliteracy among young and middle aged adults and thus improve the quality

of Education for All. Its aim is that by 2007 over 85% of the population in

western areas will be covered by universal nine years education and the illiterate

rate among young and middle aged adults will have been reduced to 5% or below.By 2010, over 98% of the population will have been covered by universal nine

years education and all illiterates from age 15 to 24 eliminated and the overall

illiteracy rate among young and middle aged adults reduced to 2% or below. The

gender disparity in primary enrolment will have disappeared. The physicalcondition of schools and the quality of school education will have improved. The

enrolment rate of school-aged disabled children will have risen.

Addressing early childhood care and early years education. By 2015, theknowledge of early childhood care will have been disseminated widely and the

gross enrolment rate of 3-6 year olds in early years education will have achieved65% or above. All children will have at least one year early years education.

Setting up a multi-dimensional and multi-level ICT and modern distanceeducation system. By 2010, all secondary schools in rural areas will be equippedwith a computer classroom and all primary schools in rural areas will be equipped

with satellite receivers to receive teaching materials.

Constructing a Learning Society through improving vocational educationand continuing education/training for adults. By 2015, various types of

vocational training for adults will be organized for 200 million person/times each

year so that all the adults in rural areas will master one or two practical skills.

90% of the JMS graduates will receive vocational training for 0.5 to 1 year. Acontinuing education system and community education network will be set up to

fill the needs of all the citizens.

There were some notable policy drives at the national level after 2000, including revising

the Compulsory Education Law, reforming the finance system of compulsory education,

and implementing the New National Curriculum.

9 Exemptions for textbooks and school fees, and subsidy for school boarding. See details in section 5.2.10 More details see China National EFA Report (2005).

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In the new Compulsory Education Law (2006), compulsory education is the right ofschool-aged children to receive free education and it is governments responsibility to

make sure children enjoy this right without discrimination based on gender, ethnicity,

race, wealth or regional status, etc. Compared to the former version issued in 1986, thenew law makes a lot of new provisions on the quality of compulsory education and equity

issues. It also clearly defines the roles of the different levels of government with regardto basic education services. In the former version of the Compulsory Education Law(1986), the effort of decentralising basic education service had led to the reality that the

governments at higher level released their duties to lower levels, and it was the

township/village level government that had to take on the main responsibilities, and even

the parents had to pay for their childrens schooling or make extra contributions towardsthe school building and operation. The new Compulsory Education Law (2006) makes

the county government shoulder the main responsibility for basic education services and

requires provincial governments to help to allocate funds, especially in poor areas. It isalso clearly stated that no fees and miscellaneous fees should be charged - whereas

formerly miscellaneous fees were allowed, which added a huge burden on the poor

families. There are many very positive aspects of the new law, but the challenge will behow to set up an accountability system to implement it.

The new national curriculum is a major attempt to improve the quality of compulsory

education. It came into force in 1999 and was implemented across the county in primaryand Junior Middle schools by 2005. It focuses on childrens active learning instead of

routine study of knowledge and sets up integrated curricula to meet the diverse needs of

the students. It also took into account students own experience and learning interests, aswell as real ability in self-learning, problem-solving and information skills. It aims to

reform the student evaluation system and introduce three levels (national, local, andschool level) of curriculum management to give the local government and schools more

autonomy in curriculum management. The whole philosophy was well received by the

education community but there were also huge difficulties and challenges duringimplementation, including lack of funds, shortage of training for teachers and

discrepancies between the requirements of the new curriculum and the current system of

students, teachers and head teachers evaluation

There are also some other policy drivers like the two basics breakthrough campaign,

finance reform in rural education, teachers personnel reform and so on, which will be

discussed in more detail later.

4.2 Processes of Educational Policy Making and Monitoring

The Ministry of Education (MoE) is the highest education policy making institution. It

identifies major issues in basic education and makes policy accordingly. It responds to

enquiries and recommendations from the National Peoples Congress and follows theinstructions of the State Council. It is also responsible for monitoring policy

implementation mainly through the National Education Inspection Office and other

departments within the Ministry. When a policy is made, the MoE will issue a formal

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notice to the Provincial Education Departments as it is the responsibility of the provincialgovernments to provide basic education services.

This is a top-down type of management. However, China is such a huge country withso many diversities, as well as huge gaps between the city and countryside, western area

and eastern areas, and the policies from MoE are often on macro level without muchpractical guidance on implementation. The advantage of this type of policy is to allowthe local government to have more flexibility in implementing the policy to meet local

needs. The disadvantage is that one policy could be interpreted in very different ways in

different areas which leads to uneven success of a policy that had good initial intentions.

Any policy on basic education is the result of broad consultation within the education

administration system at various levels. At national level, the MoE often calls a group of

experts from well-known national universities or research institutions to consult or evendraft the policy. In each province, the local experts often become part of the consulting

team of the government. However, the MoE rarely consults private or non-government

organisations, although they do get feedback from the media on policy issues. One of theweaknesses in policy making is the lack of the voice from stakeholders outside the

administration system.

The National Education Inspection Office is an organisation under direct jurisdiction ofthe State Council but the MoE is in charge of its daily operation. The office is

responsible for developing and implementing the inspection policy, regulation and

indicators system. The office is in charge of reviewing the performance of the localgovernments with regard to universalizing nine years compulsory education. There are

also corresponding education inspection offices at provincial, municipal and countylevels.

However, in practice, inspection is more focused on how the lower-level governmentsimplement education policy according to the requirements of upper-level governments.

Until recently, quality issues in education have not received proper recognition and well-

structured inspection guidance on quality education is still in the early stages ofdevelopment. There are only 90 inspectors at national level and some of them are retired

officials and part-time inspectors. The professionalism of the inspectors should be

improved, the head of the National Inspection Office admitted11. Regarding EFA, the

inspection office takes the main responsibility for achieving the Two Basics and theresults of inspections are fed back into policy making.

The central government also puts a high priority on universal basic education and linksthe results to the performance indicators of the county governors. That is to say, if a

county doesnt achieve universal primary or secondary education according to its plan,

the governor would be dismissed. Many counties therefore make tremendous effort toachieve the target leading to a big jump in enrolment rates in some counties.

11 Setting Up a Professional Team in Education Inspection: Interview to Zheng Fuzhi, the Head of National

Education Inspection Office, China Teachers Daily, Feb 28, 2007

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4.3 The Roles and Contributions of Mass Organisations, NGOs and International

Donors

NGOs are becoming more and more active in the education sector. There are three types

of NGO:

GONGOs (Government Organised NGOs) with a strong government background,such as the All China Womens Federation (ACWF), China Youth Development

Foundation (CYDF). Before the 1980s, all the institutions and organisations

belonged to the government and there was no room for NGOs. Organisations suchas the ACWF was founded by the government and was a part of the government.

After government reforms in the early 2000s, this kind of institution gradually de-

linked itself from the government although they still have very strong governmentbackgrounds and connections.

Grass-roots local NGOs are mainly founded by volunteers or people who areinterested in public issues, such as Children of Farmers who organise universitystudents to teach in rural schools during their vacation.

International NGOs. There are over 200 international NGOs 12 working in thedevelopment area, some of them focus particularly on education and childrens

welfare, such as Save the Children, Trace Foundation, etc.

Generally speaking, non-government organisations do not have a very strong voice in

policy making, even though different organisations have more channels to expressthemselves with the process of the openness of the whole society. GONGOs are much

more influential and their contribution to EFA is also significant. Hope Project is theleading project for supporting basic education in rural areas, and was founded by CYDF

in 1989. They have raised billions of Yuan within China and overseas, supported several

millions of drop-out students, as well as built thousands of schools in poor areas. Theyare supporting government to promote universal primary education and have become an

important supplement to the governments education finance input. However, they are

also questioned by the media because compulsory education is a governmentresponsibility and they share governments duties through raising funds from the public.

Furthermore, their accountability has been questioned because of a lack of transparency.

Local and international NGOs have expanded very quickly recently. However, they arerestricted by government policy. Local NGOs have no legal identity to be an independent

organization. They either register as a company or find a government institution as the

cover umbrella to attach themselves to. International NGOs are not, at present, allowed toraise funds. Government is in a dilemma as to how to deal with NGOs. On the one hand,

it agrees that the NGOs could play a very important role in targeting social issues and

could be a good facility for releasing social pressure. On the other hand, government isconcerned that the NGOs could get out of control and have a negative impact on the

stability of a harmonious society. Therefore, the NGOs are in a very marginal area in

terms of policy making.

12 See China Development Brief, http: //www.chinadevelopmentbrief.com.

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Compared with the expansion of NGOs, international donors are quickly withdrawing

from China. By 2010, there will be little funding from international donors because China

is not regarded as a country which needs external support any more given its rapideconomy development. Even at the very beginning of the years when international donors

came to China, the funds from the donors never constituted a significant financialresource for the Chinese government. Considering the scale of finance needed for basiceducation, the funds from international donors are like drops of water in the sea. The

relationship between the Chinese government and International donors, such as World

Bank, EU, ADB, UNDP, are more or less on the level of political dialogues. Their role

is not mainly in providing funds, but using funds to push their agendas on social equityand other development issues.

One of the important contributions international donors made was to bring technicalassistance to China. Although most donor projects have been quite small in terms of

scope, they have brought a lot of important ideas and concepts to basic education in

China, such as child-friendly schools, participatory approaches to teaching, educationequity, social development, community participation, school development planning, etc.

Many good international practices were also brought in through the implementation of

the projects with technical support. This has had some indirect impact on governments

policy making, especially at provincial or district level. For example, the DFID fundedGansu Basic Education Project tried many different methods to favour disadvantaged

schools/children in resource allocation which has changed local governments practice in

resource distribution and opened a crack in the door with regards to local participation ineducational decision-making.

5. POLICIES AND STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE EQUITY

5.1 Key Dimensions of Disparity/ Inequality and Barriers to Education

Education equity is not an isolated term and it is very closely related to the social,

economic and cultural environment. With the rapid development of the Chinese economy,efficiency received more attention than equity. There are several warning signs in

Chinese society that this disparity/inequality would lead China towards a dangerous

society like some Latin America countries. Reflecting on the more and more serious

social inequality, there are several disadvantaged groups who havent enjoyed or sharedmuch of the outcome of reform and openness policy in China, including in education

areas.

Poverty. International experience indicates that poverty is the one of the most important

barriers to children accessing education. According to the national poverty standard of

683 Yuan (about 86USD) per person per year which is only 1/3 of the average annualincome in countryside and far less than the international standard, there are 26 million

people who cannot reach this standard in rural areas, and a further 50 million people are

close to this line. There are also 2.8 million people in urban areas do not reach thisstandard. If the UN standard of 1 USD per person per day is applied, there are at least

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200 million people living in this poverty situation. The government admitted in 2006 thatthe poverty population is increasing even though the total poor population has reduced

significantly during the last few decades.

Gender. China has a tradition of gender discrimination against girls and women. After

the one child policy was introduced, more and more gender selection occurred such thatthe gender ration reached 118.58:100 (boy: girl) in 2005 according to internationalnorms the rate should be under 107:100. In rural areas, the rates of newborn deaths, slow

growth, low weight and lack of nutrition for girls are all higher than for boys (Cheng

Mingxia et, 2003. Han Yinbin et, 2002)13. In education, girls enrolment in rural areas

and some minority areas is still low and often lower than boys. Many girls have to dropout and help to do housework. Gender stereotypes are commonly presented in textbooks

and reflected in teachers attitude. Illiteracy rates for women are still significantly higher

than for men.

Social Exclusion. There are different kinds of social exclusion, such as exclusion based

on ethnicity, language or socio-economic status. Some minorities have populations aslow as 10,000 and several minority children speak a minority language that has no

written script. Minorities often live in very remote areas where education provision can

be very poor. For example, the teacher might not be able to speak the minority language

so the children have communication difficulties when they enter school for the first time.All these elements combine together to put these kind of minority children in a very harsh

situation.

Since the 1990s, one of the most serious and obvious forms of social exclusion in

education has been schooling access for the children of migrant populations. Because ofthe residency licence (hukou) policy, many children who come to cities from the

countryside with their parents, cannot access proper basic education because they dont

have permanent residency in cities, unless they are able to pay a very high temporaryposts fee. According to a survey 14 , there are 147 million people in this floating

population, their children either come with them to cities or stay with relatives (normally

with grandparents) and are in a difficult situation. Those coming to the cities suffer fromlack of a proper education and those staying in the countryside from lack of parenting

including the danger of possible abuse, including sex abuse.

People with Disabilities. Although the government has encouraged inclusive educationto meet the needs of children with special education needs since 1987 and some more

disabled children can now go to ordinary schools, the enrolment of disabled children is

still quite low. There are about 8 million school-aged disabled children15

, but accordingto national education statistics, only 364,409 children16 are in school, including special

schools for the disabled, special classes attached in ordinary schools or the inclusive

13The Summary of Research on Girls Issue, By Han Jialing and Zhang Yan. 2006

14 1% Sample Population Survey in 2005. By National Bureau of Statistic.15 Mainstreaming in China: History, Reality and Perspectives, by Xiao Fei. Conference Paper in Lanzhou,

2005.16 Educational Statistics Yearbook of China (2005), Peoples Education Press, 2006.

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classes. In rural areas, it is a widely-accepted concept that disabled children are uselessfor future labour and investment in their education is not worthwhile. Even children with

special needs in mainstream schools dont have enough support since there is little

provision of SEN training for teachers in such schools.

Children in Exceptionally Difficult Circumstances. There are several disadvantagedgroups of children who have suffered in very difficult circumstances. The whole systemof social welfare in China is insufficiently developed to give support to these children

although much effort has been made by government. These children include orphans,

street children, children whose parents are in prison, children with HIV/AIDs, children

whose parents are suffering from or have died of AIDS, as well as child labourers.Among 573,000 orphans, only 66,000 are taken care of by social welfare institutions.

Street children number about 1 to 1.5 million each year17 but as there are only 130 street

children protection centres, it is clear that only a small number of street children could betaken care of. There are accurate national data about how many children in these

exceptionally difficult circumstances could go to schools, but according to the media,

most of them are just struggling to survive and schooling is a luxury they cannot afford.A lot of NGOs are very active in supporting these children but the scope of the projects is

too small to cover the huge number of these disadvantaged children.

Some of the children may well match two or three of the categories above, such asdisabled minority girls or orphans in poor areas. They are in much more disadvantaged

positions and suffer from social exclusion to an even greater extent.

5.2 Policies and Programmes to Increase Access, Retention and Completion of a BasicLevel of Education for Children, Youth and Adults Targeting Vulnerable Groups

a) Key Programmes and Strategies

Since 2003, the Chinese government has put more effort into improving education equity

to reach a balanced development of education through several national projects. To

achieve universal basic education and eliminate illiteracy in the population, severalprogrammes and strategies have been implemented under the name of the two basics

breakthrough campaign in western areas, including:

1. Reforming Central Governments Education Expenditure System toGuarantee the 9 years compulsory education funds in rural areas. The main

strategy is that the central government is taking a larger and larger share of the

finance for compulsory education in poor rural areas. The Central Governmentsignificantly increased expenditure in rural education through transfer payments

to the western and middle areas in China. With the establishment of a new

education finance mechanism, the central government has shared the financialinput with the provinces according to their economic levels, for example 80% of

the funds to cover students miscellaneous fees is from central government in

17 Sample Survey in 2005 conducted by Women and Children Working Group of State Council.

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western areas, 60% in middle areas and much less (according to their financialsituation) in eastern areas. The non-personnel budget for school operation is also

calculated and shared by central government and provincial governments. Step by

step, all the expenditures for rural compulsory education will be covered bybudget allocations not by private sources. It is also clearly defined that the county

governments are supposed to take main responsibilities for compulsory educationinstead of townships, villages or parents.

2. Strategy to address the cost-barriers of poor families to primary andsecondary education: Two Exemptions One Subsidy (TEOS). Before 2007,

some poor students could get free textbooks, and some scholarships were alsoprovided to poor students. However, the new TEOS policy will cover all students

in rural western areas from 2007 - that means, all the children in this area should

be exempted from tuition charges and miscellaneous fees, and students from poorfamilies should have free textbooks. The students in boarding schools should also

get a boarding subsidy. At least 23 million students have benefited from this

policy. It is planned that the central government will provide budget allocationsto each student in the rural areas with a specified quota around 2009. This will

improve the financial situation quite significantly at school level if the plan is

fulfilled successfully.

3. Strategies to ensure physical access for (and retention of) all children. Manyefforts are being put into building primary and secondary schools including

boarding schools, such as Compulsory Education Projects I and II, RebuildingSchools in Dangerous Conditions and Rural Boarding Schools Building

Programme. Thousands of schools have been built in a very short time in poorareas to meet the needs of universalizing nine years compulsory education.

Through the Rural Boarding School Building Programme (20032007), the

central government provided 6 billion Yuan to build about 5,000 schools withinthe first two years.

4. Strategies to fill the gap between the urban education and rural educationthrough modern information technology on distance education. Working

together with provincial governments, the Central Government required all

secondary schools in rural western areas to set up computer labs and satellite

receivers and all primary schools in these areas to be equipped with VCD/DVDplayers. The total investment was 10 billion RMB 50% of which came from

central government. It is intended that through distance education, the very

remote schools would get the same high quality teaching and learning resourcesthat urban schools get.

5. Strategies for educational provision to older youth and adults who havemissed out on basic educational opportunities. Government has put the

objective of eliminating illiteracy in the population on an equal level with

universalizing nine years compulsory education and focused on poor areas,minority area and women. The All China Women Foundation (ACWF)

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conducted a Womens Action on Illiteracy. ACWF also implemented a DFID-funded project to train in life skills the girls aged from 15 to 18 in western poor

areas. However, central government hasnt provided much funding for this,

mainly relying on local government to promote literacy programme in rural areas.

b) Analysis of the Policies and Programmes

Given the scope and rich diversity of Chinese Education, and the whole socio-economic

and cultural structure in China and the restriction of mass organization/NGOs,

government plays a crucial role (sometimes a unique role) in promoting equity.

It is encouraging to note that equity is high on the governments agenda. Theprojects mentioned above, such as the Rural Education Expenditure System

Reform, TEOS policy, Rural Boarding Schools Building Programme, etc. are allfocused on compulsory education in rural areas. These key projects conducted by

Ministry of Education came one by one in a short period and showed a strong

willingness to improve rural education. Although equity is not a new concept toa socialist country, before 2003 most of the effort and resources were very much

concentrated in the well-developed areas because of a focus on effectiveness and

efficiency. Even in poor counties, limited resources would go to the best schools

in the area. The awareness of the growing gap and the political willingness to fillthe gap by the current government is a good sign for improved equity in the

education sector.

It is also noteworthy that significantly more funds have been coming from centralgovernment. This indicates that central government doesnt just pay lip-servicebut provides real support to poor areas. In the past, parents shouldered the huge

burden of compulsory education which made their poverty situation even worse

in some areas. Now central government has divided the country into three areas:western areas (very poor), middle areas (comparatively poor), and eastern areas

(not poor), and provided different percentages of funds to different areas. Billions

of Yuan have been invested in western areas through different projects mentionedabove. For example, 6 billion Yuan was put to building boarding schools in rural

areas in 2004 and 2005. Alongside the central governments input, provinces in

western areas provided 2.76 billion of co-funding for implementing TEOS in

2004 and 2005. This reduced the burden of lower-level governments as well as ofparents.

The total expenditure on education is increasing every year. But, compared to therapid growth of GDP, government expenditure in education has failed to meet

targets especially the target of 4% of GDP on education by the Year 2000. The

government has also failed to reach this target in the last few years according tothe planned timetable (2004) - it was 2.79% in 2004 and 2.82% in 2005. In fact,

even 4% is a very low standard. The UN suggests this percentage should be 6%.

It does rely on the political willingness of the government to achieve this goal.The National Peoples Congress has been more and more proactive in monitoring

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the progress, but at the same time, the effectiveness and efficiency of using fundsneeds to be considered.

Most of the funds for compulsory education come from special earmarked funds(mainly through various projects or programmes) instead of the regular budget

categories and this has put the sustainability of funding in question. It is veryimportant for the government to keep and increase education expenditure at areasonable level to sustain the effectiveness of the efforts made up to now.

Otherwise, when projects finish, the impact from their efforts will cease or

diminish very quickly. For example, central government has invested 5 billion

Yuan to modernize distance education equipment (computers, satellite receiversetc.). If there are insufficient maintenance fees given to schools, the equipment

and facilities will lie idle and the investment will have been wasted.

The governments first priority tends to be investment in hardware (buildings,equipment, etc), but what will have the greatest long term impact will be

investment in software, such as training and capacity building. Up to now, themajority of the education funds have been used for scholarships, free textbooks,

boarding subsidies, buildings, equipment and so on. International experience

indicates that although poverty is the main reason for low access to schooling,

there are also other barriers, such as long distance to schools, lack of femaleteachers, huge workload at home and very poor achievement in schools, etc. The

equity issue is also very complicated and having more funds is not the only way

to tackle the issue. The involvement of the local community, the training ofparents, and improvement of schooling quality should also be considered.

Therefore, besides investment in hardware, more dissemination, training, socialactivities and different strategies should be involved and budgeted for.

Transparency is a big challenge when implementing projects especially majorones. China was ranked No. 70 in 2006 among 163 countries by Transparency

International. The use of precious education investments in poorer areas needs to

be more closely monitored in term of quality and effectiveness. Several nationalorganisations are involved in monitoring but their actions need to be better co-

ordinated. The Ministry of Education issued several notices on how to improve

the monitoring system and identified the main weaknesses in practice including

the fact that education expenditure was being embezzled in some places and thequality of boarding schools was not satisfactory.

Many government projects are more input-based than output-based. As mentionedearlier, there is no comprehensive education management information system, and

the evaluation system of projects is also very weak. This makes the impact of

government projects very difficult to review. That also means, duringimplementation, very little data could be collected to inform policy.

Many disadvantaged groups have not been targeted, or targeted in a very casualway. More effort should be directed to the most disadvantaged and vulnerable

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children. The national data system is not comprehensive enough to providedisaggregated figures for each disadvantaged groups. That leads to difficulties in

informing policy making. For example, among the out-of-school children, how

many are migrant children in the cities, street children, minority children, girls inrural areas, etc? Currently NGOs and donors have played a very important role in

targeting the most disadvantaged groups - they should be allowed to play a moreimportant role with government support. International donors should providemore technical support including using national and international consultants, or

other independent third parties to introduce more effective practices and models

for the reference of the government.

The central government has been pushing for the development andimplementation of the policy on the schooling access for migrant children. The

recipient governments of the migrant workers are encouraged to take moreresponsibility in providing basic education services for the children of migrant

workers as local residents. However, the residence licence system has not been

changed accordingly yet and this has blocked the effectiveness of the relevantpolicy and practice by the local governments. In Beijing, as an example, there are

about 300 schools specially founded for migrant children (mainly by migrant

teachers or parents) but only 58 of them have a government licence. The

government tried to close 239 schools which were un-registered and had safetyproblems. But, the public schools refused to accept the children from these illegal

schools or the parents from the illegal schools could not afford to send the

children to public schools because the public schools charged temporaryschooling fee to non-Beijing residents.

6. POLICIES AND STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE GOOD QUALITY

SCHOOLING

6.1 Key Quality Challenges

Quality issues vary a lot according to the social and economic development of different

areas. In urban areas, the main challenge is to provide the same or similar quality of

education for all children because there are a lot of elite public schools who have high

quality teaching but reach a few students only. In rural areas, especially in remote areas,the key quality challenges include:

Lack of qualified teachers in remote areas, especially female teachers andminority teachers because of the harsh living conditions. This not only sets

barriers for girls and minority children to go to schools, but also affects quality

schooling.

In rural areas, local government cant afford teachers salary so they use a lot ofsubstitute teachers who often havent been properly trained - their salary is only20% to 30% of the government teachers.

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The training for rural teachers is limited, especially in-service training. Although

each teacher should have a certain number of learning hours in each school year,

the provision of such kind of training is far from enough and the training qualityis not very satisfactory. Sometimes it becomes self-teaching or teachers have to

pay the expenses for the training.

The teacher support system is very weak. There is a Teaching Research Officeor Teacher Continuing Education Centre in each county which is supposed to

provide on-site support, but the number of the staff in those offices and centres is

very low (5 to 10 teacher research staff compared to thousands of teachers) andthey themselves have no training on how to support teachers. The government

intends to integrate the Teaching Research Office and the Teacher Continuing

Education Centre at the county level to avoid duplication and make thesupporting system stronger.

Learning resources are insufficient in remote areas. In some areas, textbooks arethe only learning materials for students and only teaching materials for teachers.

In fact, the implementation of the new national curriculum requires the use of

quite different learning resources. However, rural schools only get a small amount

of money to cover their basic needs and no extra money is left for learningresources.

The student evaluation system is very quantitative and mainly relies on paper andpencil. The test score is usually the only indicator to review students

performance. As a result, rote learning is the most common method and the lowachievement of rural students often leads to drop-out.

The environment of schools in many rural areas is not student friendly. Learningequipment in poor condition, unhygienic facilities, harsh punishment from

teachers, learning content which is urban biased or out of tune with local culture

and the context of the countryside and low expectations of girls or other sociallydisadvantaged groups.

The provision of head teacher training in rural areas is limited andprofessionalism of head teachers need to be improved. In most of the cases, thehead teachers just follow the direction from local education bureaux passively.

Their role is more like administrators instead of leaders of the schools. In rural

areas, less than 10% of head teachers are female. There is very limitedcommunity involvement in school management.

In the first Constitution of Peoples Republic of China in1950s it was defined thatevery ethnic minority has the right to use and develop its own language although

this policy was withdrawn in the Cultural Revolution. After the 1980s, this policy

was reintroduced and bilingual education is encouraged by the government.However, the situation of minorities and their languages is very complicated in

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China among 55 minorities 33 minorities had no written language in the 1950s.The government helped 12 minorities to create 14 kinds of alphabet-based scripts.

For some of the minorities with a mature written language, a quite comprehensive

bilingual education system has been set up but, for some small minorities withonly a small population and often living in very remote areas, bilingual education

in practice is very weak.

6.2 Policies and Programmes to Promote Good Quality Schooling

a) Key Strategies and Programmes

To establish a teachers qualification system for improving the quality of teachers. A

Teachers Law was formally published in 1993 and the Regulation of TeachersQualification was issued according to the Law. Primary teachers should be trained in

normal schools or above. Secondary teachers should be trained in normal colleges,

universities or above. All teachers should be examined to get teachers professionalcertifications. The government initiated the National Teachers Education Network

League programme and used the resource of universities and other education institutions

to set up a multiple supporting networks including websites, satellites and other distance

education technologies to support and upgrade teachers qualification, especially in ruralareas. It is intended to train all 10 million teachers in primary and secondary schools,

upgrade 2 million teachers qualification and set up a pool of 1 million backbone

teachers (key teachers).

Push the county governments to pay teachers salary on time and give some subsidy

to teachers working in remote or minority areas. The Teachers Law requires that the

average salary of teachers should be no less than that of civil servants. The new

graduates who go to teach in remote areas and minority area would get specialallowances. But, it is up to the local governments to pay the bill and they usually don't

have even enough revenue to pay teachers salaries on time. There was a big issue of late

payments in 1990s, since which time the government pushed very hard and linked thisissue to county governors political position, thus the situation has changed dramatically

in a positive way. However, the teachers in remote areas still get almost similar or even

less pay than their counterparts in city.

Substitute teacherswould be either upgraded or dismissed. Most substitute teachers

are working in very remote areas lacking government teachers. Since local governments

have to pay the teachers salary but cant afford to do so, they recruit substitute teachersand pay them very low salaries. Some of them are not qualified and some of them are

experienced in teaching but without proper qualification. Although these teachers are

supposed to be upgraded, there seems to be neither practical guidance nor programme,nor budget to implement the upgrading. If all substitute teachers were to be dismissed, it

would not be fair to them and would negatively affect the children they teach.

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Some new programmes on recruiting rural teachers or supporting rural schools are

implemented, including Rural Teacher Special Posts which encourage university

graduates to work in rural schools for three years18, and Free Education for Normal

University Students under the condition that they promise to teach in rural schools forthree years, as well as Internship Programme of Supporting Rural Schools which

encourage normal colleges and universities to organize their internship in rural schools.The MoE urged each province to set up practical strategies to encourage urban schools tomake links with rural schools (hand in hand) and urban teachers to go to teach in rural

school for a period of time. Recently, there has been a new programme called Master of

Education (M.Ed) for Rural Schools which is a five-year programme for new graduates -

three years teaching in the national poor counties, plus one year master courses at normaluniversity and the last year staying in rural schools to prepare their dissertation, as well as

learning through ICT.

Intention to improve the teacher training institutional development at county level.The Ministry identified the weaknesses of teacher training institutions at county level,

and issued guidance on improving them by emphasising the functions and the importantroles teacher training institutions could take, and stressed the different ways of supporting

teachers including using ICT.

Improving teaching and learning quality through New National Curriculum Reform.As mentioned in 4.1, the new national curriculum has had a very strong impact on

teaching methodology and students leaning. It has challenged a lot of traditional

education philosophies during its implementation, changed the textbook developmentsystem from one textbook covering the whole country to multi-versions which allow for

different choices in different cultural and economic areas. It also encourages aparticipatory approach in the classroom. All the teachers were to be trained before using

the new curriculum textbooks.

Encourage bilingual education in minority areas. Since the 1980s, the piloting of

bilingual education has been very popular. In minority areas, different models have been

tried, including teaching subjects in native language plus treating the Chinese language asa subject, teaching subjects in the Chinese language plus the native language as a subject,

teaching some of the subjects (such as history, geography) in the native language and

some of the subjects (such as science, maths) in the Chinese language, or teaching all the

subjects in Chinese mixed with the native language. It depends on the different languagesituation and cultural contexts. Some minorities have their own oral and written language,

and a whole set of curriculum and textbooks in native language, such as Tibetan,

Mongolian and Korean. Some minorities have no written language, and mainly rely onChinese textbooks with oral interpretation by teachers. In some areas, there is tri-lingual

education because there are different minorities living in the same area.

To define the qualification of head teachers and their in-service training

requirement to improve the quality of school management. The MoE issued a formal

18 In 2006, there are 16,000 new graduates joined this programme and went to 2,850 rural schools to be

teachers. China Education Daily, Jan 17th 2007.

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regulation in 1999 to define taking part in training as a head teachers obligation and right.All the new head teachers should have 300 hours training and achieve Professional

Qualification of Head Teachers before they formally take up their posts. All serving

heads must have 240 hours of training within 5 years to update their knowledge and skills.Some special training for a certain number of rural head teachers has been provided by

the MoE.

To issue the first government regulation to protect street children in 2006. In the past,

the related regulations mainly targeted vagrant or beggar children and there was no

specific legal protection for these children. The regulation which was called Basic

Requirement for Street Children Protection Institution defined the basic treatment to beprovided for street children, such as food, hygiene and living conditions. In terms of

education provision, either formal or informal education will be provided according to

needs, and vocational skill training should be provided to children older than 16. It isnotable that psychological counselling and behaviour rectification will also be provided.

Since this is a new policy implementation is on-going. UNICEF and Save the Children

co-operate with the Chinese government in some projects to share the experience gainedin this street children protection.

To reduce the population of adult illiteracy and especially focus on poverty area,

illiterate minority people and illiterate women. Some specific programmes wereimplemented such as Action on Eliminate Womens Illiteracy by the government and

All China Womens Federation (ACWF). This programme combined the literacy

training and the agricultural skill training, legal knowledge and womens right trainingtogether to target women in rural areas.

b) Analysis of the Policies and Programmes

As mentioned above, so much effort has been made and so many programmes from

central government have been implemented to improve the quality of education,

especially targeting rural schools and teachers. To a certain extent, it has increased thenumber of teachers and their qualification, and students have benefited from this. For

example, the percentage of qualified teachers in rural primary schools was 98% by 2004.

It increased by 1.6% compared to the rate in 2000. In rural secondary schools, the rate is

93%, an increase of 5.6% compared with 2000.19

The Chinese government has been quite positive in initiating many different programmes

to recruit more teachers for rural schools. Many new graduates are willing to teach inremote areas for a certain period of time. However, there is still a shortage of teachers in

hard-to-reach areas and this puts the children in a very disadvantaged situation. At the

same time, the teachers currently working in those areas have many difficulties. Some ofthem cannot get subsidies from local government20, some of them are substitute teachers

19 China National EFA Report (2005).20 National Inspection Report on review head teachers and teachers management in 6 provinces in 2005.

From MoE.

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with very low salaries and with no job guarantee for them at all from government policy.Very few substitute teachers receive any training or any other teaching support because in

the government system these substitute teachers are not a part of the government training

plan. When looking at the policy of mobilising urban teachers or university graduates torural areas, the time scope is mainly between one and three years. This leaves a big

question mark on sustainability. In fact, the substitute teachers in remote areas areprepared to stay longer but the problem is that the government seems to have no intentionof providing the budget to upgrade them. The current policy is more like blood

transfusion instead of providing a mechanism to produce blood itself.

Although the government identified the weakness of the teachers support system andissued the notice of improving it especially at county level, an inspection report indicated

that the teacher training institutions in all the counties visited are in very poor condition

and short of funds so that there is no guarantee to organize the normal training21

. It isclear that 5 to 10 teaching support staff in each county cannot meet the training needs of

thousands of teachers, unless a good supporting system is developed.

The new national curriculum is welcomed by teachers but for rural teachers there are a lot

of difficulties in implementing it. At national level, the central government funds only

support national level teacher training - mainly for elite teachers from well-known

schools. In terms of teacher training in rural schools, this relies on local budgets tosupport the training at local level but the county governments dont have such budgets.

In normal cases, teachers in rural area could get a couple of days of being lectured on

how to use new textbook (ironically the teachers are encouraged to use participatoryteaching when they go back to schools) but teachers in teaching points or very remote

areas have to use new textbooks without training because they cant afford the travelexpense. The new curriculum tried to change the textbook centred way - this means

more curriculum resource are needed. It is not surprising that in poor areas it is almost a

mission impossible.

The Governments bilingual education policy encouraged minorities to improve teaching

in native languages. It does have a very positive impact on minority areas and differentmodels are explored to suit different context. However, in remote minority areas, there

are not enough qualified teachers who are bilingual. The teachers training in bilingual

education is still weak although many research institutions and academics are active in

this field. How to teach minority students bilingually is a big challenge and morepractical training and guidance is needed.

Head teachers play a crucial role in school management. The MoE has specificrequirements of a certain number hours of training for head teachers. However, there are

about 1 million primary and secondary head teachers but only two national head teacher

training centres so the provision of head teacher training is limited. According to thegovernment system, head teachers are managed by the Personnel section not the

Education section at different levels. This also brings the problem of co-ordination and

21 National Inspection Report on review head teachers and teachers management in 6 provinces in 2005.

Form MoE.

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planning for the head teacher training. It is difficult to get an accurate figure at nationallevel on how many head teachers in rural areas have not been trained because of the

inaccessibility of these head teachers. However, some consultants field visits in donor

projects provided some anecdotes. For example, in a very remote teaching point inGuizhou province (one of the poorest western provinces), the head teacher told the

consultants that he has stayed in this school for 37 years and his last training was 19 yearsago ! A baseline survey of an international aid project indicated that in one of thecounties in Gansu in 1999, only 4% of the head teachers from the teaching points and

village primary schools had opportunities to be further trained. How to improve the

leadership of head teachers, how to implement school development planning etc. are only

explored by NGOs or donor-funded projects, such as School Development Plan (SDP)programme funded by UNICEF, SDP project funded by Trace Foundation.

In short, the MoE has a lot of good policies and they do recognize the issues relating toimproving quality basic education in hard-to-reach areas. However, if there are no funds

to change the policy into reality, no practical guidance to solve the problems raised

during implementation, no monitoring system to review the progress and adjust thepolicies, many good policies will remain on paper.

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7. CONCLUSIONS AND LESSONS LEARNED

From the national strategy level, China has put education as the highest priority

among all the priorities. Since the Dakar Action Plan, many national strategies andprogrammes have been implemented and reasonable goals have been achieved. Without

the strong political willingness of central government, that would not have happened.However, the pace of changing macro political commitments into practical policies andtaking measures at local level needs to be quickened and much more investment is

needed in upgrading software.

The current premiership took significant action and is ambitious to give higher

preference to rural education. It is clear that the transfer of central government funds to

western areas (through TEOS, rural school building programmes etc.) have been quite

effective in supporting the national strategy. Billions of Yuan are going to the westernareas to support the EFA which demonstrates the governments strong intention to close

the gap between the rich and poor, western and eastern, and improve social equality.

However, how to monitor the funds used in an efficient way is a great challenge tothe national government, given that the transparency of the current government system.

Some kind of accountability mechanism needs to be developed to ensure that education

investments are maximised at the grass roots level.

The development of basic education in China has passed the turning point of transferring

its focus from quantity (coverage of compulsory education) to quality (more equitable

and higher student achievements) in basic education. The success of the transitiondepends very much on the improvement of the software of basic education, and this

requires even more investment and a much longer time than the process of upgradinghardware. To achieve the sustainability of all the successful policies and strategies,

stabilized and increased government expenditure is essential. China needs to increase

the education expenditure to 4% of GDP or above in the near future to consolidate theachievements with compulsory education made up to now. Otherwise, all the potential

benefits from the former investments mainly in hardware would be in danger of not being

fully realized or utilized.

The equity issue is very complicated and the biggest challenge is the restriction that

comes from the rigid residence licence. There is a risk that the gap between the urban

and rural population will be enlarged quite significantly. The current residence licencesystem hinders the chances of rural residents moving to the urban areas to enjoy the

benefits of economic development. More strategies should be used instead of relying

very heavily on providing more funds to rural areas even though in itself this is good.The question is how to identify the different groups of disadvantaged and how special

strategies to target their needs should be explored by the policy makers. From

current national policies, basic education in poor areas and minority areas has beenhighlighted. But, for the children who are socially excluded and in exceptionally difficult

circumstances (see 5.1), few policies and strategies are targeted to this group.

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Setting up a good EMIS is a challenge in most developing countries, China is not an

exception. Although the MoE has set up a Compulsory Education Monitoring System22,

there are still many technical problems to be solved. A good data system could provide

quality data to review the progress of EFA in a reliable way. Although the current dataindicate that the progress of EFA in China has been very good, there are still some

controversial elements. Currently, the data on EFA is mainly collected and produced onschool basis. It is up to each school to provide data according the format from MoE.However, there is no individual student profile at school level and it is extremely difficult

to monitor and upgrade the quality of data. To produce reliable data, it is quite important

to make sure that EMIS is capable of tracking individual students. A student-based data

system is also good for school development planning as well as for giving the countyeducation bureau better evidence to plan their EFA within its area.

Reform of the teacher employment system will be very critical to the improvement

of the teaching quality in rural areas and also the efficient use of the education

budget. Due to the fact that the teachers get the same or even less payment in the remote

schools as the teachers in urban schools, it is almost impossible to have highly qualifiedteachers take posts in the poorest areas not to mention to keep them there long. At the

same time, there are already too many teachers and fewer students in the urban areas, and

this has a very negative impact on the most effective utilization of education resources.

An effective market oriented employment system needs to be established to encouragethe mobilization of high quality teachers to rural areas and also retain them for a

reasonable period.

22http://www.yjjc.org.cn/

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Education Expenditure System Reform, MoE, Ministry of Finance.40.Suggestion on Improving the Construction of Rural Boarding Schools. MoE.

National Council of Development and Reform, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of

Land Resource, Ministry of Construction.41.Guidance on Improving Teacher Training of National New Curriculum, MoE.42.Regulation on Training of Head Teacher in Primary and Secondary Schools. MoE.43.Enhancing the Bilingual Teaching to Improve the Quality Education, Language

Section of National Minority Committee.44.The History of Bilingual Education for Minorities in China. By Dai Qingxia & Dong

Yan. Research on Minority Education, No. 4 1996.

published report in efa website

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