Schooling in

China
Elif Gokbel
Mihiri Meepegama

Demographics
Population: 1,375,000,000
91.51% (Han Chinese), and 8.49% (minorities)
Growth rate: 0.47%, ranking 159th in the world
Official language: Mandarin
Territory: 9.6 million km2
Hong Kong and Macao
The principle of One country two systems
Taiwan
Religion: Confucianism and Taoism, Buddhism

Politics
The communist party of China (CPC)
Eight other political parties
The importance of political stability
Its profound manifestations
Economic reforms
Rejecting of multiparty elections

Economic transformation
Changing strategies for economic development
A free market economy
Shift of the economic structure from the primary to secondary and tertiary sectors
Letting some areas and people prosper ahead of others
The pursuit of global capital

Challenges facing economic transformation

increase in unemployment
widening the disparity between low SES and high SES groups
migration of people

Structure of the education

system
400 million students (2010) and 12 million full-time teachers
9 year compulsory education
Four major tiers:
Primary (ages 6-12)
Junior secondary (13-15)
Senior secondary (16-18)
Higher education

Rationales for reforming

education
Reforming education system to turn huge population into
abundant human resources
Enhancing national competitiveness in the competition for
global capital
The quality of education will enhance the quality of human capital
After 1976, emphasis given to education, science, and technology

The Reform of Chinas Education Structure (1985)

The Action Plan for Invigorating Education for 21st Century (1999)

Implementation: Reforming
schooling and curricula
Eradication of illiteracy and the universalization of basic education
The eradication of illiteracy among people aged 15 and above
Illiteracy rates over the years
80% of the population was illiterate in 1949
35% in 1982 to 4% in 2004
Avoiding the emergence of the new illiterates through
the basic education, ages 6 to 15
Nine year compulsory education, 1986
Child labor was forbidden in 1991

Implementation: Reforming
schooling and curricula
School curriculum reform

Problems with the old curriculum:

too subject based and too many subjects that are outdated, repetitive, too difficult for students
Examination-oriented culture, memorization, and spoon-feeding in teaching and learning processes

Two new curriculum standards for basic education in 2001 and general senior secondary
education in 2003

Incorporating global imperatives on education

A shift in focus emphasizing content learning to the development of students generic skills, including active
participation, critical thinking, collaboration, problem solving
Gradual move from a subject-based to an integrated curriculum
Giving more autonomy to schools and students

Higher Education Reforms

In the 1950s Chinese higher education followed a model from the Soviet Union. However, by
1980s problems came up as China wanted to change from centrally planned to a market
economy.

These problems included:

Over dominance of the state
Exclusion of market forces in the adjustment of relations between higher education and the labor market
Lack of autonomy and flexibility for individual universities and colleges in response to the needs of students
and the labor market.
Low institutional efficiency.

Goal of the reforms was to improve efficiency and quantity of higher education.

Large-Scale Structural Realignment of

Higher Education
In order to increase efficiency and quantity the following steps were taken:
1.

Co-administration of colleges by local governments.

2.

Transferring administrative power and ownership of some ministry driven universities to lower units of
governance.

3.

Cooperation of universities and colleges under a single administration responsible for the employment
of teachers, development of courses, and research.

4.

Amalgamation of high education institutions.

Large-Scale Structural Realignment of

Higher Education
Outcome

By 2000, ownership of nearly 160 higher education institutions had been transferred to lower governance
units.
From 1992-2003, over 310 amalgamated higher education institutions were formed by mergers.
Average enrollment size increased from 2070-3100 (1992-2003).
Number of institutions With over 5000 students increased from 14 to 253 by 1999.
However, number of general higher education institutions increased by only 530 by 2004.
Reason more and more short term, sub degree awarding colleges had come up.
Problems of merging universities
Different cultures come together as results of mergers, thus institutions have to minimize their cultural
conflicts in areas of teaching, research, administration, and how to develop new loyalty and high moral

The Drastic Expansion of Higher

Education
From 1998-2003 new places in first degree, sub-degree, and postgraduate programs in universities and colleges
increased.

Total enrollment increased from 3.6 million to 12 million turning Chinese higher education into the largest in
the world
It moved the system from an Elite system to a mass system.
However, the percentage of people accessing higher education was still low compared to other developed
countries.
QUALITY VS QUANTITY.
Institutions were forced to expand their universities by local governments.
More students = more funding

Issues created by Education

Reforms
1.

The Pursuit and Divide in the Proficiency of IT and English Language.

Introduced IT and English in
big urban cities first then smaller developed areas.

In all senior secondary schools first then eventually move down to primary level.
Even though the government had a cap on how much English was taught when, different schools may have started
teaching it earlier or may have had more classes in it.
For example, schools in Beijing started in primary 1 rather than at primary 3.
Students were encourages to learn English with the use of IT help in and outside the classroom.
More federal funding allocated for urban areas. This allowed urban schools to have better access to IT facilities and
better English teachers.
Led to widening of the gap between urban and rural students.

Issues created by Education

Reforms
2.

Heavy study load: A backlash of Assessments

Since the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) assessment score decide if students move to the next phase of education.
Ministry of Education has asked schools to reduce workload. However, it still persists.
Reasons for overloading:
Scarcity of places at higher education and reliance of exam scores to select students. The prestige of higher ed schools.
Everyone wants to get into a good school so wants to perform better.
Chinese culture does not allow for children to lag behind. They also believe that through drilling even the weakest
student can succeed. More drilling better exam scores. So it's almost a need to take part in drilling.
More qualification and better education increases a students competitiveness to get a good job. Especially because
of the One Child Policy, parents want their child to be the best competitor so they are more likely to spend on them
more.
The profit raised from having supplementary texts and reading materials and of schools who host supplementary drill
classes.

Issues created by Education

Reforms
3)

Unequal education for domestic migrant workers children.

Migrant workers prefer to send their children to illegal schools that cater specifically to migrant children. The reasons for this includes
Low fees (even though education is free, migrant children are not entitled to these free schools)
Good public schools do not want to admit low achieving migrant children.
Migrant children do not want to study in public schools because they fear discrimination.
Parents want a good education vs no education at all.

Even though migrant schools are beneficial in curbing the number of illiterate migrant children in urban areas, these schools are run illegally. Thus school
standards are lower and infrastructure suffers.

4) Brain drain and brain gain in the international community

In 1970s China faced brain drain as children went abroad to study overseas however, in the 1990s it experience brain gain as these children returned
having been foreign trained.
China is the largest exporter of students to overseas studies.
By the 1990s the students began to return which led to several problems

Issues created by Education

Reforms
5) The Pursuit for Excellence and the creation of world-class universities

Chinese leaders deem top-notch universities to be an indication of the strength in education.

In order to make world-class universities China had to improve the research efforts of the institutions. This was done by
Improving the infrastructure for research.
By increasing the number of post-graduates, a strong research team is being built. The number of professors and associate professors
have increased over the years.
There are several significant programs that initiated the development of research.
The 863 Programme of March 1986 aimed at making breakthroughs in science and technology o narrow the gap with other high tech
powers.
Project 211 enhance the quality of higher education by selecting a small portion of institutions and pushing them to reach
international standards within a short period.
Issues with this fast paced growth
In order to become world-class universities, each institution must make all improvements by themselves. However, institutions under
Project 211 get help in improving the university. This seen as unfair.

Implications for Education and

Development in a Global Age

Educational Reforms can be made, but if Chinese culture does not change with it, the reforms may not be useful.
Fast paced growth with little revision has led to an increase in the gap between urban areas and rural areas.
Curriculum development has been made on a national level and is mandatory for everyone to implement it.
However, some places in China benefit more from these changes than others.

Thank you! Questions?

Comments?