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| 2000' Educational Evolution in China |
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| 2004/05/13 |
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Educational
Evolution and Reform
by Yang Dongping
Educational Statistics in
1999
According to Bulletin of Statistics on
National Education Development in 1999 issued by the
Ministry of Education, the Nine-year Compulsory Education
(abbreviated as K9 thereafter) has covered 80% of China's
population, a total of 2430 counties (prefectures,
districts) including 145 county-level administrative
precincts have come up to the K9 initiative indexes and 9
provinces and municipalities have accomplished the K9
campaign as required.
Due to adjustment of
school layout and decrease of school-age population, primary
schools, the admission and enrollment decrease in different
measures. However, primary school enrollment rate continues
to increase and gender difference in enrollment between boys
and girls is diminishing. Enrollment rate of
primary-school-age children (calculated in accordance with
corresponding schooling ages and schooling lengths in
respective regions) reaches 99.09%, which is 0.16 percentage
points higher than that of the last year. The enrollment
rate of primary-school-age boys is 99.1% and that of
school-age girls 99.0%. The gender difference decreases from
last year's 0.14 percentage points to this year's 0.1
percentage points. Primary-school-student discontinuation
rate is 0.90%, which is 0.03 percentage points lower than
that of the last year. Primary school five-year retention
rate is 92.48% and the rate for girls
92.62%.
Up-to-standard rate in terms of
educational background of primary school teachers increases
and number of peasant-teachers greatly decreases. By the end
of 1999, China had a primary-school teaching and
administrative staff of 6.4712 million, 25,600 over the
previous year. Among them, 5.8605 million are full-time
teachers, 41,100 over the previous year. Of these full-time
teachers, 496,600 are peasant-teachers, 306,300 fewer than
the previous year. Number of peasant-teachers accounts for
8.47% of the total, decreasing by 5.33%. Up-to-standard rate
in terms of educational background of primary school
teachers is 95.9% or 1.3 percentage points over previous
year. Student/teacher ratio in primary schools is 23.12:1,
which is lower as compared with 24.0:1 in the last
year.
Junior-middle-school admission and
enrollment increase, while both gross enrollment rate and
discontinuation rate rise. There are 64,400 junior middle
schools nationwide, 1,000 fewer than previous year;
admission of 21.8344 million students, 1.8719 million over
last year; 58.1165 million of enrollment, 3.6192 million
over previous year; 16.1394 million graduates, increasing by
108,400 over past year; gross enrollment rate of 88.6%,
rising for 1.3 percentage points over past year;
discontinuation rate of 3.28%, rising for 0.05 percentage
points; enrollment quotas of junior-middle-school graduates
of 50%; up-to-standard rate in terms of educational
background of junior-middle-school teachers of 85.50%,
increasing by 2.20 percentage points. The student/teacher
ratio is 18.23:1, which is higher than 17.56:1 of the last
year. Of schoolhouses in all primary and junior middle
schools nationwide, 0.70% is dilapidated building. This
proportion is 0.3 percentage point lower than that in the
last year.
As for senior-middle-school
education, China has a total of 38,600 schools (including
ordinary senior middle schools, vocational high schools,
technical secondary schools, polytechnic schools, adult
technical secondary schools and adult high schools) with an
admission of 9.0526 million and enrollment of 25.1037
million. Amongst these schools, high-school-level vocational
schools (including vocational high schools, technical
secondary schools, polytechnic schools and adult technical
secondary schools) have an admission of 4.7327 million and
enrollment of 14.1751 million, accounting for 52.28% and
56.47% of total high-school admission and enrollment
respectively.
Ordinary senior middle school
education is developing fast. China has 14,100 ordinary
senior middle schools, or 179 over the previous year; an
admission of 3.9632 million, increasing by 367,700 or
10.23%; enrollment of 10.4971, increasing by 1.1171 million;
2.6291 million graduates, or 111,300 over the past year;
692,400 full-time teachers, increasing by 50,000. The
student/teacher ratio is 15.2:1, which is slightly higher
than 14.6:1 of the last year. The up-to-standard rate in
terms of educational background of teachers in ordinary
senior middle schools is 65.85%, which is 2.36 percentage
points higher than that of the last
year.
Number of high-school-level vocational
schools, admission and enrollment decrease slightly. The
pre-employment high-school education (including vocational
high schools, technical secondary schools and polytechnic
schools) offer seats of 3.753 million, decreasing by 669,600
compared with past year; enrollment of 11.1539 million,
reducing by 973,100. China has 8,317 vocational high
schools, decreasing by 285. They offer seats of 1.6038
million, decreasing by 223,000; have total enrollment of
4.4384 million, 110,800 lower than the past year; 1.4369
million graduates, increasing by 38,400.
Key moves
have been made in management system reform and layout
restructuring of higher education. In 1999, number of
colleges and universities is 1,942, decreasing by 49 than
previous year. The number of common colleges and
universities is 1,071, or 49 over the previous year. Of
them, 248 are attached to various ministries and commissions
of the central government, decreasing by 15. The number of
adult colleges and universities is 871, decreasing by 91.
Among them, 119 are attached to various ministries and
commissions of the central government, decreasing by 44. Of
the 775 organizations eligible for offering seats to
postgraduate students, 446 are colleges and universities and
329 scientific research institutions.
Admission
expansion of colleges and universities has successfully been
implemented, leading to significant increase of seats
offered. Number of postgraduate students admitted is 92,200,
increasing by 19,700 or 21.38%. Admission into junior
college and bachelor programs is 2.7545 million, increasing
by 669,500 or 24.31%. Of them, 1.5968 million admitted into
junior and common colleges, increasing by 513,200 or 47.4%
over past year, that admitted into adult junior and common
colleges (including common programs of TV colleges) is
1.1577 million, increasing by 156,300 or 15.6%. Enrollment
in junior and common colleges is 7.1891 million, increasing
by 958,200. Of them, 4.1342 million are studying in common
colleges and universities, increasing by 725,500 over past
year; and 3.0549 million are in adult colleges and
universities, increasing by 232,700. Registration for
self-taught examinations of higher education is 13.0516
million person-times and 422,000 got their junior college
certificates or diplomas. Gross enrollment ratio of higher
education is 10.5% or 0.7 percentage points over last
year.
Average enrollment and student/teacher ratio in
common colleges and universities have been greatly promoted.
The average full-time enrollment in common colleges and
universities increases from last year's 3,335
students/college to this year's 3,815 students/college.
Converting postgraduate students, international students,
refreshing program students, correspondence-based college
students and off-the-job adult trainees into common college
students, the average student/teacher ratio increases from
last year's 11.6:1 to this year's
13.4:1.
According to statistics by Department
of Development Planning of the Ministry of Education, the
number of private schools approved by educational
authorities (including education agencies without
eligibility of conferring certificate or diploma from
kindergarten to college but excluding agencies for
vocational training) in 1999 is 45,000, accounting for 5.2%
of the total. Total enrollment in these private schools is
5.73 million, accounting for 2.35% of the total. Number of
private higher-education agencies surged to a historical
record of 1,240 with an enrollment of 1.184 million
students. Most private agencies engaged in higher education
and senior-middle-schooling are located in provinces and
municipalities with well-developed economy such as Beijing,
Shanghai, Shaanxi, Zhejiang and Liaoning etc. while most of
those engaged in compulsory education are doing their
businesses in less developed and populous central and west
China.(China Youth Daily, May 15, 2000)
In
accordance with the Statistical Bulletin of Educational
Budget jointly promulgated by the Ministry of Education, the
State Statistics Bureau and the Ministry of Finance, the
educational budget in 1999 is RMB334.904 billion, increasing
by 13.56%. Of the budget, RMB228.718 billion from treasury
sources (including educational appropriation by financial
departments at various levels, town-and-countryside
educational surtax, expenditure contributed by businesses
for running in-house primary and middle schools and tax
exemptions and reductions for school-run businesses, etc.),
increasing by 12.53% over last year. The proportion of state
education budget in GDP is 2.79%, or 0.24 percentage points
higher than the last year's 2.55%. The proportion of
national budgetary educational fund in fiscal expenditures
is 14.49%, which is 0.83 percentage points lower than the
last year's 15.32%. Taking all regions in China as a whole,
the proportion of budgetary educational fund in financial
expenditures has shrunken in different measures in 13
provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. (Xinhua
News Agency, November 13, 2000)
2. College
Admission Expansion and Reform of College Entrance
Examination
On the basis of college admission
expansion in 1999, the college admission was greatly
expanded in 2000. Number of admittee into junior college and
bachelor programs in 1998 was 1.0836 million; 1.5968 million
in 1999, or 47.4% higher than the former. Actually admitted
number into junior college and bachelor programs in 2000 is
2.20 million, which is 35% higher than that in 1999 and
almost twice of that in 1998. As a result, this year's
admission rate through college entrance examination attended
by 3.885 million examinees exceeds 50% for the first time up
to 55%, which is 71% in Beijing and 70% in
Shanghai.
As for college entrance examination,
a series of reforms have been implemented this year. In
order to expand accesses to higher education, the age limit
for examination registration is extended to 25. Meanwhile,
limitations that full-paid teachers can only register for
examination for teachers colleges and universities,
graduates of medium vocational schools can only register for
examination for higher vocational education colleges after
working for two years, students who reject admission by
colleges and universities in last year can not register for
examination this year and people leaving colleges and
universities due to academic, health or disciplinary reasons
in the same year can not register for examination have been
canceled.
Pilot areas for reform in setting of
subjects for college entrance examination are further
expanded and seven sets of examination papers are used in
different regions. In most provinces, municipalities and
autonomous regions, the examination style of "3+2"
is implemented. "3" represents Chinese,
Mathematics and Foreign Language while "2" refers
to History and Geography for students destining to liberal
arts and Physics and Chemistry for students destining to
science studies. In Guangdong Province, the examination is
in style of "3+comprehensive examination+1". In
four provinces and one municipality of Jiangsu, Zhejiang,
Jilin, Shanxi and Tianjin, the examination is in style of
"3+comprehensive science examination" or
"3+comprehensive art examination". Meanwhile, the
junior college entrance examination is in the style of
"3+1". In Shanghai, the examination papers are
designed by the municipal education committee and the
examination is in the style of "3+1".
"3" refers to Chinese, Mathematics and Foreign
Language and "1" stands for one of six subjects of
Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Geography and Politics
in line with requirements by different colleges and
universities. In addition, students recommended studying in
colleges and universities should take "examination on
comprehensive capabilities".
Time-pattern
of college entrance examination has also been changed.
Approved by the Ministry of Education, experiment of spring
college entrance examination was conducted in Shanghai,
Beijing and Anhui in March 2000, inaugurating the two
examination seasons in China. In this spring examination
season, examination papers in Shanghai were formulated by
the municipal education committee and those in Beijing and
Anhui by Examination Center of the Ministry of
Education.
Meanwhile, admission pattern after
college entrance examination has been reformed. A total of
845 colleges and universities in 21 provinces,
municipalities and autonomous regions, or 82% of the total,
have practiced on-line admission. Total number of freshman
admitted via the Web is 1.117 million, which is 54.75% of
the total planned.
Large-scale admission
expansion in these two years leads to over-load of teaching
facilities and competence in colleges and universities and
triggers a wave of campus expansion. Since the central
government had canceled limitation for cross-border
school-running by colleges and universities, a new tide of
"attracting schools and talents" has rising in
Zhujiang Delta. Sun Yat-sen University, Jinan University,
Beijing Institute of Technology, Tsinghua University, Harbin
Institute of Technology and Beijing Normal University etc.
have successively established new campuses or sci-tech parks
in Zhuhai. Consequently, construction of a "University
Park" with a footprint of over 10 square kilometers has
been initiated. A "University Town" with a
footprint over 10 square kilometers is also planned in
Shenzhen. In which Beijing University will establish the
"Shenzhen School of Beijing University", Tsinghua
University will built the "Shenzhen Postgraduate School
of Tsinghua University" and China University of
Electronic Sciences also plans to set up new facilities. The
"North China (Oriental) University Town"
established in Langfang of Hebei Province has accommodated
several universities such as Beijing Union
University.
3. Curricula Reform Led to Real
Results, Primary and Middle Schools Began to Use New
Syllabuses and Textbooks
As a fundamental
measure for propelling competence education, reform of
primary- and middle-school curricula fermented for a long
time finally comes into being. The Ministry of Education
modified syllabuses of Chinese and Mathematics in primary
schools and Chinese, Mathematics and English in junior
middle schools and compiled new textbooks therefor. In fall
of 2000, the newly-admitted students in primary and junior
middle schools in most regions in China began to use these
new textbooks attaching great importance to activation of
creative awareness and cultivation of overall competence of
students. Textbook of Chinese for junior middle school
students collects large volume of ancient and modern Chinese
literary works and cultural masterpieces as well as foreign
ones to expand the reading so as to cultivate all-round
thinking ability in students. Furthermore, the new textbooks
emphasize cultivation of practice ability in students
through arranging many explorative activities to enable
students to identify and raise mathematical problems in
daily life. Another striking feature of the new textbooks is
that they reduce unnecessary burden for students by deleting
some too complicated and difficult contents to lower the
improper curricula requirements. For example, chapter of
Irrational Equation in the former Algebra for junior middle
school students has been shifted to textbook for senior
middle school students. First to everyone, the new
syllabuses and textbooks admit use of calculator in
Mathematics for junior middle school students, emphasize
cultivation of student's ability in collecting and
processing information and urge teachers to instruct
students to look for materials via reading room, library and
Web. The textbook of Chinese for junior middle school
students highlights exercise and training of spoken language
as an important task. The new syllabus of Chinese requires
that examination of Chinese shall be subjective and
grammatical, rhetoric and stylistic knowledge shall not be
included in the examination. In teaching, teachers shall pay
close attention to cultivation of self-taught ability in
students and guide them to read, write and communicate
more.
Trial use of new textbook of Chinese for
senior middle school students is being implemented in two
provinces and one municipality of Jiangxi, Shanxi and
Tianjin. It features establishing a paralleled textbook
compiling system of reading, writing and spoken
communication, emphasizing role of literature education,
enhancing component of literature education exhibited by a
proportion of over 60% Chinese and foreign literary works,
strengthening requirements for ancient poems and articles as
well as adding a batch of articles and literary works full
of modern information and representing times spirits
etc.
In senior middle schools in Shanghai,
research-oriented courses have been started to let students
identify problems themselves, select research projects,
determine research orientations, collect materials, conduct
comprehensive researches and draw conclusions. The research
projects can be either subject-specific or
subject-indifferent, either practical or rational, either
socially realistic or academic and either being of available
conclusion or being of no definite conclusion.
Implementation of such research-oriented courses effectively
motivates students' initiatives and is helpful for
cultivation of practical and creative abilities in
students.
However, there still has a long way
to cover to change the current situation of
"examination-oriented education". A survey
conducted by China Juvenile Research Center shows that about
half of middle school students have excessive burden of
study and insufficient sleep. 46.9% of primary and middle
school students do not have enough sleep (nine hours/day) as
regulated by the government. (Beijing Youth Daily, February
25, 2000) Excessive study burden is the major factor leading
to study-annoyance in primary and middle schools. In
accordance with a major investigation by China Juvenile
Research Center and Beijing Normal University, only 8.4% of
primary school students, 10.7% of junior middle school
students and 4.3% of senior middle school students think
that they go to schools because "they like studying in
schools". (China Woman Daily, March 1,
2000)
4. Significant Educational Problems in
Rural Areas
With increasing changes in higher
education, educational problems are become worse again in
rural areas. In 2000, the central government declared that
China had accomplished the expected tasks of "K9
popularization as a whole" and "youth illiteracy
elimination as a whole". However, we must be aware of
the fact that achievements made in K9 now are low-leveled
and rather weak. On one hand, "K9 popularization as a
whole" only refers to achieving the goal in areas
concentrating 85% of China's population but not in areas
accommodating 15% of the population ? mainly
poverty-stricken regions in West China. Even in places that
had realized the K9 popularization goal, the achievements
and quality of K9 initiative are not stable
enough--significant rebound of discontinuation rate has been
found in many areas. In recent years, discontinuation and
dropout rates of students in rural areas have been high and
discontinuation rate of junior middle school students has
increased. For instance, discontinuation rate of students in
junior middle schools nationwide was 3.23%, or a number of
1.67 million, in 1998. The rate in rural areas was 4.2%,
which was 0.97 percentage point higher than national
average. In some regions, the rate was as high as over 10%
(China Youth Daily, December 25, 2000). It should be noted
that the actual discontinuation rate in some rural areas is
obviously higher than the statistical results. In 50 primary
and junior middle schools in boundary areas and economically
undeveloped areas of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the
discontinuation rate in 1999 was 2.44% and 6.41%
respectively and "the conception of study
uselessness" rose again (Guangming Daily, July 24,
2000).
Due to significant insufficiency of
funds for compulsory education, nowadays there are dangerous
buildings in schools with total footprint of some 13 million
square meters across the country, which mainly distribute in
rural areas of Central and West China. Though the number of
dangerous buildings in schools is less than 1% of the total,
this proportion is higher in rural areas of Central and West
China regions with less-developed economy. In Ningxia Hui
Autonomous Region, proportion of dangerous buildings in
middle schools is 5.32% that in primary schools is 4.6%.
They are 4.05% and 3% in Xinjiang Uygar Autonomous Region
and 3.16% and 4.33% in Qinghai Province. In some
poverty-stricken counties, this figure climbs to 10%~15%.
For example, the proportion of dangerous buildings in
primary schools is as high as 28.3% in Jishishan Autonomous
County of Bao'an, Dongxiang and Sala Nationalities in Gansu
Province. Because of insufficient funds for schooling
facilities in 1970s and 1980s, low-quality construction and
"like-soybean-curd-residue" projects in late
1980s, in some regions, the proportion of dangerous
buildings is high, some buildings that had been used for
less than 10 years become dangerous ones and 2%~3% of the
buildings newly becoming dangerous annually further worsens
the situation (China Youth Daily, April 5, 2000). The
problem of overdue payment of teachers' salary has not
radically been solved in many regions. According to an
investigation by the National Educational Trade Union in
first half of 1999, the problem of overdue salary payment is
found in 2/3 of 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous
regions in the Mainland. To date, the payments in arrears
for teachers have been accumulated to over RMB10 billion. It
has amounted to RMB640 million even in Guangdong Province, a
province with relatively well-developed economy, in the
period from 1996 to now (Nanfang Daily, November 15,
2000).
Expensive tuition is still the decisive
reason behind rebound of discontinuation rate of primary and
middle school students in many poverty-stricken areas.
Though it is so called compulsory education, only several
yuan of tuition are exempted. Incidentals and textbook
expense over 100 yuan per term for primary school students
and 200 yuan per term for junior middle school students mean
too much for peasant families in mountainous areas, remote
areas and areas with poorly-developed economy in Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region (Guangming Daily, July 24, 2000).
The problem of unauthorized charges by schools in rural
areas is still significant. As declared by departments of
disciplinary inspection and supervision affiliated with the
Ministry of Education, the unauthorized charges in primary
and middle schools nationwide amounted to RMB238 million in
1999 and a total of RMB 148 million was returned (Beijing
Morning Post, April 14, 2000). At the same time, in order to
reduce peasant's burden, the central government blocks the
education surtax source from peasants and stipulates that no
fund raising for education is permitted in any regions. As a
result, the important economic source supporting basic
education in rural areas in the past several years is
blocked. Under such circumstance, problems such as how to
develop basic education and how to reinforce compulsory
education in rural area are becoming more
obvious.
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