86 4 Nine Year Compulsory Education ...
- The implementation of “one decade action program” and the additional sup-
port that development of the Western provinces are receiving, has led to gratify-
ing achievements in implementing nine-year compulsory education in Zhaojue
County. Many officials, teachers and other members of the community have
contributed to the gains that have been made. But the analysis illustrates that
there is a road still to travel. There is a risk that the growth in participation that
has been achieved will stall if steps are not taken to address the issues raised in
the case study on both the supply and the demand side. The differences between
Zhaojue and Ansai and Tongzhou remain striking, and mean that children in
Zhaojue continue to have much less chance of progressing to the end of junior
secondary and of learning in an environment that promotes successful achieve-
ment of national learning goals.
4.8 Post Script to Cast Studies
Chapters 2 , 3 and 4 have explored the changing landscape of basic education in
three places in China over a period of unprecedented social and economic change.
It may not be an exaggeration to say that each area has changed more in the last
25 years than it did in the last 250 years. The map of educational provision has
been rewritten both as a response to social and economic change and in order to
anticipate such change. The case studies therefore give a unique insight into how
China has moved from lower enrolment rates to near universalisation of access
except in remote areas, how school systems have adapted and shown resilience
in responding to changed circumstances, and how consistency of purpose and
resource mobilisation has led to greatly improved indicators of educational devel-
opment, albeit that much remains to be achieved.
The next four chapters explore specific themes that have shaped the transitions
and will continue to do so well into the 21st century. Chapter 5 considers teacher
issues, especially the persistence of substitute teachers in the less developed parts
of the system, and the enduring concerns about conditions of service, the quality
of teachers, and more efficient teacher deployment. Chapter 6 explores the sys-
tem for managing basic education and how various kinds of decentralised man-
agement failed to deliver services universally or equitably and how current policy
favours more financial centralisation and linking authority with accountability for
service delivery. Chapter 7 provides more insights into children affected by dif-
ferent marginalities. These include migrant status, left behind children, gender
discrimination, HIV/AIDs orphans, and national minorities. Chapter 8 discusses
school location planning and the impact of demographic change on school size
and efficiency. The development of boarding schools at all levels in rural areas has
become a large scale phenomenon both as a result of policy and an inevitable con-
sequence of urbanisation and falling birth rates.