120 6 Financing Compulsory Education in Rural Areas: The Development ...
6.2.2 “Local Responsibility, Multi-level Management”
(1985–2000)
Big changes occurred in the aftermath of the new awakening and the radical
swings in policy after 1978. A more open system of public administration was
possible with different patterns of responsibility. The “Four Modernizations”
stressed the importance of education for China’s development and a large num-
ber of related laws and policy texts began to be published. In 1985, the Decision
on the Reform of Education System by the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of China stated that “Now it is completely necessary and possible to make
the implementation of Nine year compulsory education a great priority which
will enhance the quality of the people and the prosperity of the country. We will
mobilize the whole party, whole society and all the nationalities to implement it
actively and step by step and with greatest efforts”. In 1986 the Chinese govern-
ment issued the Nine Year Compulsory Education Law, which was the first legisla-
tion on compulsory education in China and signified that basic education entered a
new historical period [Wu Degang].
From then on, universal compulsory education became the focal point of the
national educational reform and development. The government greatly increased
educational investment. In 1980, the total educational investment was 11.4 billion
yuan[16], 3.9 billion more than 7.5 billion yuan in 1978. Despite this the country
was at the beginning of reform process and the economic foundations were very
weak. Although regulations and long-term planning programs for compulsory
education had been issued, adequate funding was not in place and the financial
and management system owed more to the past than the demands of the future.
Township, village and peasants played the major role in financing rural compul-
sory education supported by the other channels of fund raising. It was a typical
lower-level-centered investment system and it unfolded over three time periods.
6.2.2.1 “Local Responsibility, Multi-level Management, and Township
Centered Mechanism” (1985–1994)
The first phase ran from 1985 to 1994. In the mid-1980s, rural education in China
was still very weak, and many school age children, especially girls, were unable
to complete 5-year primary education leading to persistent illiteracy and semi-
illiteracy. School premises were in short supply with poor conditions, dangerous
classrooms and not enough desks and chairs, basic teaching equipment. The non
salary recurrent fund of school operation were often non existent. The wages of
rural school teachers administered by lower level authorities were very low and
payment often delayed with consequences for the quantity and quality of universal
compulsory education.
To address these issues the reform of administrative and funding system
of basic education from centralized to decentralized was prioritized. In 1985,