157families provide students with more investment in education, contribute directly to
improved teaching conditions, and support a good educational environment. The
development of education in turn promotes economic development, and there is a
virtuous circle. In underdeveloped minority areas, government and families can-
not provide sufficient investment in education, schools have poor infrastructure
and physical conditions, students achievement is lower, and this constrains and
affects economic development. At its worst there is a vicious circle and this results
in reinforcing educational under development.
Second, the rates of change in social and economic development in the majority
ethnic community have been unprecedented and have increased the gap between
the majority community and national minorities in living standards and educa-
tional attainment. Ethnic minority areas have had to respond to changes in their
external environment that have begun to change established ways of life and intro-
duce new patterns of economic activity (e.g. decline in pastoralism and growth of
mechanized agriculture, migrant labour), and social organization (the development
of communication networks and mass media, mass consumption of manufactured
goods, tourism etc.). These changes are affecting attitudes to education, the value
of educational qualifications, and traditional attitudes towards the education of
boys and girls. Patriarchal and neo-feudal consciousness persists but is weakened
by modernization as is gender discrimination in education. These developments
are complex and sometimes unpredictable and they are more exogenously than
endogenously driven with risks for social cohesion and consistent development.
Third, education investment in national minority areas has benefitted from vari-
ous subsidies designed to reduce inequalities between districts but these efforts have
been insufficient to redress many years of historical neglect. Infrastructure remains
poor, school transport and school feeding remain seriously problematic in many
national minority areas, and learning materials remain in short supply. Most impor-
tantly teacher shortages persist for several reasons. The scarce supply of national
minority students reaching university level restricts the numbers of national minor-
ity children who could become teachers. Han teachers generally do not wish to
serve in national minority areas and if they do may not stay for long. Language
issues remain in addressing bi-lingualism. Community supported teachers (minban)
still remain in many areas despite efforts to regularise their contracts. Conditions in
many areas are much harsher than in the large modern cities that have developed,
class sizes can be very large and professional support for teachers very distant. Thus
many ethnic minority systems are unable to attract and retain outstanding teachers,
local teacher teaching quality is generally low, and many students do not have the
opportunity to experience inspiration and well resourced learning.
7.6.2 Equity and National Minorities
As China has developed rapidly there have been growing concerns for equity
between the more and less developed Provinces, and between the majority popu-
lation and national minorities. The framework for Chinese government policy on