Two Decades of Basic Education in Rural China

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A financial subsidy of 50 yuan per month for primary boarding students and
70 for secondary is provided by central government. These amounts were set in
2008 and have been falling behind inflation. As a result Zhaojue government has
announced Plans for subsidizing boarding students 2008– 2015 indicating that
the amount will increase to 120 yuan for primary and 150 yuan for secondary per
month in 2015.
Boarding schools are inevitable in mountainous areas such as Zhaojue, They
are the only way of solving the problems of access created by low population den-
sity, difficult terrain and poor transport infrastructure. But boarding also generates
problems in Zhaojue. The first issue is concerned with space and accommodation.
Standard dormitory rooms are built to accommodate 10 students, but often accom-
modate 20 or more with over crowding and shared beds. Second, in Zhaojue the
tradition is to take two meals a day at school at 10 am and 4 pm. A typical meal is
rice with potato and pickled cabbage soup. Meat was only available once a month
in schools visited. Field data indicated that children felt the food at school was bet-
ter than home cooking, but this only seemed to confirm how nutritionally poor the
normal diet was. Many children in this area are stunted and under size for their age.
Third, some schools are experimenting with boarding from grade 1 e.g. in Bier
village central school in Zhaojue. More commonly as in the Sikai area boarding
generally starts at grade 4. In Sikai there are over 550 boarders. These are sup-
ported with the national “two exemptions and one subsidy” policy which provides
for free textbooks and no tuition fees, and a subsidy for children who are board-
ing and the Sichuan provincial “ten year education revitalization plan”. The chil-
dren studying in Zhaojue therefore have no need to pay tuitions and textbook fees,

Table 8.8 No. of boarding

9.2.5 Boarding and Small Schools

in Zhaojie (2000–2013)

Year No. of boarding schools No. of boarding students

Primary Junior

secondary

Primary Junior

secondary

2000 41 4 6609 951

2001 41 4 4741 1213

2002 41 4 4975 1394

2003 41 4 4076 1284

2004 41 4 4135 1362

2005 41 10 4217 1303

2006 41 10 4242 2977

2007 41 9 5859 5153

2008 41 9 6569 6069

2009 40 9 7142 6183

2010 40 9 8718 6833

2011 34 9 8407 6234

2012 42 9 8357 6032

2013 42 9 8691 6790

2014 46 9 9726 6762

8.5 Development of Boarding Schools and Related Issues