187and one subsidy” does help guarantee admission to school but does not cover all
the subsequent costs. After the school mergers, the education cost for rural house-
holds having school boarders increased increased 673.5 yuan every year in aver-
age in the mid part of China, and 787.8 in the west part. Although some students
can get support for boarding, it is quite low.
Third, the age of boarding students has become younger and younger. A study
of 870 primary boarding students in rural schools conducted by Northeast Normal
University in 2008 indicated that 27.1 % were grade 1 students, 13.6 % were grade
2 students, 13.3 % were grade 3 students. Grade 1–3 were 55.4 % of the total.
These younger students have no ability to look after themselves, and are at the age
of needing a lot of family care and love. Separating from home at so young age
can lead to psychological health problem as a result of loss of parents’ care.
Fourth, as also discussed above, the living conditions in Ansai and Zhaojue in
boarding schools are very basic within only a small simple dormitory space and
little or no access to a stimulating learning environment. Many boarding schools
were established in a hurry without basic resources and facilities in place and
cannot meet the needs of boarding students. The management of caring system,
proper dining hall, low standards of diet for students, the lack of recreation activ-
ities of students and heavy study burden have negative impact on students psy-
chological and physical health. “Hygiene Facility Building and Management
Regulation of Rural Boarding Schools” issued by MoE in 2011 put forward the
requirements for drinking water facilities, dormitory, dining hall, showering and
lavatory facilities, facilities for garbage and sewage treatment. It also required
that “The average indoor living area for each person should not be smaller than
3 square meters. Each student should have certain storage space, one bed for one
person and provide washbasin for each student”. But most of these requirements
cannot be implemented in reality.
The conditions can have an adverse impact on parent-child relationships, and
students’ mental and physical development, as well as their academic achieve-
ment. Moreover diet and nutrition is another common challenge in rural areas.
We have described the situation in Zhaojue where meat is only available once a
month to students and many children appear stunted. Other research (Luo et al.
2009 ) conducted in Shanxi province shows that boarding students are more
likely to suffer from under nutrition than are boarding students. Using the WHO’
index, they have found most boarding students’ growth and development levels
are below average. Shortages of capital for construction are clearly a problem in
many places although additional resources have been allocated for school merg-
ers. Accommodation remains insufficient, diet and nutrition problematic, and there
appear to few training programs related to solving the problems.
Fifth, because of the limitations of transport and accommodation many children
attending schools in rural areas are over age and too old for their grade. Education
professionals interviewed in fieldwork had a low level of awareness of the prob-
lems of over age enrolment and progression and of repetition practices. In the pro-
cess of transferring from incomplete to complete primary schools it appears that
many boarding students had to repeat years not least because of the problems of
8.6 Achievements and Problems of School Mapping Development