Two Decades of Basic Education in Rural China

50 3 Nine Year Compulsory Education in a Poor District ...

low achieving. Not surprisingly the “left behind” children interviewed wanted to
see their parents more frequently.
Not surprisingly across the schools in Huaziping and Yanhewan there were
more transfers of students out than into the system, reflecting the fact that migra-
tion was occurring. Within the system most of the transfers were towards the
central primary schools as these grew in size and smaller schools were merged.
Unlike in Tonzhou there are very few immigrants in the schools in the two town-
ships and it was only possible to identify about 10 cases a year across all the
schools.
Falling enrolments across the county are reflected in Huaziping (Fig. 3.1). In
2001 over 2050 primary students were enrolled. By 2008 the number fell to 1344,
which was similar to the level in 1990 when enrolment rates were much lower. In
most years grade 1 enrolments were less than grade 6 indicating that total enrol-
ments are declining. These patterns of enrolment are in striking contrast to the pat-
tern in 1990 shown by the dotted line. Then there was a high rate of attrition and
grade 6 enrolments were less than a quarter of those in grade 1. The pattern of
enrolment has been transformed.
The Huaziping Central Primary School has benefitted from the policy of ration-
alization and its enrolments have experienced less of a decline than the township
as a whole. From 2002 onwards it is clear that additional students are being trans-
ferred into the school in grade 3 and grade 5 from incomplete schools as shown
by the steep increases in these grades. Overall enrolments have fluctuated with
between around 1150 to 1300 enrolled in total (Fig. 3.2).
These enrolment changes are linked to the decline in the school age population
which was 1440 in 2001/02 to 1160 in 2005/06. They also reflect changes in the

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grade 1grade2 grade3 grade4 grade5 grade6

Grade

Enrolmen

t

2001/02

2002/03

2003/04

2004/05

2005/06

2007/08

1990/91

Fig. 3.1 Enrolment in primary schools in Huaziping (2001/02–2005/06)