Two Decades of Basic Education in Rural China

51

numbers enrolled and overage. In 2001 there were over 600 non-school age pupils
enrolled, mostly over the age of 13 years. By 2006 there were only 140 overage
children in the system. School mergers have caused the distance between home
and school to increase. Parents worry about safety of their children on the road.
This can lead some them to send their children to school later than 7 years old and
become overage.
The imbalance in enrolment of girls and boys was significant in 1990. At that
time girls’ enrolments were about 80 % of boys’ in grade 1, and they were less
than 60 % of those of boys in grade 5. Now the proportion of girls averages about
95 % of the number of boys in Huaziping. This represents a substantial improve-
ment. In Yanhewen girls have been disadvantaged but now are also about 95 % of
total primary enrolment.
Patterns of changing enrolment have many similarities in Yanhewan. Total
enrolment in the central primary school has fallen from 850 in 2005 to 570
in 2009. Each year more graduated than entered as new enrolments so the total
enrolled fell. The only complete primary school has seen enrolments drop from
230 to 60 between 2000 and 2008. And some of the remaining incomplete schools
have less than 15 children. Both in Huaziping and Yanhewan incomplete pri-
mary schools increasingly have only the lowest grades and have more preschool
children than children in grades 1 and 2. Figure 3.3 shows how enrolments have
changed in the central primary school as students have been transferred into it.
Though overall enrolment has fallen, the higher grades have consistently enrolled
more than the lower grades as a result of inward transfers and falling entry rates as
in Huaziping.

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Grade1Grade2 Grade3Grade4 Grade5 Grade6

Grade

Enrolmen

t

2000/01

2001/02

2002/03

2003/04

2006/07

2007/08

Fig. 3.2 Enrolments in Huaziping central primary school

3.3 The Evolution of Nine Year Compulsory Education