135Mechanism”, not least to maintain their income if payment was late or reduced
in size. In Zhaojue it was true that educational funding had been increasing now
that the level of educational expenditure was guaranteed. Nevertheless there were
examples where funds that were allocated were withheld above school level, and
central schools continued to receive resources that were not passed on to compre-
hensive and the incomplete schools.
Second, the “New Mechanism” resulted in “crowding-out effects”. In some
areas additional central government investment has been accompanied by a fall in
the total resources available (Fan and Zhu 2010 ; Song 2006 ; Zhu 2007 ). The new
system impaired some of the initiatives that the township government used previ-
ously to raise funds and lessened the incentives to be pro-active.
Third, allocations were not always sufficient for purpose (Zhang 2009 ) and this
limits policy implementation. For example, in Zhaojue rates of boarding are high
accounting for 34 percent of the total students, with the highest rate in primary
school reaching over 60 percent. Although the dormitories are clean, rooms with
a dozen square meters accommodate ten students or more. There were five side-
by-side beds and there were no tables and chairs or other furniture and bathroom
shared with many other rooms. Cafeterias were small in some schools, and there
were no places for students to have meals so students had to have meals in class-
rooms, dormitories or just sit on the ground.
6.5 Conclusions
The evolution of management and funding system of rural compulsory educa-
tion has experienced shifts in responsibility to a “higher center” than the village
and township for expenditure on rural compulsory finance. Government becomes
the major investor of compulsory education. And it pays close attention to poor
regions and disadvantaged groups, providing support to them through special edu-
cation funds. The “New Mechanism” is an important reform of the finance sys-
tem in rural compulsory education. It includes compulsory education within the
envelope of public financial security. Overall the rural compulsory education man-
agement and fund guarantee system has resulted in significant gains, but still has
shortfalls. Based on the results of the analysis in this chapter and evidence from
the fieldwork studies several ways forward can be identified.
6.5.1 Better Relationships Between Central
and Local Government
Compulsory education by nature is mandatory and enforced by law and it is
organized and provided by the state. Thus the state should be the main actor for
implementation and the funding for implementing compulsory education should
6.4 Remaining Challenges