158 7 Marginalised Children and Universal Basic Education
national minorities has six fundamental policy dimensions. These are (i) Giving
Priorities and Preferential Support to Education for Ethnic Minorities in the
Whole Development Plan; (ii) Greatly Enhancing the Educational Level of Ethnic
Minority People; (iii) Making Education in Ethnic Unity an Important Part
for Education Development; (iv) Promoting Bilingual Education as Important
Measures of Improving Livelihood of Ethnic communities; (v) Building up the
Teachers’ Contingent for Improving Quality of Education for Ethnic Minorities;
(vi) Promoting National Support with Self-reliance in Minority-inhabited Areas.
The ambition is to reduce educational inequalities through a mixture of
increased subsidies and investments in educational infrastructure, increased incen-
tives and improved conditions of work for teachers, and development of pedagogy
and curriculum that can contribute to social cohesion and economic development.
To this end the promise is to target public resources on minority-inhabited areas
in order to enhance the level of development of education in an all round way
and accelerate the development of educational courses for ethnic minorities. This
should promote the economic and social development of minority-inhabited areas
and promote unity, common prosperity and development among different nation-
alities. In future, the priority will be given to the equalization of basic public edu-
cation service, to accelerate the narrowing of the gaps in education development
levels between minority-inhabited areas and national average, promote the great-
leap-forward development of education for ethnic minorities, gradually at the
same path with national development, and greatly enhance the human resources
development in minority areas and minority-inhabited areas.
7.7 Conclusions and Policy Insights
Educational gaps and inequalities are important indicators of more general social
and economic gaps. Gaps in achievement and attainment between the majority of
children and those marginalized by migration, gender, health status and ethnic-
ity are potential sources of economic loss and social conflict. Many reasons can
be cited to explain these gaps and a joint effort of the whole society is needed to
narrow the gaps. Government has to take the leading responsibility and promote
a more equitable system to limit and narrow the gaps between groups with dis-
advantage and the rest. Targeted investment in education equality and balanced
development are the priority considerations. This implies balanced development
of educational finance and acting on the principle of adjusting for special needs,
which means investing more in vulnerable groups, such as students of minorities
and those in remote areas as well as poor students and females. In summary this
chapter identifies some ways forward.