176 8 School Mapping and Boarding in the Context ...
allow boarding schools to be built when necessary and where conditions allowed
(Pang and Han 2005 ). In the same year, in the national working conference on
basic education conveyed by the State Council, adjustment of primary and second-
ary school layout was listed as one of the present priorities for rural compulsory
education. Since then “the school for every village” pattern was gradually replaced
by the “concentrating schooling” pattern (Zhang 2012 ).
Under these reforms the County governments were the main actor in planning
local educational development strategies and this was enshrined in the Notice on
Perfecting Rural Compulsory Education Management System of General Office
of the State Council in 2002. In The Decision on Further Strengthening Rural
Education Work of the State Council issued in September 2003, the central gov-
ernment emphasized that the core of rural basic education development was to
consolidate dangerous or inadequate school buildings, and construct new junior
secondary boarding to expand enrolment at this level. Both increased numbers
of boarding schools and greater average school size were stressed. The intention
was that rationalization and merger would release resources that could be invested
in improving the quality of rural schools and particularly in rural preschool
education.
The next development was that the Department of Finance (DoF) issued two
documents, the Notice on Perfecting Rural Compulsory Education Management
System and the Regulations of Special Funds for Primary and Secondary School
Layout Adjustment in 2003. These reinforced the direction of travel of policy
to rationalize schools and were further reinforced by the endorsement of the
Department of Education (DoE) in 2005. This confirmed that under enrolled and
under performing schools that fail to attract students and have low quality would
be shut down in the process of constructing and rebuilding new and larger schools.
The emerging problem of “Large-Classes” in larger urban centres was first men-
tioned at this time as a growing issue.
The next development introduced new concerns for equity and more bal-
anced development which could close the gaps between more and less advanced
counties. The Opinion on Reinforcing the Reform and Inspection of the Funding
Mechanism for Rural Compulsory Education was promulgated by the DoE and
DoF jointly in 2006 and instructed local governments to inspect and ensure the
balanced development of rural compulsory education, including educational
resource allocation, identification of weak links in implementation, and the reduc-
tion in gaps between regions and schools. This new policy stressed the great
importance of “balanced educational development” for the universalization of
compulsory education.
Many other specific opinions and guidance were offered by the State Council,
DoE and other administrative organizations. Thus the National Education Plans in
the 11th Five-year and the New Compulsory Education Law both prioritized the
renovation of rural school building to ensure safety and consolidate enrolments
on well provided sites. The National Medium and Long-term Education Reform
and Development Plan Outline (2010–2020) published in 2010 by the central
government re-emphasized the commitments to the development of preschools.