202 9 Transitions and Challenges for the Development of Basic Education
9.3 Growing Needs to Address Inequalities
Twenty five years after the first Compulsory Education Law nine-year participa-
tion in compulsory education is a reality in many parts of China. In 1991 there
was considerable inequality between and within the three case study districts.
Teachers’ income, expenditure per student, pupil teacher ratios, amount of books
and desks and chairs per child and other indicators varied across sites by a fac-
tor of three or more. There was clearly a risk that rapid growth might exacerbate
rather than reduce these differences. Such was the increasing concern about grow-
ing inequalities that a revised Compulsory Education Law was issued in 2006.
This, and the Mid and Long Term Educational Development Programme (2010–
2020) published in 2010 identified several major equity issues for attention. The
need for balanced development of basic education has at least four dimensions.
9.3.1 Disparities Between Regions
Firstly, in many areas physical access has not been assured. However, there remain
large gaps in teaching quality, the availability of resources for learning, and learn-
ing outcomes. The three main concerns are first with disparities between regions.
In the economically more developed areas parents have much higher incomes and
are willing to invest more in their children’s education. This enables them to sup-
port schools more actively, contribute financial and non financial resources, and
encourage the employment of high quality teachers who may be paid additional
income over and above their public salaries. State resources, and those of parents,
are less in under developed regions. This has negative impacts on investment into
the development of compulsory education which is not compensated for suffi-
ciently by transfers to the poorest regions (Zhang and Zou 2010 ).
Regional disparities noted by the Task Force on Narrowing the Gap in 2005
indicated that variations between the eastern, middle and western Provinces
in overall expenditure per student. In 2001 average spending per student at pri-
mary and junior secondary level in the middle region of China was 41 and 44 %
respectively of that in the eastern region; the figures were 48 and 56 % for primary
and junior secondary in the western region. Thus children in the more developed
eastern region had nearly twice as much spent on them per student. Task Force
( 2005 : 19/20). By 2010 the figures for the middle region were 45 and 54 %, and
for the western region 50 and 56 %. The gap had closed most between the east-
ern and middle regions, but had not changed much between the eastern region
and the west. Spending on non-salary items has become more equitable. In 2001
in primary and junior secondary in the middle region the allocation was only 15
and 18 % of that in the eastern region. In the west it was 25 and 27 %. By 2010
in the middle region it had reached 46 and 61 %, and in the west 62 and 74 %.
This reflects the implementation of new policies to give subsidies to poor students