60 3 Nine Year Compulsory Education in a Poor District ...
No detailed inventory of facilities was possible in this research. However,
it is possible to comment on adequacy, and some of the changes that have taken
place. The fabric and facilities of the central primary schools and junior second-
ary schools are now of a good standard for rural schools. They include computer
rooms, library, science laboratories, playgrounds, sports facilities, and the second-
ary schools have a campus network for the internet. Central schools have large
campuses of 10,000–20,000 m^2 and a full range of facilities to support learning.
Infrastructure in some of the incomplete schools has improved. It is clear that
major investment has taken place and that learning conditions have been enhanced
greatly since the 1990s.
There are still some issues. Students’ dormitories in the central primary school
and junior secondary school have improved since 1990 when they were bare
rooms with mattresses on the floor. However, they remain over crowded with over
20 children in about 10 m^2 and no furniture apart from beds, and no adjacent toi-
lets. Some schools have no communal space and food is eaten in dormitories or
sitting on the floor. The incomplete primary schools that remain are located in a
variety of structures which are not necessarily purpose built as schools. Often they
are attached to the village committee office building or a community hall. They
generally do not have special facilities e.g. library, playground and sports facili-
ties. However, they are no longer the dangerous and unsatisfactory cave schools
that existed in 1990.
3.6 The Development of Boarding Schools
About 34 % of all primary students in Ansai County in 2006/07 were boarding. In
some schools boarders were the majority of children accounting for over 60 % of
total enrolment. Almost all those transferred from incomplete primary to central
primary schools need to live in the school. Huaziping Central Primary had 282
boarders in 2008/09 of whom 118 were girls accounting for 26 % of all the stu-
dents. In Yanhewan Central Primary School there were 337 boarders, accounting
for 54 % of the total enrolment. In 2006/07 67 % of all junior secondary children
were boarding. The highest proportion of boarders was over 90 % in Yanhewan
Secondary School, and the lowest was 44 %. The proportion of boarders in
Huaziping Secondary School was 80 %. In Yanhewan in 1990 only 24 % boarded
indicating that there has been a major shift in practice to favour more boarding.
This will have increased costs per student.
School work schedules vary but a typical pattern is provided by Yanhewan
Central Primary School. Students get up at 6:00 am and then take the seven formal
classes every morning. In addition there are morning reading classes, and extra-
curricular activities after school. Boarders have to take two additional evening
classes, 40 min per class, until 21:00, and 21:30 is bedtime. The regime at second-
ary level is similar but more intensive with extended evening study periods up to
22.30 (Table 3.3).