68 4 Nine Year Compulsory Education ...
Transport infrastructure remains poorly developed. Though the highway to
Xichang has been upgraded and is now fully asphalted, roads beyond Zhaojue
remain unsurfaced and can become impassable when there is heavy rain. New vil-
lage style housing is being constructed along the main valley and Yi people are
being offered subsidies to adopt a more sedentary pattern of livelihood and life-
style. This is creating communities which are large enough to support conven-
tional schools mostly located along the roads along the valley floors.
The county has always been poor since it has no industry of magnitude that can
generate revenue on scale. The county budget continues to depend on subsidies
from higher levels to support the costs of its services including education. Though
urban residents appear to have an average income of as much as 11,700 yuan per
year, few enjoy this level of income since most of the population is rural and some
is on the margins of the cash economy. Rural average incomes are estimated at
only 2600 yuan per year. Zhaojue is conspicuously much poorer than Tongzhou
and Ansai (Map 4.1).
What had changed between 1990 and 2010 was that HIV/AIDS had appeared
in the Yi population and had produced substantial numbers of single and double
orphan children, many of who had difficulty in consistently accessing schooling.
The source of the problem is attributed locally to illicit use of intravenous drugs
with shared needles, and to the social impact of opportunities for Yi people to
temporarily migrate to other parts of China with surplus demand for labour. The
seriousness of this development is now recognized, and public campaigns have
sensitized the population to the risks and transmission vectors.
Before 1950 the Yi people had a feudal society with traditional landowners and
serfs working the cultivatable land and herding. Yields were very low, basic needs
of shelter and nutrition went unmet for many, and security was problematic as rival
clans fought over resources. Since 1956 and especially since the 1980s the county
government has invested in agriculture and livestock and has introduced rotation
of crops and cultivation of the grassland. Yields have increased and sheep have
become an important source of income on planted grasslands. Most output remains
related directly to agriculture. Thus, though economic development is taking place
the economy of Zhaojue is small scale and under developed (Lewin 1995 ).
As a national minority Yi people are not subject to the one child policy and
may have several children (Lewin and Xu 1989 ). In 1990 large families were com-
mon and many had several brothers and sisters. Typically families had two or
three school age children. This also appeared to be the case in 2010. The birth rate
therefore remains much higher than that in Ansai and Tongzhou and there is no
clear indication that it has begun to fall.
Zhaojue has benefitted from China’s investment in the development of the
Western Regions which has directed substantial resources into infrastructure and
education and health. Over the last three years there has been a push to increase
initial enrolments in school and to construct and rehabilitate school buildings. This
has proceeded in parallel with investments in improving roads and building houses
in new villages along the valley floor. Zhaojue County Town is developing and is
a vibrant market town. Its main streets include retail outlets, small hotels, banks