Two Decades of Basic Education in Rural China

77

Surprisingly performance in Yi language was weak, but this is likely to be because
in most schools only two periods a week are allocated to the subject and much
more time is given to learning Chinese since they are Model 2 schools. There is a
wide gap between junior secondary schools’ scores and prefecture averages. This
is particularly wide in subjects other than the core curriculum subjects of Chinese
and mathematics. Low achievement may reflect the disadvantages that many chil-
dren bring with them from their primary schools and problems with maintaining
standards and motivation in relatively remote locations. Overall it appears many
children in Zhaojue are performing well below levels of achievement in Tongxian.
Zhaojue has suffered from exposure to the HIV/AIDs pandemic. Its location is
such that Zhaojue County has been the transhipment point for trafficking drugs.
It may also have been affected by Zhaojue migrant labour returning home with
infections. In the late 1990s mortality from AIDs became more evident and the
number of single and double orphans began to increase. Several of the central
primary schools now have classes for orphans and most of these are sponsored
by non government organisations and philanthropists. Though it is difficult to
establish how many orphans there are, these orphan classes account for 5–10 %
of enrolment in the central primary school and do not include all orphans. For
orphans in special classes the room and board is free. But there is no subsidy or
allowance for the orphans in common classes.
It was not possible to establish systematically how effective special provision
was in Zhaojue. Orphans appeared grouped in single classes sponsored by ben-
efactors, but not all grades had such classes. It was not clear what the rationale
was for such grouping. Neither did it seem equitable that some orphans were spon-
sored in these special classes and others were not. Or why some were housed in

Table 4.1 Timetable for grade 5—Zhaojue
Time Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
10:00–10:30 Morning
reading

Chinese Math Chinese Math Chinese

10:40–11:20 First

lesson

Chinese Math Chinese Math Chinese

11:30–12:10 Second

lesson

Math Chinese Chinese Chinese Math

12:20–13:00 Third

lesson

Math Chinese

remote

education

Math

broadcast

Chinese

broadcast

Math remote

education

13:00–13:40 Exercise or Ashiqie

13:40–14:20 Fourth

lesson

Traditional

education

Music Math Yi language Labor

14:30–15:10 Fifth

lesson

Traditional

education

Art Ideological

education

Yi language PE

15:20–16:00 Sixth

lesson

Safety

education

PE PE Science School

activities

16:00–16:30 Cleaning

4.3 The Evolution of Nine Year Compulsory ...