Educational Evolution and Reform

1. Educational Statistics in 1999

According to Bulletin of Statistics on National Education Development in 1999 issued by the Ministry of Education, the Nine-year Compulsory Education (abbreviated as K9 thereafter) has covered 80% of China's population, a total of 2430 counties (prefectures, districts) including 145 county-level administrative precincts have come up to the K9 initiative indexes and 9 provinces and municipalities have accomplished the K9 campaign as required.

Due to adjustment of school layout and decrease of school-age population, primary schools, the admission and enrollment decrease in different measures. However, primary school enrollment rate continues to increase and gender difference in enrollment between boys and girls is diminishing. Enrollment rate of primary-school-age children (calculated in accordance with corresponding schooling ages and schooling lengths in respective regions) reaches 99.09%, which is 0.16 percentage points higher than that of the last year. The enrollment rate of primary-school-age boys is 99.1% and that of school-age girls 99.0%. The gender difference decreases from last year's 0.14 percentage points to this year's 0.1 percentage points. Primary-school-student discontinuation rate is 0.90%, which is 0.03 percentage points lower than that of the last year. Primary school five-year retention rate is 92.48% and the rate for girls 92.62%.

Up-to-standard rate in terms of educational background of primary school teachers increases and number of peasant-teachers greatly decreases. By the end of 1999, China had a primary-school teaching and administrative staff of 6.4712 million, 25,600 over the previous year. Among them, 5.8605 million are full-time teachers, 41,100 over the previous year. Of these full-time teachers, 496,600 are peasant-teachers, 306,300 fewer than the previous year. Number of peasant-teachers accounts for 8.47% of the total, decreasing by 5.33%. Up-to-standard rate in terms of educational background of primary school teachers is 95.9% or 1.3 percentage points over previous year. Student/teacher ratio in primary schools is 23.12:1, which is lower as compared with 24.0:1 in the last year.

Junior-middle-school admission and enrollment increase, while both gross enrollment rate and discontinuation rate rise. There are 64,400 junior middle schools nationwide, 1,000 fewer than previous year; admission of 21.8344 million students, 1.8719 million over last year; 58.1165 million of enrollment, 3.6192 million over previous year; 16.1394 million graduates, increasing by 108,400 over past year; gross enrollment rate of 88.6%, rising for 1.3 percentage points over past year; discontinuation rate of 3.28%, rising for 0.05 percentage points; enrollment quotas of junior-middle-school graduates of 50%; up-to-standard rate in terms of educational background of junior-middle-school teachers of 85.50%, increasing by 2.20 percentage points. The student/teacher ratio is 18.23:1, which is higher than 17.56:1 of the last year. Of schoolhouses in all primary and junior middle schools nationwide, 0.70% is dilapidated building. This proportion is 0.3 percentage point lower than that in the last year.

As for senior-middle-school education, China has a total of 38,600 schools (including ordinary senior middle schools, vocational high schools, technical secondary schools, polytechnic schools, adult technical secondary schools and adult high schools) with an admission of 9.0526 million and enrollment of 25.1037 million. Amongst these schools, high-school-level vocational schools (including vocational high schools, technical secondary schools, polytechnic schools and adult technical secondary schools) have an admission of 4.7327 million and enrollment of 14.1751 million, accounting for 52.28% and 56.47% of total high-school admission and enrollment respectively.

Ordinary senior middle school education is developing fast. China has 14,100 ordinary senior middle schools, or 179 over the previous year; an admission of 3.9632 million, increasing by 367,700 or 10.23%; enrollment of 10.4971, increasing by 1.1171 million; 2.6291 million graduates, or 111,300 over the past year; 692,400 full-time teachers, increasing by 50,000. The student/teacher ratio is 15.2:1, which is slightly higher than 14.6:1 of the last year. The up-to-standard rate in terms of educational background of teachers in ordinary senior middle schools is 65.85%, which is 2.36 percentage points higher than that of the last year.

Number of high-school-level vocational schools, admission and enrollment decrease slightly. The pre-employment high-school education (including vocational high schools, technical secondary schools and polytechnic schools) offer seats of 3.753 million, decreasing by 669,600 compared with past year; enrollment of 11.1539 million, reducing by 973,100. China has 8,317 vocational high schools, decreasing by 285. They offer seats of 1.6038 million, decreasing by 223,000; have total enrollment of 4.4384 million, 110,800 lower than the past year; 1.4369 million graduates, increasing by 38,400.
Key moves have been made in management system reform and layout restructuring of higher education. In 1999, number of colleges and universities is 1,942, decreasing by 49 than previous year. The number of common colleges and universities is 1,071, or 49 over the previous year. Of them, 248 are attached to various ministries and commissions of the central government, decreasing by 15. The number of adult colleges and universities is 871, decreasing by 91. Among them, 119 are attached to various ministries and commissions of the central government, decreasing by 44. Of the 775 organizations eligible for offering seats to postgraduate students, 446 are colleges and universities and 329 scientific research institutions.

Admission expansion of colleges and universities has successfully been implemented, leading to significant increase of seats offered. Number of postgraduate students admitted is 92,200, increasing by 19,700 or 21.38%. Admission into junior college and bachelor programs is 2.7545 million, increasing by 669,500 or 24.31%. Of them, 1.5968 million admitted into junior and common colleges, increasing by 513,200 or 47.4% over past year, that admitted into adult junior and common colleges (including common programs of TV colleges) is 1.1577 million, increasing by 156,300 or 15.6%. Enrollment in junior and common colleges is 7.1891 million, increasing by 958,200. Of them, 4.1342 million are studying in common colleges and universities, increasing by 725,500 over past year; and 3.0549 million are in adult colleges and universities, increasing by 232,700. Registration for self-taught examinations of higher education is 13.0516 million person-times and 422,000 got their junior college certificates or diplomas. Gross enrollment ratio of higher education is 10.5% or 0.7 percentage points over last year.
Average enrollment and student/teacher ratio in common colleges and universities have been greatly promoted. The average full-time enrollment in common colleges and universities increases from last year's 3,335 students/college to this year's 3,815 students/college. Converting postgraduate students, international students, refreshing program students, correspondence-based college students and off-the-job adult trainees into common college students, the average student/teacher ratio increases from last year's 11.6:1 to this year's 13.4:1.

According to statistics by Department of Development Planning of the Ministry of Education, the number of private schools approved by educational authorities (including education agencies without eligibility of conferring certificate or diploma from kindergarten to college but excluding agencies for vocational training) in 1999 is 45,000, accounting for 5.2% of the total. Total enrollment in these private schools is 5.73 million, accounting for 2.35% of the total. Number of private higher-education agencies surged to a historical record of 1,240 with an enrollment of 1.184 million students. Most private agencies engaged in higher education and senior-middle-schooling are located in provinces and municipalities with well-developed economy such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shaanxi, Zhejiang and Liaoning etc. while most of those engaged in compulsory education are doing their businesses in less developed and populous central and west China.(China Youth Daily, May 15, 2000)

In accordance with the Statistical Bulletin of Educational Budget jointly promulgated by the Ministry of Education, the State Statistics Bureau and the Ministry of Finance, the educational budget in 1999 is RMB334.904 billion, increasing by 13.56%. Of the budget, RMB228.718 billion from treasury sources (including educational appropriation by financial departments at various levels, town-and-countryside educational surtax, expenditure contributed by businesses for running in-house primary and middle schools and tax exemptions and reductions for school-run businesses, etc.), increasing by 12.53% over last year. The proportion of state education budget in GDP is 2.79%, or 0.24 percentage points higher than the last year's 2.55%. The proportion of national budgetary educational fund in fiscal expenditures is 14.49%, which is 0.83 percentage points lower than the last year's 15.32%. Taking all regions in China as a whole, the proportion of budgetary educational fund in financial expenditures has shrunken in different measures in 13 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. (Xinhua News Agency, November 13, 2000)

2. College Admission Expansion and Reform of College Entrance Examination

On the basis of college admission expansion in 1999, the college admission was greatly expanded in 2000. Number of admittee into junior college and bachelor programs in 1998 was 1.0836 million; 1.5968 million in 1999, or 47.4% higher than the former. Actually admitted number into junior college and bachelor programs in 2000 is 2.20 million, which is 35% higher than that in 1999 and almost twice of that in 1998. As a result, this year's admission rate through college entrance examination attended by 3.885 million examinees exceeds 50% for the first time up to 55%, which is 71% in Beijing and 70% in Shanghai.

As for college entrance examination, a series of reforms have been implemented this year. In order to expand accesses to higher education, the age limit for examination registration is extended to 25. Meanwhile, limitations that full-paid teachers can only register for examination for teachers colleges and universities, graduates of medium vocational schools can only register for examination for higher vocational education colleges after working for two years, students who reject admission by colleges and universities in last year can not register for examination this year and people leaving colleges and universities due to academic, health or disciplinary reasons in the same year can not register for examination have been canceled.

Pilot areas for reform in setting of subjects for college entrance examination are further expanded and seven sets of examination papers are used in different regions. In most provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, the examination style of "3+2" is implemented. "3" represents Chinese, Mathematics and Foreign Language while "2" refers to History and Geography for students destining to liberal arts and Physics and Chemistry for students destining to science studies. In Guangdong Province, the examination is in style of "3+comprehensive examination+1". In four provinces and one municipality of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jilin, Shanxi and Tianjin, the examination is in style of "3+comprehensive science examination" or "3+comprehensive art examination". Meanwhile, the junior college entrance examination is in the style of "3+1". In Shanghai, the examination papers are designed by the municipal education committee and the examination is in the style of "3+1". "3" refers to Chinese, Mathematics and Foreign Language and "1" stands for one of six subjects of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Geography and Politics in line with requirements by different colleges and universities. In addition, students recommended studying in colleges and universities should take "examination on comprehensive capabilities".

Time-pattern of college entrance examination has also been changed. Approved by the Ministry of Education, experiment of spring college entrance examination was conducted in Shanghai, Beijing and Anhui in March 2000, inaugurating the two examination seasons in China. In this spring examination season, examination papers in Shanghai were formulated by the municipal education committee and those in Beijing and Anhui by Examination Center of the Ministry of Education.

Meanwhile, admission pattern after college entrance examination has been reformed. A total of 845 colleges and universities in 21 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, or 82% of the total, have practiced on-line admission. Total number of freshman admitted via the Web is 1.117 million, which is 54.75% of the total planned.

Large-scale admission expansion in these two years leads to over-load of teaching facilities and competence in colleges and universities and triggers a wave of campus expansion. Since the central government had canceled limitation for cross-border school-running by colleges and universities, a new tide of "attracting schools and talents" has rising in Zhujiang Delta. Sun Yat-sen University, Jinan University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Tsinghua University, Harbin Institute of Technology and Beijing Normal University etc. have successively established new campuses or sci-tech parks in Zhuhai. Consequently, construction of a "University Park" with a footprint of over 10 square kilometers has been initiated. A "University Town" with a footprint over 10 square kilometers is also planned in Shenzhen. In which Beijing University will establish the "Shenzhen School of Beijing University", Tsinghua University will built the "Shenzhen Postgraduate School of Tsinghua University" and China University of Electronic Sciences also plans to set up new facilities. The "North China (Oriental) University Town" established in Langfang of Hebei Province has accommodated several universities such as Beijing Union University.

3. Curricula Reform Led to Real Results, Primary and Middle Schools Began to Use New Syllabuses and Textbooks

As a fundamental measure for propelling competence education, reform of primary- and middle-school curricula fermented for a long time finally comes into being. The Ministry of Education modified syllabuses of Chinese and Mathematics in primary schools and Chinese, Mathematics and English in junior middle schools and compiled new textbooks therefor. In fall of 2000, the newly-admitted students in primary and junior middle schools in most regions in China began to use these new textbooks attaching great importance to activation of creative awareness and cultivation of overall competence of students. Textbook of Chinese for junior middle school students collects large volume of ancient and modern Chinese literary works and cultural masterpieces as well as foreign ones to expand the reading so as to cultivate all-round thinking ability in students. Furthermore, the new textbooks emphasize cultivation of practice ability in students through arranging many explorative activities to enable students to identify and raise mathematical problems in daily life. Another striking feature of the new textbooks is that they reduce unnecessary burden for students by deleting some too complicated and difficult contents to lower the improper curricula requirements. For example, chapter of Irrational Equation in the former Algebra for junior middle school students has been shifted to textbook for senior middle school students. First to everyone, the new syllabuses and textbooks admit use of calculator in Mathematics for junior middle school students, emphasize cultivation of student's ability in collecting and processing information and urge teachers to instruct students to look for materials via reading room, library and Web. The textbook of Chinese for junior middle school students highlights exercise and training of spoken language as an important task. The new syllabus of Chinese requires that examination of Chinese shall be subjective and grammatical, rhetoric and stylistic knowledge shall not be included in the examination. In teaching, teachers shall pay close attention to cultivation of self-taught ability in students and guide them to read, write and communicate more.

Trial use of new textbook of Chinese for senior middle school students is being implemented in two provinces and one municipality of Jiangxi, Shanxi and Tianjin. It features establishing a paralleled textbook compiling system of reading, writing and spoken communication, emphasizing role of literature education, enhancing component of literature education exhibited by a proportion of over 60% Chinese and foreign literary works, strengthening requirements for ancient poems and articles as well as adding a batch of articles and literary works full of modern information and representing times spirits etc.

In senior middle schools in Shanghai, research-oriented courses have been started to let students identify problems themselves, select research projects, determine research orientations, collect materials, conduct comprehensive researches and draw conclusions. The research projects can be either subject-specific or subject-indifferent, either practical or rational, either socially realistic or academic and either being of available conclusion or being of no definite conclusion. Implementation of such research-oriented courses effectively motivates students' initiatives and is helpful for cultivation of practical and creative abilities in students.

However, there still has a long way to cover to change the current situation of "examination-oriented education". A survey conducted by China Juvenile Research Center shows that about half of middle school students have excessive burden of study and insufficient sleep. 46.9% of primary and middle school students do not have enough sleep (nine hours/day) as regulated by the government. (Beijing Youth Daily, February 25, 2000) Excessive study burden is the major factor leading to study-annoyance in primary and middle schools. In accordance with a major investigation by China Juvenile Research Center and Beijing Normal University, only 8.4% of primary school students, 10.7% of junior middle school students and 4.3% of senior middle school students think that they go to schools because "they like studying in schools". (China Woman Daily, March 1, 2000)

4. Significant Educational Problems in Rural Areas

With increasing changes in higher education, educational problems are become worse again in rural areas. In 2000, the central government declared that China had accomplished the expected tasks of "K9 popularization as a whole" and "youth illiteracy elimination as a whole". However, we must be aware of the fact that achievements made in K9 now are low-leveled and rather weak. On one hand, "K9 popularization as a whole" only refers to achieving the goal in areas concentrating 85% of China's population but not in areas accommodating 15% of the population ? mainly poverty-stricken regions in West China. Even in places that had realized the K9 popularization goal, the achievements and quality of K9 initiative are not stable enough--significant rebound of discontinuation rate has been found in many areas. In recent years, discontinuation and dropout rates of students in rural areas have been high and discontinuation rate of junior middle school students has increased. For instance, discontinuation rate of students in junior middle schools nationwide was 3.23%, or a number of 1.67 million, in 1998. The rate in rural areas was 4.2%, which was 0.97 percentage point higher than national average. In some regions, the rate was as high as over 10% (China Youth Daily, December 25, 2000). It should be noted that the actual discontinuation rate in some rural areas is obviously higher than the statistical results. In 50 primary and junior middle schools in boundary areas and economically undeveloped areas of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the discontinuation rate in 1999 was 2.44% and 6.41% respectively and "the conception of study uselessness" rose again (Guangming Daily, July 24, 2000).

Due to significant insufficiency of funds for compulsory education, nowadays there are dangerous buildings in schools with total footprint of some 13 million square meters across the country, which mainly distribute in rural areas of Central and West China. Though the number of dangerous buildings in schools is less than 1% of the total, this proportion is higher in rural areas of Central and West China regions with less-developed economy. In Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, proportion of dangerous buildings in middle schools is 5.32% that in primary schools is 4.6%. They are 4.05% and 3% in Xinjiang Uygar Autonomous Region and 3.16% and 4.33% in Qinghai Province. In some poverty-stricken counties, this figure climbs to 10%~15%. For example, the proportion of dangerous buildings in primary schools is as high as 28.3% in Jishishan Autonomous County of Bao'an, Dongxiang and Sala Nationalities in Gansu Province. Because of insufficient funds for schooling facilities in 1970s and 1980s, low-quality construction and "like-soybean-curd-residue" projects in late 1980s, in some regions, the proportion of dangerous buildings is high, some buildings that had been used for less than 10 years become dangerous ones and 2%~3% of the buildings newly becoming dangerous annually further worsens the situation (China Youth Daily, April 5, 2000). The problem of overdue payment of teachers' salary has not radically been solved in many regions. According to an investigation by the National Educational Trade Union in first half of 1999, the problem of overdue salary payment is found in 2/3 of 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in the Mainland. To date, the payments in arrears for teachers have been accumulated to over RMB10 billion. It has amounted to RMB640 million even in Guangdong Province, a province with relatively well-developed economy, in the period from 1996 to now (Nanfang Daily, November 15, 2000).

Expensive tuition is still the decisive reason behind rebound of discontinuation rate of primary and middle school students in many poverty-stricken areas. Though it is so called compulsory education, only several yuan of tuition are exempted. Incidentals and textbook expense over 100 yuan per term for primary school students and 200 yuan per term for junior middle school students mean too much for peasant families in mountainous areas, remote areas and areas with poorly-developed economy in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Guangming Daily, July 24, 2000). The problem of unauthorized charges by schools in rural areas is still significant. As declared by departments of disciplinary inspection and supervision affiliated with the Ministry of Education, the unauthorized charges in primary and middle schools nationwide amounted to RMB238 million in 1999 and a total of RMB 148 million was returned (Beijing Morning Post, April 14, 2000). At the same time, in order to reduce peasant's burden, the central government blocks the education surtax source from peasants and stipulates that no fund raising for education is permitted in any regions. As a result, the important economic source supporting basic education in rural areas in the past several years is blocked. Under such circumstance, problems such as how to develop basic education and how to reinforce compulsory education in rural area are becoming more obvious.