Problems and Arguments

According to Report on Worldwide Competitiveness issued by Lausan-based Research Institute of International Management Development in 2000, scientific competitiveness of China dropped by 3 positions in 2000 after a 12-precedence dropping in 1999 down to the 28th place. Meanwhile, international competitiveness of China dropped by 2 positions down to the 31st place. The report attributes "inter-business cooperation" (dropping by 10 positions) and university-business technology transfer" (dropping by 7 positions) as the two decisive factors for China's regradation. This reflects problems in our country's educational and sci-tech systems. Another study on contribution of higher education to economic increase in China in 1990s shows that the share of education is 8.84% in annual GDP growth of 9.58% from 1982~1990. Of the 8.84%, only 0.48% is due to higher education (Cui Yuwen. Academic Journal of Beijing Normal University, Issue 1 of 2000). All these indicate that education in China should be reformed in system, mechanism, structure and concept. The reason is that education in China still lacks competition power in a scenario of globalized competition and with advent of knowledge economy though many achievements have been made in its development and reform.
In the coming "Tenth Five-year-plan" period, education in China should be developed in a down-to-earth and adjusted-by-specific-circumstance manner and restructuring of educational system be accelerated.

As higher education is becoming increasingly demanded, some people believe that the task of popularization of compulsory education has been accomplished in the "Ninth Five-year-plan" period; priority in the "Tenth Five-year-plan" should be shifted to higher education. This viewpoint is not proper because the focal and difficult points of education in China have long been in rural areas. Real popularization of nine-year compulsory education and maintaining of its results in rural area still need great efforts, large investment and long time. Either belittling this problem or self-deception in dealing with it will make us have a detour and pay a high cost. To date, insufficient source available to education, especially lowest investment in compulsory education, is still a decisive factor affecting healthy development of society in China. Meanwhile, allocation of education funds is inappropriate and most of them are given to higher education. According to one investigation conducted by Development Research Center of the State Council, of the total input in compulsory education in China, 78% are from township, 9% from county treasury, 11% from province or prefecture finance and only 2% from the state treasury (China Education Daily, October 27, 2000). Mr. Wang Shanmai, a pedagogical economist, points out, as for the budgetary funds for education, money input in higher education accounts for some 20% and that in middle and junior education 80%. For higher education, 80% of the expenditure comes from the financial pool. However, it is only 60% for compulsory education (Mass Speech, Issue 7 of 2000). Resolution for this problem is simple: Government, especially central government must shoulder the responsibility for implementing compulsory education in accordance with legal provisions but not shift it onto under-level departments or local governments. Therefore, marketing and socialization initiatives in higher education must be further propelled to diversify the supporting sources, changing the current situation of government-as-the-dominant-supporter in higher education.

For example, private colleges still have not acquired the right to compete fairly with public counterparts in development though great achievements have been made in higher education. The private colleges cannot independently confer certificate or diploma. Furthermore, their students do not have the right to take train by paying half and are not eligible to obtain study-aid loan from banks. Therefore, educational administration system should be reformed because it is formed in a highly centralized planned economy and cannot adapt to current situation in China. Mr. Huang Anjiang, a professor in Department of History of Beijing Normal University challenges the relatively enclosed and monopolized system of textbook compilation at present by pointing out hundreds of mistakes in textbooks of History compiled for middle school students, arousing wide-range attention and discussion. He believes that compiling of textbook of History for middle school students should be conducted by publishing houses in combination with experts of history and middle school teachers. Textbook compilation by one publishing house should not go on.

Simultaneously, cheating in college entrance examination and other educational and academic corruptions make us aware of the fact that it is necessary to maintain educational fairness and accelerate construction and innovation of educational system. Taking system of supervision and assurance for college entrance examination as an example, one important reason for more and more serious situation of cheating nowadays is that laws and regulations related to the cheating are not perfect enough and punishment is too negligible. From the ancient times, China has paid close attention to examination. In laws of Ming and Qing dynasties, cheating imperial competitive examination was clearly defined and would be severely punished. Current regulations for punishment of cheating in college entrance examination are mainly directed to cheaters. As for responsibilities of related personnel such as invigilator and examination organizer etc., the regulations are rather ambiguous, i.e. only "administrative punishment shall be imposed according to severity of mistakes". Mr. Tian Wenchang, a professor of Law, believes that college entrance examination must be strictly supervised according to law. He suggests that special law be formulated or clearer and more severe provisions be added in related laws for such a serious nationwide examination as college entrance examination. When cheating in college entrance examination violates the criminal law, crime and measurement of penalty shall be differentiated for different subjects of crime. If an invigilator discloses answers and contents of examination papers, he/she shall be charged as convicting crime of disclosing the state secret. If a civil servant from a competent authority ignores his/her duty to result in heavy losses, he/she shall be charged as convicting crime of misconduct in office. If he/she accepts bribes, he/she shall be charged as convicting crime of acceptance of bribes.
One of the conditions for maintaining educational fairness in China is to comprehend national situation of China in a down-to-earth manner. During implementation of foreign language and information technology (IT) education, some people propose that subjects of spoken English and computer application be added in college entrance education. This will inevitably aggravate the actual city-countryside imbalance in educational resources and injustice in enrollment.

Changes and evolution in concept of social values also make people to re-consider modern features in those systems implemented for a long time. For example, people begin to think about advantages and disadvantages of the system of appraising and electing "three good" student and excellent student cadre in primary and middle schools and believe that standards for a "three good" student should be altered because they are actually of good academic records and being obedient and the appraisal and election are not supported with necessary democratic procedures. Meanwhile, the currently prevailing system for student cadre appointing fosters bureaucratism in students, which is not beneficial to healthy development of students.