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Education inequality in China exists on multiple levels, with significant disparities occurring along gender, geographical, and ethnic divides. More specifically, disparities exist in the distribution of educational resources nationwide, as well as the availability of education on levels ranging from basic to higher education.
Shortly after the Chinese Revolution of 1949, the Communist government was confronted with heavy educational disparities across the nation. In the years following the Chinese Revolution, the Chinese government attempted to address these disparities with alternating approaches, creating periods of differing emphasis on opposing educational models. The first model, based on egalitarianism, emphasizes equality across regions of varying economic wealth and development. Conversely, the second model, based on competition, emphasizes individualistic competition, rationalizing any existing educational disparities as a necessary sacrifice for national economic development. [1]
The Chinese government also focused educational policies on higher education and specialized training, leaving basic education underdeveloped throughout large parts of the country. Government funding for education was reserved for urban areas; rural communities, already at an economic disadvantage, were left to fund their own schools, exacerbating the already existing divide between urban and rural education. [2] When collectivization policies passed in 1955, placing rural families into agricultural cooperatives that distributed income on the basis of labor hours, the importance of education dropped even further within these rural communities, and they were much less likely to fund primary education for the children of their communities. [2]
Also beginning in the 1950s, the hukou system assigned the Chinese population into urban and rural regions, exacerbating continuously worsening inequalities within health, employment, housing, and education. [3] Further complicating education policy, people of rural-hukou status are able to live and work in urban areas without changing their hukou designation. According to Xiaogang Wu's tabulation, based on figures from the 2000 Chinese Census, an estimated 33% of city residents were actually designated as rural-hukou holders. [4]
A significant shift in education finance policy occurred in 1982 with the introduction of decentralization, in which provincial governments were now individually in control of financing education within their region. The change in policy sought to capitalize on rapid income growth by funding education from non-governmental sources, and in the 1980s and 1990s, the government share of education expenditures dropped even as total education expenditures increased. [5] [6] As a result, families had to pay increased tuition and fees, and schools turned to surcharges and social contributions to fund themselves. [5] Education for children of poorer families was only attainable with state subsidies, which often did not reach the families who were most in need. Tuition and fees also increase as students move from lower to higher grade levels, so even if these poorer students were able to move through the education system, many were prevented from even completing their compulsory education by economic barriers. [6] Additionally, this shift to a wider financial base for education also coincided with rising interprovincial inequality, significantly impairing education opportunities for children in poorly developed rural provinces. [5]
Although basic education policies remain in control of the Communist Party, increased open-mindedness shown by party authorities indicates the possibility of more substantial educational reform, in addition to recent reforms to the national college entrance examination. [7] Although educational inequality has lessened overall, great gaps in educational attainment still exist between populations on multiple divides, affirming the need for a regional focus within reform initiatives. [3]
Although recent studies have shown reductions in gender inequality within Chinese education since the 1980s, disparities still remain across different regions of China. Studies have indicated that education in rural areas of China shows significantly greater gender disparity than education in urban areas. [8] Since 1981, the rural illiteracy rate of females has consistently been over twice that of males, despite an overall decrease in illiteracy in rural regions. [9]
However, with rapid economic growth, the increase of parental income enables more children to obtain at least a basic education, and this greatly increases chances of girls going to school as well. Previously, it was common for parents to prioritize the education of sons over that of their daughters; with greater opportunities, the demand for female education can be easier satisfied, fueling an increase in the actual demand for female education as well. [3]
One-child Policy in China plays an important role in the inequality of education. The One-child policy was implemented in China in 1979 to slow down the country's explosive population growth and was abolished in 2016. Before the one-child policy, parents were allowed to have more than one child and had the opportunity to display a preference toward male children; this so-called “son preference” has prevailed among most Chinese parents for centuries. [10] However, after the One-child policy was enacted, the only-child girls were able to receive more educational opportunities because there was not as much competition for household resources as in multiple-child households. The gender inequality has improved by this One-child policy, and therefore female's education opportunity has increased. The big issue on gender inequality has been improved through this policy. [10]
There are a number of factors that contribute to the existing disparities between urban and rural education, with the latter lagging far behind the former as a result of economic, social, and political disparities. In China, the household registration system separates citizens into urban residence and rural residence. [11] The underfunding of rural schools, inadequate government efforts to provide financial aid for rural students, and the current household registration system all contribute to the urban-rural educational divide. [8]
Interprovincial inequality in school funding has increased, along with increased dependence in non-budgeted funding sources. [5] Research indicates that the disparity between provincial primary educational expenditures per student nearly doubled between 1990 and 2000. [5] Additionally, while overall illiteracy rates have dropped since 1980, the disparity between urban and rural illiteracy rates continued to increase, with the rural illiteracy rate double that of urban areas in 2000. [9]
Another recent problem causing regional education disparity is the migration of a large portion of China's rural population into urban areas. [12] In many rural regions, particularly within smaller rural towns, this decrease in population also creates problems for schools. As a result, to confront drastic increases in enrollment, many schools consolidate students of multiple grade levels into multigrade classes, a practice that not only challenges teachers, but also negatively affects the quality of education that students receive. [12]
As a result of the vast numbers of rural workers migrating to the cities to find employment opportunities, many children are left behind, keeping these children in rural schools that still lag far behind their urban counterparts. For rural children who do follow their parents to urban areas, the hukou system bars them from attending urban public schools; these children often must attend private schools that charge higher tuition even while offering subpar education. [13]
The population of China mainly consists of the Han ethnic majority, with 55 ethnic minorities accounting for around 8% of the total population. However, this small minority population accounts for almost half of China's absolute poor, highlighting the severe income inequality that exists between China's majority Han population and numerous minority groups. [14]
While overall enrollment rates have risen for both the Han Chinese population and the Chinese minority population, minority enrollment rates remain lower than that of the Han majority population. [15] Aside from enrollment rates, ethnic disparities in education have also manifested in the form of cultural marginalization, especially with the emergence of state-sponsored curriculum that enforces assimilation. To preserve individual cultures and languages, many ethnic groups have created multilingual school systems. [16]
The impact of education from family income mainly displays on two things, one involves the physical environment for children, and the other one is the nonphysical influence to children's growth. First of all, “under which poor households have fewer material resources and children who grow up in under‐resourced families tend to lag behind in education and other fields". [17] Household expenditure on children's education in China is different from other countries such as United States or United Kingdom. Chinese parents attach significant importance to their children's private education investment, which includes private tutors, extracurricular classes, interest classes and so on. Parents with higher income can provide children more training and opportunities of going to more educational institutions. However, families with less financial support are often incapable of providing these extra educational investments. Moreover, poverty affects the ability of parents to monitor their children's various need during growth and there is evidence indicating economic hardship can reduce the communication between parents and children. According to a 2011 survey, children growing under lower income family can face more challenges from economic hardship and this lead them more likely to drop school or have emotional problem such as tendency in violent and crime. In China, parental income is one of reasons that cause education inequality, and this can not be neglect based on its major influence on children's growth. [17]
Education heavily influences social and economic mobility, with research indicating that higher levels of parental education positively influence their children's levels of education. This connection is especially significant within rural communities, with education playing a large role in breaking the vicious cycle of poverty. [2]
However, Guangjie Ning's contrasting analysis of existing research suggests that income inequality and education equality are mutually reinforcing factors, perpetuating a vicious cycle of their own. Therefore, by Ning's logic, in accordance with the popular perception of education as a means of escape from poverty, children from poorer families theoretically need education the most, yet encounter greater economic barriers that prevent continuation of education. [18]
Currently, variations in education policy across different levels of schooling continue to contribute to educational inequality. Even within the same region, school attendance and tuition are regulated differently, often causing confusion for families new to the education system. [3]
Beginning in the early 1980s, grades 1-6 have been designated as compulsory education; it was not until the mid-1990s that grades 7-9 were also designated as compulsory. [3] This regulation of earlier education was enhanced by the elimination of tuition for grades 1–9 in the early 2000s, and in recent years, the poor are now able to obtain subsidies for the education of their children. [3] This system of 9 year compulsory education has been partially successful in rural areas, with regions reporting very high primary-level enrollment and completion rates. [12] However, grades 10-12 have not been designated as compulsory, and high secondary-level dropout rates break the 9 year compulsory education cycle even earlier. [12] Additionally, in rural areas, the tuition for public high school is comparatively higher than that of most other developing countries, further discouraging rural households from focusing their income on upper secondary education. [3]
Additionally, as a result of China's large population, college enrollment slots are still restricted in availability, with tuition so high that the costs far dwarf the income of a typical family in poverty. Recent efforts to expand college education availability, coupled with increasing emphasis on scholarships and loans, may help counter rising tuition costs (and other income-related barriers to higher education). [3] Despite tuition challenges, more and more students have been able to graduate from college, with the number of college graduates quadrupling in the past decade. [13]
As an attempt to level the playing field, the gaokao , or Chinese university examination, offered extra points for students of ethnic minority backgrounds, although this was scaled back in recent 2014 reforms to national examination policy after multiple cases of ethnicity alteration prompted national backlash. [16] The new reforms also included provisions for provincial quotas, requiring universities to reserve a designated number of admission seats for students from outside of the university's region. [19] [20]
The implementation of the double reduction policy in 2021 was a new attempt by Chinese regulator to reduce the inequality of educational resources allocation caused by regional inequality and economic differences during the compulsory education period. [21] According to Opinions on Further Reducing the Homework Burden and Off-Campus Training Burden of Students in Compulsory Education, Schools should narrow the educational quality gap and reduce the need for students to rely on tutoring institutions by optimizing teaching methods, designing teaching materials based on students' different abilities and providing students with abundant educational resources. [21] [22] As schools provided "on-campus classes for both academic subjects and extra-curricular activities" and tutoring institutions no longer permitted to be for-profit institutions, the double reduction policy had relieved the inequality phenomenon that poor families did not have access to adequate educational resources while rich families can obtain better academic performance through tutoring institutions. [23] And Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China also pointed out that the higher level of educational equity could be realized through the student-oriented education method which satisfies students’ individual growth need. [22]
Universal access to education is the ability of all people to have equal opportunity in education, regardless of their social class, race, gender, sexuality, ethnic background or physical and mental disabilities. The term is used both in college admission for the middle and lower classes, and in assistive technology for the disabled. Some critics feel that this practice in higher education, as opposed to a strict meritocracy, causes lower academic standards. In order to facilitate the access of education to all, countries have right to education.
Education in China is primarily managed by the state-run public education system, which falls under the Ministry of Education. All citizens must attend school for a minimum of nine years, known as nine-year compulsory education, which is funded by the government. Compulsory education includes six years of primary education, typically starting at the age of six and finishing at the age of twelve, followed by three years of junior secondary education. Middle schooling is followed by three years of high school, by the end of which secondary education is completed. Laws in China regulating the system of education include the Regulation on Academic Degrees, the Compulsory Education Law, the Teachers Law, the Education Law, the Law on Vocational Education, and the Law on Higher Education.
Hukou is a system of household registration used in mainland China. The system itself is more properly called "huji", and has origins in ancient China; hukou is the registration of an individual in the system. A household registration record officially identifies a person as a permanent resident of an area and includes identifying information such as name, parents, spouse and date of birth. A hukou can also refer to a family register in many contexts since the household register is issued per family, and usually includes the births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and moves, of all members in the family.
Education in Pakistan is overseen by the Federal Ministry of Education and the provincial governments, whereas the federal government mostly assists in curriculum development, accreditation and the financing of research and development. Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan obligates the state to provide free and compulsory quality education to children of the age group 5 to 16 years. "The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such a manner as may be determined by law".
Social issues in China are wide-ranging, and are a combined result of Chinese economic reforms set in place in the late 1970s, the nation's political and cultural history, and an immense population. Due to the significant number of social problems that have existed throughout the country, China's government has faced difficulty in trying to remedy the issues. Many of these issues are exposed by the Chinese media, while subjects that may contain politically sensitive issues may be censored. Some academics hold that China's fragile social balance, combined with a bubble economy makes China a very unstable country, while others argue China's societal trends have created a balance to sustain itself.
Education in Bolivia, as in many other areas of Bolivian life, has a divide between Bolivia's rural and urban areas. Rural illiteracy levels remain high, even as the rest of the country becomes increasingly literate. Bolivia devotes 23% of its annual budget to educational expenditures, a higher percentage than in most other South American countries, albeit from a smaller national budget. A comprehensive, education reform has made some significant changes. Initiated in 1994, the reform decentralized educational funding in order to meet diverse local needs, improved teacher training and curricula, formalized and expanded intercultural bilingual education and changed the school grade system. Resistance from teachers’ unions, however, has slowed implementation of some of the intended reforms.
The second goal in the United Nations Millennium Development Goal is to achieve Universal Primary Education, more specifically, to "ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike will be required to complete a full course of primary schooling." Education is vital to meeting all other Millennium Development Goals: "Educating children gives the next generation the tools to fight poverty and prevent disease, including malaria and AIDS." Despite the significance of investing in education, the recent report, Fixing the Broken Promise of Education for All: Findings from the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children—produced by UNESCO Institute for Statistics and UNICEF found that the world has missed this 2015 target of universal primary education, and there are currently 58 million children, of primary school age, out of school worldwide.
Urbanization in China increased in speed following the initiation of the reform and opening policy. As of 2022, China had an urbanization rate of 64.7% and was expected to reach 75-80% by 2035.
Internal migration in the People's Republic of China is one of the most extensive in the world according to the International Labour Organization. This is because migrants in China are commonly members of a floating population, which refers primarily to migrants in China without local household registration status through the Chinese Hukou system. In general, rural-urban migrant most excluded from local educational resources, citywide social welfare programs and many jobs because of their lack of hukou status. Migrant workers are not necessarily rural workers; they can simply be people living in urban areas with rural household registration.
In China today, poverty refers mainly to the rural poor. Decades of economic development has reduced urban extreme poverty. According to the World Bank, more than 850 million Chinese people have been lifted out of extreme poverty; China's poverty rate fell from 88 percent in 1981 to 0.7 percent in 2015, as measured by the percentage of people living on the equivalent of US$1.90 or less per day in 2011 purchasing price parity terms, which still stands in 2022. The Chinese definition of extreme poverty is more stringent than that of the World Bank: earning less than $2.30 a day at purchasing power parity (PPP), Since the start of far-reaching economic reforms in the late 1970s, growth has fuelled a substantial increase in per-capita income lifting people out of extreme poverty. China's per capita income has increased fivefold between 1990 and 2000, from $200 to $1,000. Between 2000 and 2010, per capita income also rose at the same rate, from $1,000 to $5,000, moving China into the ranks of middle-income countries. Between 1990 and 2005, China's progress accounted for more than three-quarters of global poverty reduction and was largely responsible for the world reaching the UN millennium development target of dividing extreme poverty in half. This can be attributed to a combination of a rapidly expanding labour market, driven by a protracted period of economic growth, and a series of government transfers such as an urban subsidy, and the introduction of a rural pension. The World Bank Group said that the percentage of the population living below the international poverty line of $1.9 fell to 0.7 percent in 2015, and poverty line of $3.2 fell to 7% in 2015. At the end of 2018, the number of people living below China's national poverty line of ¥2,300 (CNY) per year was 16.6 million, equal to 1.7% of the population at the time.
Educational inequality is the unequal distribution of academic resources, including but not limited to school funding, qualified and experienced teachers, books, and technologies, to socially excluded communities. These communities tend to be historically disadvantaged and oppressed. Individuals belonging to these marginalized groups are often denied access to schools with adequate resources. Inequality leads to major differences in the educational success or efficiency of these individuals and ultimately suppresses social and economic mobility. Inequality in education is broken down in different types: regional inequality, inequality by sex, inequality by social stratification, inequality by parental income, inequality by parent occupation, and many more.
China's current mainly market economy features a high degree of income inequality. According to the Asian Development Bank Institute, “before China implemented reform and opening-up policies in 1978, its income distribution pattern was characterized as egalitarian in all aspects.” At this time, the Gini coefficient for rural – urban inequality was only 0.16. As of 2012, the official Gini coefficient in China was 0.474, although that number has been disputed by scholars who “suggest China’s inequality is actually far greater.” A study published in the PNAS estimated that China's Gini coefficient increased from 0.30 to 0.55 between 1980 and 2002.
In China, "left-behind children", also called "stay-at-home children", are children who remain in rural regions of the country while their parents leave to work in urban areas. In many cases, these children are taken care of by their extended families, usually by grandparents or family friends, who remain in the rural regions.
Structural inequality has been identified as the bias that is built into the structure of organizations, institutions, governments, or social networks. Structural inequality occurs when the fabric of organizations, institutions, governments or social networks contains an embedded bias which provides advantages for some members and marginalizes or produces disadvantages for other members. This can involve property rights, status, or unequal access to health care, housing, education and other physical or financial resources or opportunities. Structural inequality is believed to be an embedded part of the culture of the United States due to the history of slavery and the subsequent suppression of equal civil rights of minority races. Structural inequality has been encouraged and maintained in the society of the United States through structured institutions such as the public school system with the goal of maintaining the existing structure of wealth, employment opportunities, and social standing of the races by keeping minority students from high academic achievement in high school and college as well as in the workforce of the country. In the attempt to equalize allocation of state funding, policymakers evaluate the elements of disparity to determine an equalization of funding throughout school districts.p.(14)
Structural inequality occurs when the fabric of organizations, institutions, governments or social networks contains an embedded bias which provides advantages for some members and marginalizes or produces disadvantages for other members. This can involve property rights, status, or unequal access to health care, housing, education and other physical or financial resources or opportunities. Structural inequality is believed to be an embedded part of the culture of the United States due to the history of slavery and the subsequent suppression of equal civil rights of minority races.
Women's education in Pakistan is a fundamental right of every female citizen, according to article thirty-seven of the Constitution of Pakistan, but gender discrepancies still exist in the educational sector. According to the 2011 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Program, approximately twice as many males as females receive a secondary education in Pakistan, and public expenditures on education amount to only 2.7% of the GDP of the country.
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