Reforms and Current Situation of the Chinese Education Inequality

The Chinese education system is different from the western educational system. The western education system is more open-minded and students have more choices to choose the subjects that they want to study. Having a great score on the standardized test such as ACT or SAT is not only the consideration for students to get accept into a prestigious college. However, in the Chinese education system the story is different. The only way to get into a great university or college is passing the National College Entrance Examination “Gaokao“ and “Zhongkao” (annual standardized test to go to high school). The Chinese education system seems more fair than the western education system, because the only way to get accepted into the prestigious colleges or university is passing the standardized test, but in the western education system, there would be more things to be considered such as the volunteer experiences or even personal characteristics. However, the seemingly just Chinese education system is not that fair and the education inequality, a serious problem in China, still exist (Gu). My research hopes to show the factors that contribute to the education inequality in China and some say that the “Double Reduction Policy” is the right approach to solve the issue by cancelling the outside school K-12 education that seems provide the equal education environment for all students in China, but this reform should be improved by increasing the education budget and creating the assessment system to provide more education resources and guarantee the educational quality in rural schools.

Education inequality is a serious problem in China and it become worsens following the economic development and it is a problem that was caused by multiple factors: the economic inequality and the Hukou system . Economic factors can drive the educational inequality in China. In 1978, the Chinese government adopted the new policy, the “Open Door Policy” that changes the Chinese development strategy from one based on self-sufficiency to become active participation in the world market. Under this policy, China’s foreign traded increased rapidly, and the gross National Product (DNP) increased by 15 percent (Huang). The Chinese open door policy attracts a lot of foreign investment and it was the first time the Chinese government allowed the existence of the personal companies, which allowed a lot of people to become rich especially in city areas such as Shanghai or Beijing because there are more opportunities comparing with the rural areas. The Chinese open door policy not only stimulated the Chinese economy but also creates the economic gap between different families, which caused the education inequality. According to the REAP study, the urban incomes are more than three times than the rural incomes and there are more than seventy percent of students go to college, but there is only five percent of poor rural areas go to college. One of the problem that causes the education inequality brought by the wealth gap is the tuition. The average high school tuition is about 450 dollars per year, but a minimum-wage worker shanghai only can earn 164 dollars a month. Sometimes, the local government can provide aid for poor families, but it is not enough and it is not all available around China. Economic gap is one of the reason that causes the educational inequality. Other than the economic inequality, the Hukou system in China also driven the educational inequality. Hukou is the system of household of registration used in mainland China. The score for entering the Chinese prestigious universities is different for students who have different hukou based on cities or providences. Some cities or providences have the natural advantage than other places and have the lower score. For example, the score line for getting into Peking University or Qinghua University is much lower for students who have Beijing hukou than students who have Jiangsu Hukou. Therefore, although there is only one national standard exam for getting into colleges, the score is various based on the Hukou system. Changing hukou is difficult in China and it required a lot of money, recommendation and serious networking, which worsened the problem of the education inequality in China (Boquen).

The labor intensive style life and the lacking of educational resources, brought by the geographic difference, is the root cause of the education inequality in China.

The educational gap is significant between cities and rural areas. According to the study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, teenagers from the Chinese city of Shanghai have the best education in the world from a major international study of students’ level in math, science and literacy. In the contrast, rural regions even have the low attendance rate because of the labor intensive lifestyle. Students in rural areas are always require to help with farms as the first priority and school become the secondary priority comparing with the need to survive. Educational resources is also scarce in rural areas. For example, in rural areas boarding school, there are more than 10 students live in one room, and the meals for students are primary based on starches. Dining table and desks are even not available. Students are always sitting or just standing on the ground during eating and class. All classrooms in cities equipped with TV, air conditioners and fans. However, these teaching equipment are not available in rural areas. The education resources in the rural areas such as TV, pens, textbooks, papers are mainly depended on the donation from the cities, but donations are not available in all rural area schools. Therefore, teachers would just write on the walls, and the classrooms are also not equipped with fans or ACs. During the hot summer or the cold winter, students would just endure the sever weather. The textbooks used by students used in rural areas were abandoned by students in cities. Sometimes, even three or four students share one same textbook. (Brenda Reid). The lacking of the education resources created the natural disadvantage for students in rural areas, because of the specialty and competitiveness of the Chinese education system. The only way to get into a great college in China is getting a high score in “Gaokao” as mentioned before. However, students in rural areas could not receive the same level of educational quality as students in cities because of the inadequate education resources such as textbooks, outside school education or educational environment, which increases the chance that students in rural areas would fail on the national exam and they also lost their only chance to change their life through going into a great college.

Consequently, the sustaining problem of the educational inequality in China would stimulate the social class solidification because of the lacking educational resources in rural areas. A study by the Rural Education Action Project shows that only 2% of students from poor rural areas go to great college, and only 8% of students go to high school, because of the lacking of the educational resources. The only recruitment standard that Chinese big companies utilized is the academic qualifications and which university student went to. According to the study, the starting salary for students who graduated from Tsinghua University is 17682 Chinese yuan, but the starting salary for other university is 5290 Chinese yuan per month. The ranking of the undergraduate institutions determines the salary for students (Yidian). The great salary always demonstrates the high social class in Chinese society, but the lacking of education resources prevents students in rural areas to get into the top university to go to big cities to study through get a great score in the exam and earn a high salary to change their social class after graduation. However, city students have tons of education resources that help them to get a great score on the national exam and get into a great college, which helps them to stay in their social class. The vicious cycle of the social lass solidification would form: rural area students would stay in rural areas or earn the minimum amount of salary and city students would enjoy the adequate education resources and get success on the exam. Therefore, the education inequality because of the lacking resources in rural areas would cause the problem of the social class solidification.

In order to solve the educational inequality and shorten the educational gap between students from rural areas and city areas, the Chinese government adopted the “Double Reduction Policy” that closed all the agencies that provide outside K-12 education, which seemingly solve the problem of the educational inequality. The double reduction policy aims to ease the burden of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring for students in compulsory education to create a fair education environment for both rural area and city area children (J. Marsick et al.). Before, the releasing of the double reduction policy, the education market is full of outside school K-12 education institutions such as New Orental, Gaotu and TAL in cities to provide students extra outside school training or class on their academic that were supposed to be done in school. City students would enjoy the benefit of these outside school educational institutional to learn more or get extra academic help in order to do great on the national exam. However, the story is different for students in rural areas. There is no outside school educational agencies in rural areas and families in rural areas also could not afford the cost of taking these classes in agencies. Therefore, the double reduction policy seems establish a more equal educational environment for rural students by eliminating the extra help that city students could get, which would paves the way for them to get success on the national exam, and all the education that students would received is in the school classroom (Mikesell).

It is true that the “Double Reduction Policy” closed all outside school agencies that provide K-12 education, which creates the fair education environment for students live in different areas, but the labor intensive lifestyle and the outdated educational resources in rural areas, contributing to the educational inequality, were not improved. Under the Double Reduction Policy, all outside school k-12 education institutions were closed. City students would not have the access to the extra academic help as the rural students, but students in rural areas still need to spend a great amount time on agricultural activities such as farming in order to support their life. Studying is not their first priority. In addition, the educational resources are still scare in rural areas after the double reduction policy. More than one hundred students would still stay in the same classroom. Students should still endure the undermanaged buildings and faculties that even post threat to students and teacher’s health. The Double Reduction Policy did not solve the issue of the labor intensive lifestyle and the t students in rural areas still could not enjoy the same level of educational resources as students in cities, which increased their chance to fail on the national exam as before ( Jialing).

The Double Reduction Policy could be improved if it incorporates the increasing budget from the Chinese government to the local education department especially for rural areas. In order to solve the problem of the lacking of educational resources in rural area schools, increasing the local government budget on the educational department is important and government should adopt this method because it is the most efficient way to solve the educational inequality in some degree through improving the situation of lacking of education resources. When the educational department get more money from the government, they can buy more facilities such as blackboards, textbooks or renovate the old buildings to improve the education environment immediately for students. Once there are more education resources in rural are schools, the educational gap between rural area students and city students would be shorten, and rural students’ chance to get success on the national exam would also increase and their education would not be restricted by the limited educational resources any more. For example, in the past, in most rural schools, internets are not available. However, after the local educational department getting more budget, rural area students enjoy the same internet access as the city students to study. Although there are still some subjective factors that could not be controlled such as the teaching style of teachers, the educational inequality in facilities would be dissolved and on the educational resource perspective, rural area students and city students would stand on the same line.

However, getting more budget from the central government to the local educational department is a complex task and the budge could also be corrupted by the government officials rather than spending on improving school facilities during the process. The central and provincial, municipal and county education authorities would analyze and summarize the budget proposal according to the school funding and couple them into budges for the education business and infrastructure within their scope and submit them to the finance and planning department at the same level respectively (Government). this complex process would cause the corruption of the funding for the rural schools for the government officials. For example, the head of the local education department would report more money to the central government than the actual cost that is required to improve the educational resources. In order to prevent the corruption, when the central government distributed the money to the local education department, the central government could also assign a group of officials directly from the central government to the local educational department oversee the whole process and guarantee that the money goes to the rural area schools rather than the pocket of local government officials. In addition, the central government officials could also analyze the amount the of money that is required by the rural area schools rather than depending on the local education department. Therefore, the process would become more efficient and the problem of corruption could also be solved.

Other than increasing the budget for the local education department, creating the assessment system can guarantee the teaching quality in rural, which could ensure students receive the same level of education in rural even with the labor intensive lifestyle. In rural areas, students always set farming as their first priority in order to survive, but it is difficult to change the labor intensive lifestyle because it requires the economic reform to improve the life for rural area people from the central government, which would a difficult and complicated task that would take a long time. Under this kind of circumstance, the limited time that students would spend on education become more valuable and the education quality should be guaranteed. Governments at all levels and the education departments should create the evaluation system to oversee the teaching quality, which can improve the teaching quality in the rural areas. In order to make the assessment system to become objective and prevent corruption or falsification, it should include various quantitative indicators that can be formulated according to the different conditions each regions and also the report from students directly about satisfaction for the educational quality. The quantitative data could not be forged and the assessment should be down by the third parties such as officials directly from the central government. The direct reflection from students about their satisfaction of education quality prevents the over-involvement of the local education department that could cause corruption, and also provides the most straightforward picture of the teaching quality from the students’ perspectives. Students’ feeling and improvement. is one of the most important indicator of the educational quality. Through the assessment system, education department could find the problems involving in rural areas education quality and solve the problem efficiently by assigning new teachers or changing teaching materials. Although this system could not change the labor-intensive lifestyle for rural students, it guarantees the maximizes the education efficiency and quality for rural areas students in the limited time that they could spend on studying. It increases the possibility that rural area students can get a great score on the national test and get into a great college in the limited time (Zhang and Liang).

Solving the issue of the educational inequality in China is not only creates a better and fair educational environment for students in different areas, but also prevents the problem of the social hierarchy solidification and provide opportunities for students who are talented but being limited by the geographic reasons to explore the world and achieve their own success. Under the current education situation in China, most rural area students would still stay in their small town and doing farming to support live, because they could not get a great score in the national exam for the entrance of university. Because of the lacking of the education resources, the talent of students would also not be discovered and cultivated. However, under the improvement on the education inequality through increasing budget and creating the self-assement system, students would have the chance to get rid of their original life and the social hierarchy would not be solidified. The talented students can have the chance to contribute to the society.

Works Cited

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Yidian, Qilu. “双一流院校成高薪人才摇篮 清华毕业生月薪17682元.” 双一流|高薪|高校_新浪教育_新浪网, 16 Sept. 2020, https://edu.sina.com.cn/gaokao/2020-09-16/doc-iivhuipp4609491.shtml#:~:text=原标题：双一流院校成高薪人才摇篮，清华大学毕业生月薪达17682元,9月14日，智联招聘发布的《2020年秋季大学生就业报告》显示，2020届毕业生第一份工作的平均起薪为5290元%2F月，且薪资与学历高低成正比%E3%80%82%20与此相对应的是，根据对2019届毕业生的毕业院校及平均月薪进行追踪，清华大学以17682元%2F月名列榜首%E3%80%82.

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