Accelerate balanced development

Government should make more efforts to reduce the gap between rural areas and cities in education

Balanced development of compulsory education is an integral part of the education reform and development plan made by China in 2000. Though great progress has been made in this regard since 2006 when the Compulsory Education Law was amended, a lot of problems remain to be resolved.

The compulsory education law is based on three globally recognized principles - mandatory, free and non-discriminative. Currently, there are more than 170 countries that have adapted the compulsory education system, free of charge to all children.

Free compulsory education was adapted by China in 1986 with the passing of the Compulsory Education Law. But primary and secondary schools were allowed to charge some fees, considering the then domestic situation - government grants were not enough to cover the cost of public schools. The revised Compulsory Education Law in 2006, however, forbade any charges in public schools.

The 150 million primary and secondary students in rural areas began to enjoy complete free compulsory education from 2007. The system has been expanded from western to eastern areas, and from rural to urban centers.

Of the countries providing compulsory education, only 20 or so provide free textbooks. China ranks among the countries with high levels of compulsory education.

However, a more complicated issue is the development mode of compulsory education. One mode is welfare-orientated public schools, which are popular in most European and Arabian countries. The government covers all the expenses of public schools. It is rare to see a private primary or secondary school in those countries. Free education in those countries even covers preschool and college education.

The second mode is a combination of public and private schools to meet different people's needs. For instance, in the United States, governments first secure adequate public education services by tax revenues and then allow private schools to meet the demands of people in different classes.

No matter which mode a country adopts, the balanced development of compulsory education is directly related to the policy to promote equality. A common characteristic of the policies in different countries is that governments cover all the expenses of public schools, offering compulsory education that is free on different levels, and guaranteeing equal education opportunity to all children. Meanwhile, some countries also give people of higher income other choices to pay extra money to go to private schools.

The government revenue covers all the expenses of compulsory education in China, according the newly revised Compulsory Education Law. Children from poor families in rural areas can get extra financial assistance during their primary and secondary years.

The implementation of the new policy has resulted in different attitudes among people in rural areas and cities.

A recent survey indicates that the policy has found favor with farmers from the western region. Originally, farmers with low income had to tighten their belts to pay their children's textbooks and tuition fees. Now the policy eliminates this burden. Although the school conditions and the quality of teachers in rural areas lag far behind those in cities, farmers are happy with the policy.

In urban areas, however, high-quality education resources are centralized in several public schools. Although the compulsory education policy allows children to go to the school in the region where their hukou (household registration) are registered for free, many of their parents hope their children can go to better ones, which usually charge more than 10,000 yuan (1,100 euros) for school selection fees. For urban parents, the better thing than saving several hundred yuan for textbooks and tuition fees is the lowering of school selection fees.

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