Accelerate balanced development

The school selection issue was in the spotlight in 2009 when the Ministry of Education sought public opinion for the 2020 national education reform and development plan.

As President Hu Jintao once said, education is important for each family and it will benefit future generations. It represents the important principle that development is for the people, by the people and with the people in sharing its fruits. High-quality education is one of the most important and most urgent issues, for which people need solutions.

Since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policies, China's education has made great achievements. Opportunities for school-age population to go to school have grown rapidly. The national compulsory education policy has achieved ground-breaking progress, especially since the beginning of the 21st century.

However, from an overall perspective, high-quality education resources are still far from satisfying the demand. There exists a large gap between rural areas and cities in the quality of teachers and school conditions. It still lacks effective regulations on the allocation and use of public education resources. School selection problem is always one of the major complaints about the inequality in education.

Therefore, to advance the balanced development of education, including finding an effective solution to public school selection problem, has become increasingly important for the scientific development of education. The government should fulfill its obligations and responsibilities, making the promotion of education equality as a basic national education policy.

At present, the education authorities should speed up closing the gap between public schools in cities and the countryside. This will involve a series of policy problems, such as ensuring that the government funds are granted in full and on time, solidifying the present achievements of free education, standardizing the construction of public schools, quickening the reconstruction of weak public schools, canceling what is called key schools or key classes, planning public schools scientifically based on the progress of urbanization, increasing the teaching aids for urban teachers at rural schools, training quality teachers and trying the mechanism for headmasters and teachers in different areas to communicate periodically.

In the long run, teachers in public schools are supposed to be managed in the way of managing civil servants, whose performance will be taken as a yardstick for their pay rise and promotion. As for school selection problem, each place needs to make overall planning based on local situation.

As a mater of fact, there is no shortage in the number of policies related to the balanced development of compulsory education. The key thing is whether governments and education departments on different levels are serious about carrying out these policies.

In recent years, some provinces and cities have made preliminary achievements in promoting balanced development of compulsory education within the regions. Beside the measures mentioned above, there are other policies to meet local demands, including forming cooperation relationships between quality public schools and weak schools.

In November 2009, the Ministry of Education held a national conference on advancing balanced development of compulsory education, and giving proposals to the making of the outline for 2020 education reform and development.

State Councilor Liu Yandong delivered a speech on optimizing resources, promoting equality and accelerating the balanced development of compulsory education. She marked the advancement of the balanced development of compulsory education as a strategic task that will meet people's demand for equal opportunities to high-quality education and the demand of national modernization.

To achieve a balanced development of compulsory education, China should explore its own ways of development while taking as references international practices. The country should also use the chance of drafting the 2020 education reform and development plan to promote compulsory education.

The author is head of the National Center of Education Development and Research under the Ministry of Education.

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