Removing barriers to Education For All:

What’s new and notable

China Case

Prof. Zhou ManshengProf. Zhou Mansheng

Deputy Director-Deputy Director-General General

National Center for Education National Center for Education DevelopmentDevelopment

Research of ChinaResearch of China

Overview1. The overall Progress in

meeting the EFA goals: Concepts, AchievementsAchievements

2. The education system : Administration, FinanceAdministration, Finance

3. Key policies and good practices

4. Foreseen challenges and the plan in education beyond 2020

1. The overall Progress in meeting the EFA goals:

Concepts, AchievementsAchievements • Concepts (p1) • Basic education is the

cornerstone of the national education system, the key to increase the comprehensive national strength and to improve citizen’s quality, the foundation of social justice and a humorous society, and an important way to eliminate poverty.

Concepts (p2)

The main objectives: to improve the overall quality of the labor force

continuously, to increase the strength and competitiveness of the

nation , to shift from a big country in term of its huge population to

a powerful country in term of its advanced education system.

There should be five principles:• A: giving priority to development.• B: taking the cultivation of people as the starting point.• C: carrying out reform and innovation.• D: promoting equity.• E: improving quality.

Achievements Achievements (p1)(p1)

• In 2009, 99.5% counties in China, which had 99.7% of the total population, realized the goal of “basically popularizing the 9-year compulsory education and basically eliminating illiteracy among youth and mid-aged population”. The net enrollment rate for children of primary school age rose further to 99.40%.

Achievements Achievements (p2)(p2)

• Enrollment gap between boys and girls has been closed. The national gross enrollment rate of lower- and upper- secondary school reached 100% and 82.5% respectively in 2010.

• The average years of schooling of the population above 15-year-old is 8.7 years now, 3.5 years higher than the figure in 1982, and the average years of schooling of the newly added labors has exceeded 11.5.

2. The education system : Administration, Administration,

Finance Finance

The Administrative Division in China The Administrative Division in China Ministry of Education law, plan, policy, supervision * Provinces local policy, evaluation * Counties major responsibility, and managed mainly

by county-level governments. * Towns implementation

A balanced system• China’s economic and finance

system reforms moved toward decentralization and the education finance and management system followed suit. China’s approach has been to seek a balanced system of decentralization with both shared responsibility and costs across levels of government.

Finance• Improved budget allocations.• Increased revenues in China’s financial progress .• Total public funding for compulsory education

increasing.• Total public funding is the direct and indirect

funding for education provided by all levels of government .

• Public funding per student in compulsory education increasing .

• Central government proportion of total education spending increasing .

Brief Summary

• China’s experience may provide valuable lessons on designing effective strategies for decentralized education management, ensuring adequate funding for compulsory education. It reflects clear central level commitment and the shifting of responsibilities to upper levels of government; increased central revenues and targeted assistance to local governments; and increased oversight with accompanying accountability measures.

3. Key policies and good practices

• Recent policies and measuresRecent policies and measuresFocus to solve the rural education problems in depressed areas by key projects and committed investment. A series of projects, such as A.the National Project of Depressed Area Compulsory Education, B. the Rural Primary and Secondary Schools Dilapidated Building Renovation Project, C.the Western Area “Two-basic” Universality Breakthrough Project, D.the Rural Primary and Secondary Boarding Schools Project, E.Project of Modern Distance Education in Rural Primary and Secondary Schools, F.the Rural Teacher Special Posts Project and G.the pilot project of Free Normal Education have been implemented.

ExampleA: The Rural Primary and Secondary Boarding Schools

Project• China has carried out “the Rural Primary

and Secondary Boarding Schools Project ”, which has improved the school-running conditions and the learning environment of compulsory education in poor mountainous and traffic hard areas. By 2007, China had established 7,651 new lodging schools, offering basic accommodation for the newly increased 2.07 million lodging students in the west.

Education situation analysis

Regional gap has been narrowed in terms of popularization level of compulsory education. Differences in net enrollment of primary school in various areas of China (referring to 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities) have been reduced too.

4. Foreseen challenges and the plan in education beyond 2020

• Main Challenges and DifficultiesMain Challenges and Difficulties

• An uneven distribution of the limited education resources. Education quality among regions and schools, between rural and urban areas is still disparate. Rural compulsory education is still a weakness.

• The quality of the education Outdated educational ideas and methods, which

cannot meet the demand of the fast changing society and the international competition. Heavy student’s workload, cramming, lack of sleep, de-emphasis on social practice have seriously influence the overall development of the children and their health.

Chinese Education in the Next Decade

• National Outline for Medium and Long Term Educational Reform and Development (2010-2020)

• The Outline includes a comprehensive plan for education reform and development by the Year 2020– General Strategy– Development Missions– Educational System Reforms– Guaranteeing Measures

OutlineOutline ：： General General StrategyStrategyGuidelines• Giving strategic priority to education

development• Prioritizing talent cultivation as the

bottom line for education• Reform and innovation as a driving force

for education development• Equal access to education as a basic state

policy• Quality enhancment as the central task

for education reform and development

New Development • MOUs are signed by central and provincial

governments to ensure the balanced development of basic education.

• Plans developed by provincial governments• Plan for balanced development of compulsory

education in province• Basic standards for school running • Plan for implementing national projects on

standard construction for compulsory schools• Implementation plan for national projects on

education system reform• All documents are required to submit to MOE by

deadline

Responsibilities of Central Government

• Qualification authorized and certificated• Monitory and evaluation• Curriculum innovation support• Guidance and supports for National

innovation projects and programs on education

• Experiences-sharing promotion• Financial support for migrant children • Financial support for less developed

provinces • Special funds to support informal education

Responsibilities of Provincial Governments

• Developing provincial goals for balanced development of education in 2012 and 2015

• Financial support for education especially for poor areas in the province

• Developing curriculums meet the local needs • Providing quality compulsory education for

migrant children• Developing indicators for quality of compulsory

education• Promoting the national pilot projects of

educational system innovation • Plans developing

New policies and New policies and measuresmeasures• To set up national quality standards for

compulsory education and to establish a monitoring system. To complete the school standardization process step by step by 2020.

• To balance the educational resources of teachers, educational equipments, library and books, school buildings and so on. To transform the weak schools, improving the quality of their teachers and establishing a teacher and school principle mobility mechanism.

• To guarantee the migrant children’s right to compulsory education, with full-time public schools shouldering the main response.

Conclusion • Chinese education reform is still being explored.

In general,China can concentrate sufficient national financial resources to do big things, but is still low per capita income and a large disparity of wealth. China has no intention to promote their own development path and experience to other countries. Similarly, we believe that any country should go for their own path of development. Development paths of different countries can respect each other and learn from each other.

Thank You! April 28 ， 2011