Beijing must focus on quality of education
China's performance in educating its huge population of 1.3 billion was put under the spotlight this week. At a Unesco meeting on basic education held in Beijing, the mainland's scores chart provided valuable lessons for other developing countries.
By last year, 94 per cent of the mainland's populated areas had provided nine years of universal compulsory education. Among the young and middle-aged, illiteracy rates had been reduced to 4 per cent. On average, people aged 15 and above had received 8.3 years of education, or one year more than the world average. Compared with developed countries, the mainland still has far too few people with secondary or university diplomas. But considering its comparatively low level of economic development, the achievements are admirable.
The figures, however, mask huge regional disparities. In most cities, particularly in the east, basic education has become universal and free. But 70 per cent of the nation's 200 million primary and secondary students live in rural areas. For many of their parents, especially in the less developed west, finding the means to send them to school is still a struggle.
In his address to the Unesco meeting, Premier Wen Jiabao made the welcome announcement that more resources would be diverted to rural areas, allowing school fees at all rural primary and secondary schools to be phased out over the next two years. Going forward, the premier said implementing universal education in rural areas would be the most important policy goal, followed by the elimination of adult illiteracy, promotion of vocational education and strengthening the teaching force.
These are certainly the right priorities. For too long, critics have complained that too much of the nation's education spending has been channelled to the cities and universities - with perverse consequences. Today the mainland has some of the world's best universities, and the scientists they produce have enabled the nation to join the manned space-flight club. But at many poor villages in rural areas, classes are held in dilapidated farm houses, and the schools cannot find enough money to pay their impoverished teachers. It is to be hoped these problems will be solved with the shift of resources.
The next big challenge - one of quality - will be more difficult to tackle, however. Traditionally, Chinese take education seriously; some would say much too seriously. The Chinese language abounds with proverbs that capture the culture's high regard for learning, such as 'Only the learned rank high, all other trades are low'. But this cultural trait and China's long history of using imperial examinations as a means of sourcing talents have left an unattractive legacy - a blind worship of academic qualifications.
Because employers tend to hire people with the highest credentials, many parents expect their children to receive as much formal education as possible. The pressure to excel at school is adversely affecting children's motivation to study and their personal development, as reflected in the rising levels of depression and suicide among students. While researchers lament that standards have fallen, many students are turned off by lessons that bear little relation to their daily lives. The tendency to spoon feed has also produced far too many graduates with high scores but poor problem-solving abilities.
At the universities, restrictions on free speech and academic inquiry have led to a lopsided development. Even though the mainland has become more open to liberal thought, parents still want their children to avoid politically sensitive areas and prefer them to study science instead of social sciences or humanities.
Mr Wen rightly noted the importance of education as a means of lifting the quality of the population and propelling economic development. But the leadership will need to crack the quality issues in order to nurture an educated people with the all-round capabilities to put China on a path of balanced development.
