Compulsory Education Policy in China: Concept and Practice (Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices) 9813363576, 9789813363571

Table of contents :
Preface
Contents
About the Authors
1 Compulsory Education Policy in China: A Perspective of Legal Analysis
1.1 Legal Changes of the Compulsory Education Policy
1.1.1 Phase 1: Efficiency First and Equity Consideration (1978–2000)
1.1.2 Giving Consideration to Fairness: Narrow the Education Gap and Make Compulsory Education Universal
1.1.3 The Third Stage: Giving Consideration to Fairness and Efficiency and Moving Towards Balanced Development (After 2000)
1.2 The Value Choice of Compulsory Education Policy Development
1.2.1 The Problem of Economic Development Highlights the Urgent Need for Equity and Efficiency in Compulsory Education
1.2.2 Provisions of the Social and Political System on the Equity and Efficiency Orientation of Compulsory Education
1.2.3 The Challenge of Culture as a Kind of Capital to Educational Equity and Efficiency
1.3 Questions and Suggestions
1.3.1 Problems in the Harmonious Development of the Pursuit of Duty Equity and Efficiency
1.3.2 Further Promote the Realistic Pathway of Realizing the Harmony Between Fairness and Efficiency in China’s Compulsory Education
References
2 Compulsory Education Policy in China: A Perspective of Management System Analysis
2.1 The Explanation of the Core Concept
2.2 The Historical Context of China’s Compulsory Education Management System Reform
2.2.1 The Reform of the Education System (1978–1991)
2.2.2 The Exploration of Educational System Reform (1992–2000)
2.2.3 Determination of Educational System (2001–Present)
2.3 The Necessity of the Current Compulsory Education Management System
2.3.1 Politics
2.3.2 Economy
2.3.3 Cultural Aspects
2.3.4 Social Aspects
2.3.5 Market Participation
2.4 Questions and Suggestions
2.4.1 Rights and Responsibilities of Compulsory Education Management
2.4.2 Investment System of Funds for Compulsory Education
2.4.3 Conclusion
References
3 The Compulsory Education Policy in China: The Perspective of Curriculum and Teaching Materials
3.1 The Concept Definition
3.1.1 The Three Level Courses
3.1.2 The Course Management
3.2 The Policy Change Process of Compulsory Education Curriculum and Teaching Materials
3.2.1 The Policy Changes of National Curriculum and Teaching Materials
3.2.2 National Unified Compilation of Teaching Materials
3.2.3 Policy Changes of Local Curriculum and Teaching Materials
3.2.4 The Policy Changes of School Curriculum and Teaching Materials
3.3 The Multi-disciplinary Analysis of the Policy Changes of Curriculum and Teaching Materials
3.3.1 Political Basis of Curriculum and Teaching Material Policy
3.3.2 The Economic Basis of Curriculum and Teaching Material Policies
3.3.3 The Social Foundation of Curriculum and Teaching Material Policies
3.4 Questions and Suggestions
References
4 Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of Teacher Personal Management Policy
4.1 The Historical Changes of the Compulsory Education Teacher Establishment Policy Since the Reform and Opening Up
4.1.1 The First Stage: The Establishment Stage of Teacher Establishment Standards (1984–2000)
4.1.2 The Second Stage: The Establishment Stage of City-First Teachers (2001–2010)
4.1.3 The Third Stage: Urban-Rural Unified Teacher Establishment Stage (2010–Present)
4.2 The Contradiction Between Supply and Demand of Teacher Establishment Reform Policy
4.2.1 Make Full Use of the Work Force Within the System
4.2.2 Employ Teachers Outside the Ranks
4.2.3 Cancellation of the Establishment of All Staff
4.3 Analysis on the Rationality of the Current Compulsory Education Teachers’ Establishment Policy
4.3.1 Political Perspective
4.3.2 Economic Perspective
4.3.3 Social Perspective
4.3.4 Cultural Perspective
4.4 Problems and Suggestions on the Establishment Policy of Compulsory Education Teachers in China
4.4.1 The Establishment Standard Is not Sound
4.4.2 Lack of Teacher Exit Mechanism
4.4.3 Further Refine the Standards for Teacher Preparation
4.4.4 Carry Out Teacher Supply Side Reform
4.4.5 Establish a Teacher Withdrawal Mechanism Based on Professional Level
References
5 Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of Teacher Treatment Policy
5.1 The Policy Changes of the Treatment of Teachers Since the Reform and Opening up
5.1.1 Single Wage System (1978–1984)
5.1.2 Structural Wage System (1985–1993)
5.1.3 Hierarchical Wage System (1993–2006)
5.1.4 Performance Pay System (2006–Present)
5.2 Background of the Implementation of Merit Pay System for Compulsory Education Teachers
5.2.1 The Political Background of the Implementation of Teachers’ Merit Pay System
5.2.2 The Economic Background of the Implementation of Teachers’ Merit Pay System
5.2.3 The Social Background of the Implementation of Teachers’ Merit Pay System
5.2.4 The Cultural Background of the Implementation of the Merit Pay System for Teachers
5.3 Problems and Suggestions on the Treatment of Teachers in Compulsory Education
5.3.1 The Existing Problems of the Teacher Merit Pay System
5.3.2 Suggestions on Improving Teachers’ Merit Pay System
References
6 Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of Teachers’ Titles/Ranks Policy
6.1 What Is the Teacher Title/Rank in China?
6.2 Reform of the Professional Title System for Primary and Secondary School Teachers
6.2.1 Preliminary Establishment of Professional Title of Teachers in Compulsory Education (1986–2009)
6.2.2 Pilot Stage of Professional Title Reform for Teachers in Compulsory Education (2009–2015)
6.2.3 Reform and Improvement Stage of Teachers’ Professional Title in Compulsory Education (2015–Present)
6.3 Why to Choose Such a Title Policy in China?
6.3.1 Economic Factors
6.3.2 Educational Requirements
6.3.3 Political and Social Factors
6.4 Questions and Suggestions
References
7 Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of the Distribution of Schools
7.1 The Policy Changes of the Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools
7.1.1 Early Preparation: “Reform” and “Construction”
7.1.2 Formal Implementation: “Withdrawal” and “Merger”
7.1.3 Later Adjustment: Balance and Improvement
7.2 The Compulsory Education School Layout Policy Motivation
7.2.1 Economic Factors Affecting the Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools
7.2.2 Political Factors Affecting the Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools
7.2.3 Social Factors Affecting the Distribution of Schools for Compulsory Education
7.2.4 Cultural Elements Affecting the Layout of Compulsory Education Schools
7.3 Policy Discussion on the Readjustment of the Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools
7.3.1 Analysis of the Problem of Readjustment of the Layout of Compulsory Education Schools
7.3.2 The Procedures and Systems for Adjusting the Layout of Compulsory Education Schools Are not Perfect
7.3.3 The Standard of Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools Is Not Perfect and the Prospective Needs to Be Improved
7.4 Policy Suggestions on the Readjustment of the Distribution of Compulsory Schools
7.4.1 Raise Education Funds in a Diversified Way and Establish and Improve the Guarantee Mechanism of Compulsory Education Funds Between Urban and Rural Areas
7.4.2 Improve the Management System of Compulsory Education and Strictly Regulate the Adjustment Procedures of School Layout
7.4.3 Overall Planning of the Layout of Compulsory Education Schools, Clear Standards, Scientific Planning
References
8 Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of the Rural Compulsory Education
8.1 Policy Changes of Rural Compulsory Education Development
8.1.1 Recovery and Adjustment Stage (1978–1984)
8.1.2 Development and Reform: Urban Priority Orientation (1985–2000)
8.1.3 Preliminary Equalization: Urban-Rural Equality (2001–2005)
8.1.4 In-Depth Equalization: Giving Priority to Rural Areas (Since 2006)
8.2 The Current Policy Rationality Analysis
8.2.1 Political Perspective
8.2.2 Economic Perspective
8.2.3 Social Perspective
8.2.4 Cultural Perspective
8.3 Questions and Suggestions
8.3.1 Existing Problems
8.3.2 Suggestions
References
9 Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of the Supervision Policy
9.1 Changes of the Supervision Policy of Compulsory Education in China
9.1.1 The First Stage (1980–2001): The Supervision Policy for the Popularization of Nine-Year Compulsory Education
9.1.2 The Second Stage (2002–2011): The Policy of Supervision of Compulsory Education that Changes from Popularization to Equilibrium
9.1.3 Stage 3 (2012–2019): Establish Evaluation Criteria to Promote the Supervision Policy of Compulsory Education for Balanced and High-Quality Development
9.2 The Multidisciplinary Basis of the Policy of Compulsory Education Supervision
9.2.1 Political Foundation
9.2.2 Economic Basis
9.2.3 Cultural Foundation
9.2.4 Social Foundation
9.3 Problems and Suggestions on the Supervision of Compulsory Education
9.3.1 Questions
9.3.2 Suggestions
References
10 Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of the Quality and Balanced Development Policy
10.1 Policy Change of Balanced Development of Compulsory Education—From Basic Balance to Quality Balance
10.1.1 The Literacy Education and the Goal of Achieving Universal Education (1978–2000)
10.1.2 The Transition from the Stage of Universal Compulsory Education to the Stage of Balanced Development (2000–2010)
10.1.3 Balanced Development Stage (2010–2017)
10.1.4 Quality and Balanced Development Stage (2017–Present)
10.2 Why the Current Policy?
10.2.1 Political Reasons
10.2.2 Economic Reasons
10.2.3 Social Reasons
10.2.4 Cultural Reasons
10.3 Questions and Suggestions
References

Citation preview

Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices

Jian Li Eryong Xue

Compulsory Education Policy in China Concept and Practice

Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices Series Editors Eryong Xue, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China Simon Marginson, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Jian Li, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

This book series explores education policy on Pre-K, K-12, post-secondary education, and vocational education, informing multiple experts from academia to practitioner, and specifically pays focuses on new frontiers and cutting-edge knowledge that transforms future education policy development. It has been initiated by a global group of education policy research centers and institutions, whose faculty and staff includes internationally recognized researchers in comparative education policy studies. The series’ mission is to advance the modernization of the education and social construction. This series provides policymakers and researchers with an in-depth understanding of international education policy from diverse perspectives. Topics include cuttingedge and multidisciplinary studies on identifying, analyzing and uncovering education policy reform and practice among the fields in education policy and pedagogy. It addresses how education policy shapes the development of education systems in different regions and seeks to explain how specific education policies concentrate on accelerating the development of quality education and social progress. More importantly, this book series offers policymakers and educational stakeholders, government, and private sectors a comprehensive lens to investigate the trends, rationales of education policy development internationally.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/16621

Jian Li · Eryong Xue

Compulsory Education Policy in China Concept and Practice

Jian Li Faculty of Education Beijing Normal University Beijing, China

Eryong Xue Faculty of Education Beijing Normal University Beijing, China

Eryong Xue and Jian Li share the co-first authorship and contribute equally in this book.

This book is funded by the research on The Key Education Thoughts of General Secretary Xi Jinping (Project No.: 18JZD006) (The Key Project of Philosophy and Social Science Research of the Ministry of Education). ISSN 2730-6356 ISSN 2730-6364 (electronic) Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices ISBN 978-981-33-6357-1 ISBN 978-981-33-6358-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6358-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Preface

Compulsory education in China is the education that all school-age children and juveniles must receive. It is a public welfare undertaking that Chinese central government must guarantee. The quality of compulsory education in current China is associated with the healthy growth of hundreds of millions of children, the development of the country, and the future of the nation. This book explores the overall landscape of compulsory education policy development in China from multiple perspectives to uncover the stages, features, problems, and suggestions in Chinese compulsory education system, locally, nationally, and internationally. In addition, this book also aims to present some specific historical educational policy shifts for policymakers and stakeholders to investigate the compulsory education strategy in a long term. Specifically, the Chinese compulsory education policy landscape involves investigating the legal changes, the management system, the curriculum and teaching materials, the teacher policy, the teacher treatment policy, the teachers’ titles/ ranks policy, the distribution of schools. the supervision policy, and the quality and balanced development policy. All these policies contribute to explore the comprehensive and systematic development of compulsory education policy development in contemporary China. Chapter 1 concentrates on exploring the legal changes of compulsory education development. On the whole, China’s compulsory education development has gone through three stages: the first stage: advocating fairness and efficiency (1949–1978); Second stage: efficiency first and equity consideration (1978–2000); The third stage: give consideration to fairness and efficiency and move toward balanced development (after 2000). In addition, the value choice of compulsory education development focuses on exploring the problem of economic development highlights the urgent need for equity and efficiency in compulsory education, the provisions of the social and political system on the equity and efficiency orientation of compulsory education, and the challenge of culture as a kind of capital to educational equity and efficiency. The questions and suggestions have been offered to examine the problems in the harmonious development of the pursuit of duty equity and efficiency and the promotion of the realistic path of realizing the harmony between fairness and efficiency in China’s compulsory education. v

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Chapter 2 concentrates on the management system in compulsory education policy in China. Through the analysis of compulsory education-related policies since China’s reform and opening up for more than 40 years, China has experienced the general-level primary education to universal nine-year compulsory education from eliminating chaos and restoring normal order to the educational governance. The management system of compulsory education is a multiple realistic topic involving education management, education finance, education economics, education policy, education law, and education politics. On the whole, the management system of “county-level government-led” has overcome many disadvantages, but there are certain problems. Based on the perspective of education economy and management, this chapter examines the management system of compulsory education in China since the 1980s. It also discusses the management system of compulsory education in China and proposes suggestions for improving policies. Chapter 3 examines the compulsory education policy development from the perspective of curriculum and teaching materials. The effective implementation of compulsory education curriculum and teaching materials policy is related to the quality of the national population, which is an important reflection of the comprehensive strength of the country, and is also an important way to protect the basic educational rights of school-age children and promote the all-round development of children. The hierarchical management system of curriculum and teaching materials established since the Reform and Opening-up is an important embodiment of China’s compulsory education curriculum and teaching materials policy. It will help us summarize and reflect on our country compulsory education curriculum and textbook development experience by carding the changes of the policy process, and adopt a multidisciplinary perspective analysis, to better promote the development of compulsory education for the future provide a reference basis, so as to better promote national comprehensive strength, for the early realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation the Chinese dream. Chapter 4 involves exploring the teacher policy in the compulsory education policy development. The compulsory education is an important part of China’s education cause, because the teacher staffing problem has been linked with the treatment of teachers in fact, so the importance of the compulsory education teacher staffing policy and the treatment of teachers policy can be compared, is an important factor to achieve educational equality. Reviewing the changes of the compulsory education teacher establishment policy since the reform and opening up, it can be divided into three stages: the teacher establishment standard stage (1984–2000), the teacher establishment stage (2001–2010), and the teacher establishment stage (2010–present). The rationality of the current compulsory education teacher establishment policy comes from many aspects. The political aspects include the value pursuit of social equity and justice, the proposal of the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education, and the priority development of education. The economic aspect includes the sustained growth of Chinese economy and the rational allocation of public finance since the reform and opening up; Social aspects include the influence of public opinion, social system, and social institutions; Cultural aspects

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include the impact of the two value orientations of efficiency and equity. Suggestions for the reform of the current compulsory education teacher establishment policy include further refining the teacher establishment standard, establishing the teacher withdrawal mechanism based on the professional level, and carrying out the teacher supply side reform. Chapter 5 concentrates on exploring the teacher treatment policy to examine the compulsory education policy development. Since the reform and opening up, the treatment and status of teachers in compulsory education stage have been improved to some extent, especially the establishment of the “teachers law of the People’s Republic of China” in 1993, which provides a guarantee for the legitimate rights and interests of primary and secondary school teachers. With the arrival of the information age in the twenty-first century, China is in the transition of market economy. Therefore, the rationalization of teachers’ salary is one of the important ways to stabilize the teachers’ team and improve their specialization. The formulation and implementation of national policies is an important aspect to guarantee the reasonable salary of teachers. Since the reform and opening up in China, the salary system of teachers in compulsory education has been constantly reformed and improved, which has roughly gone through the following four periods. The policy changes of the treatment of teachers since the reform and opening up, background of the implementation of merit pay system for compulsory education teachers, and problems and suggestions on the treatment of teachers in compulsory education have been offered in this chapter. Chapter 6 involves exploring the teachers’ titles/ranks policy in the compulsory education policy development. It has been 34 years since the “Provisional Regulations on the Title of Secondary School Teachers” and the “Trial Regulations on the Title of Primary School Teachers” were promulgated in 1986. During this period, the state has continuously promulgated relevant policies to improve the policy of teachers’ professional titles at the compulsory education stage. Through a retrospective analysis of the policy, this article divides it into a preliminary establishment phase (1986–2009), a reform pilot phase (2009–2015), and a reform perfect phase (2015–present). The economic, political, social, and cultural reasons that underpin policy operations are analyzed. Put forward five suggestions for the current compulsory education teacher job title system: all departments should continue to cooperate with the operation mechanism system, rural teacher senior title designation ratio, job title setting and job title standardization, job title review method diversification and streamlined procedures, and appraisal and engagement methods. Chapter 7 concentrates on examining the distribution of schools for the development of compulsory education. As an important measure for the state to optimize the allocation of educational resources and improve the fairness and efficiency of education, the layout of compulsory education schools has a far-reaching impact on the development of compulsory education in China. Since the reform and opening up, China’s compulsory education school layout policy has gone through

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a process of changes from “reform” and “construction” to “withdrawal” and “integration,” and then to gradually adjust and improve. In the process of policy change, economic, political, social, and cultural factors promote the adjustment of the distribution of compulsory education schools to different degrees. Furthermore, the paper analyzes and discusses the prominent problems and improvement directions in the layout adjustment from the aspects of funds, management system, and relationship coordination. Chapter 8 concentrates on the rural compulsory education in China. The compulsory education is an important part of China’s education, from the perspective of geographical and population composition, the development of rural compulsory education is an important part of China’s education modernization. Reviewing the relevant policies since the reform and opening up, the rural compulsory education policy reflects distinct stages, including: the recovery and adjustment stage (1978–1984), focusing on adjusting the chaotic state and establishing order during the cultural revolution; In the stage of development and reform (1985–2000), the compulsory education policy had the priority orientation of cities, and the compulsory education in rural areas was gradually popularized, but the gap between urban and rural areas was significantly enlarged. In the initial equalization stage (2001– 2005), the focus was on the restructuring of the rural compulsory education system and the effective implementation of the policy of urban–rural equality. In the indepth stage of equalization (from 2006 to now), priority is given to the countryside from the equality between urban and rural areas, highlighting the compensation for compulsory education in rural areas. Chapter 9 involves analyzing the supervision policy of the compulsory education policy development in China. The changes of the supervision policy of compulsory education in China have been divided into three stages: The first stage (1980–2001): The supervision policy for the popularization of nine-year compulsory education; The second stage (2002–2011): the policy of supervision of compulsory education that changes from popularization to equilibrium; The stage 3 (2012–2019): establish evaluation criteria to promote the supervision policy of compulsory education for balanced and high-quality development. In addition, the multidisciplinary basis of the policy of compulsory education supervision includes political foundation, economic basis, Cultural foundation, and social foundation. Problems and suggestions on the supervision of compulsory education have been offered. Chapter 10 focuses on exploring the quality and balanced development policy of the compulsory education policy development in China. The policy change of balanced development of compulsory education from basic balance to quality balance are divided into four stages: The literacy education and the goal of achieving universal education (1978–2000); The transition from the stage of universal compulsory education to the stage of balanced development (2000–2010); Balanced development stage (2010–2017); Quality and balanced development stage (2017–present). In addition,

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political reasons, economic reasons, social reasons, and cultural reasons have been discussed in this chapter. Questions and suggestions are also offered. Beijing, Haidian

Jian Li Eryong Xue

Acknowledgements In the realization of this book, our contributors have been supportive and willing to share their opinions and perspective on how to explore the overall Chinese education policy landscape from a concept-added policy chain perspective. We are really grateful for the generosity and positive spirit of collegiality.

Contents

1

2

Compulsory Education Policy in China: A Perspective of Legal Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Legal Changes of the Compulsory Education Policy . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.1 Phase 1: Efficiency First and Equity Consideration (1978–2000) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.2 Giving Consideration to Fairness: Narrow the Education Gap and Make Compulsory Education Universal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.3 The Third Stage: Giving Consideration to Fairness and Efficiency and Moving Towards Balanced Development (After 2000) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 The Value Choice of Compulsory Education Policy Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.1 The Problem of Economic Development Highlights the Urgent Need for Equity and Efficiency in Compulsory Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.2 Provisions of the Social and Political System on the Equity and Efficiency Orientation of Compulsory Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.3 The Challenge of Culture as a Kind of Capital to Educational Equity and Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 Questions and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.1 Problems in the Harmonious Development of the Pursuit of Duty Equity and Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.2 Further Promote the Realistic Pathway of Realizing the Harmony Between Fairness and Efficiency in China’s Compulsory Education . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Compulsory Education Policy in China: A Perspective of Management System Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 The Explanation of the Core Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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2.2

The Historical Context of China’s Compulsory Education Management System Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.1 The Reform of the Education System (1978–1991) . . . . 2.2.2 The Exploration of Educational System Reform (1992–2000) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.3 Determination of Educational System (2001– Present) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 The Necessity of the Current Compulsory Education Management System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.1 Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.2 Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.3 Cultural Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.4 Social Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.5 Market Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Questions and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.1 Rights and Responsibilities of Compulsory Education Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.2 Investment System of Funds for Compulsory Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.3 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

The Compulsory Education Policy in China: The Perspective of Curriculum and Teaching Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 The Concept Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.1 The Three Level Courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.2 The Course Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 The Policy Change Process of Compulsory Education Curriculum and Teaching Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.1 The Policy Changes of National Curriculum and Teaching Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.2 National Unified Compilation of Teaching Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.3 Policy Changes of Local Curriculum and Teaching Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.4 The Policy Changes of School Curriculum and Teaching Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 The Multi-disciplinary Analysis of the Policy Changes of Curriculum and Teaching Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.1 Political Basis of Curriculum and Teaching Material Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.2 The Economic Basis of Curriculum and Teaching Material Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.3 The Social Foundation of Curriculum and Teaching Material Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Contents

3.4 Questions and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

5

Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of Teacher Personal Management Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 The Historical Changes of the Compulsory Education Teacher Establishment Policy Since the Reform and Opening Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.1 The First Stage: The Establishment Stage of Teacher Establishment Standards (1984–2000) . . . . . . 4.1.2 The Second Stage: The Establishment Stage of City-First Teachers (2001–2010) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.3 The Third Stage: Urban-Rural Unified Teacher Establishment Stage (2010–Present) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 The Contradiction Between Supply and Demand of Teacher Establishment Reform Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.1 Make Full Use of the Work Force Within the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.2 Employ Teachers Outside the Ranks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.3 Cancellation of the Establishment of All Staff . . . . . . . . . 4.3 Analysis on the Rationality of the Current Compulsory Education Teachers’ Establishment Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.1 Political Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.2 Economic Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.3 Social Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.4 Cultural Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4 Problems and Suggestions on the Establishment Policy of Compulsory Education Teachers in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.1 The Establishment Standard Is not Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.2 Lack of Teacher Exit Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.3 Further Refine the Standards for Teacher Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.4 Carry Out Teacher Supply Side Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.5 Establish a Teacher Withdrawal Mechanism Based on Professional Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of Teacher Treatment Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 The Policy Changes of the Treatment of Teachers Since the Reform and Opening up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.1 Single Wage System (1978–1984) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.2 Structural Wage System (1985–1993) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.3 Hierarchical Wage System (1993–2006) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.4 Performance Pay System (2006–Present) . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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5.2

Background of the Implementation of Merit Pay System for Compulsory Education Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.1 The Political Background of the Implementation of Teachers’ Merit Pay System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.2 The Economic Background of the Implementation of Teachers’ Merit Pay System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.3 The Social Background of the Implementation of Teachers’ Merit Pay System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.4 The Cultural Background of the Implementation of the Merit Pay System for Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 Problems and Suggestions on the Treatment of Teachers in Compulsory Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.1 The Existing Problems of the Teacher Merit Pay System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.2 Suggestions on Improving Teachers’ Merit Pay System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

7

Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of Teachers’ Titles/Ranks Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1 What Is the Teacher Title/Rank in China? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 Reform of the Professional Title System for Primary and Secondary School Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.1 Preliminary Establishment of Professional Title of Teachers in Compulsory Education (1986– 2009) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.2 Pilot Stage of Professional Title Reform for Teachers in Compulsory Education (2009– 2015) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.3 Reform and Improvement Stage of Teachers’ Professional Title in Compulsory Education (2015–Present) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 Why to Choose Such a Title Policy in China? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.1 Economic Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.2 Educational Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.3 Political and Social Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4 Questions and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of the Distribution of Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1 The Policy Changes of the Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.1 Early Preparation: “Reform” and “Construction” . . . . . . 7.1.2 Formal Implementation: “Withdrawal” and “Merger” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

85 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 93 94

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7.1.3 Later Adjustment: Balance and Improvement . . . . . . . . . The Compulsory Education School Layout Policy Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2.1 Economic Factors Affecting the Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2.2 Political Factors Affecting the Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2.3 Social Factors Affecting the Distribution of Schools for Compulsory Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2.4 Cultural Elements Affecting the Layout of Compulsory Education Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3 Policy Discussion on the Readjustment of the Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.1 Analysis of the Problem of Readjustment of the Layout of Compulsory Education Schools . . . . . . 7.3.2 The Procedures and Systems for Adjusting the Layout of Compulsory Education Schools Are not Perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.3 The Standard of Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools Is Not Perfect and the Prospective Needs to Be Improved . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4 Policy Suggestions on the Readjustment of the Distribution of Compulsory Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4.1 Raise Education Funds in a Diversified Way and Establish and Improve the Guarantee Mechanism of Compulsory Education Funds Between Urban and Rural Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4.2 Improve the Management System of Compulsory Education and Strictly Regulate the Adjustment Procedures of School Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4.3 Overall Planning of the Layout of Compulsory Education Schools, Clear Standards, Scientific Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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8

Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of the Rural Compulsory Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.1 Policy Changes of Rural Compulsory Education Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.1.1 Recovery and Adjustment Stage (1978–1984) . . . . . . . . . 8.1.2 Development and Reform: Urban Priority Orientation (1985–2000) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.1.3 Preliminary Equalization: Urban-Rural Equality (2001–2005) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

112 112 114 115 116 117 117

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8.1.4

In-Depth Equalization: Giving Priority to Rural Areas (Since 2006) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2 The Current Policy Rationality Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.1 Political Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.2 Economic Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.3 Social Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.4 Cultural Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3 Questions and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.1 Existing Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.2 Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of the Supervision Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.1 Changes of the Supervision Policy of Compulsory Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.1.1 The First Stage (1980–2001): The Supervision Policy for the Popularization of Nine-Year Compulsory Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.1.2 The Second Stage (2002–2011): The Policy of Supervision of Compulsory Education that Changes from Popularization to Equilibrium . . . . . . 9.1.3 Stage 3 (2012–2019): Establish Evaluation Criteria to Promote the Supervision Policy of Compulsory Education for Balanced and High-Quality Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2 The Multidisciplinary Basis of the Policy of Compulsory Education Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2.1 Political Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2.2 Economic Basis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2.3 Cultural Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2.4 Social Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3 Problems and Suggestions on the Supervision of Compulsory Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.1 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.2 Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

131 133 133 134 135 136 136 136 138 140 141 141

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10 Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of the Quality and Balanced Development Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 10.1 Policy Change of Balanced Development of Compulsory Education—From Basic Balance to Quality Balance . . . . . . . . . . . 157 10.1.1 The Literacy Education and the Goal of Achieving Universal Education (1978–2000) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

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10.1.2 The Transition from the Stage of Universal Compulsory Education to the Stage of Balanced Development (2000–2010) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.1.3 Balanced Development Stage (2010–2017) . . . . . . . . . . . 10.1.4 Quality and Balanced Development Stage (2017– Present) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2 Why the Current Policy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.1 Political Reasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.2 Economic Reasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.3 Social Reasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.4 Cultural Reasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.3 Questions and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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About the Authors

Jian Li is the assistant professor in China Institute of Education Policy, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University. She received her Ph.D. degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (ELPS), School of Education, Indiana University Bloomington. Her research interests focus on Education policy studies; Globalization and Internationalization of Higher Education. She has published over 60 articles and books in regard to China’s education policy and comparative higher education studies. Dr. Li currently also serves as think tanker at China Institute of Education and Social Development, Beijing Normal University. China Institute of Education and Social Development (CIESD) was co-founded by China Association for Promoting Democracy and Beijing Normal University. It was founded on the base of China Institute of Education Policy and China Academy of Social Management of Beijing Normal University. Dr. Li general area of scholarship is on the assessment of education policy within education institutions comparatively. Within this general area, she has pursued four themes: compulsory education policy, globalization of higher education, higher education policy and management, undergraduate students’ global learning performance assessment, faculty academic innovation perspective within higher education and comparative higher education development as a framework for institutional research. Dr. Li has published over 30 articles, monographs and book chapters and delivered over 20 workshops and seminars and offered more than 20 keynote, peer-reviewed and invited presentations throughout the U.S. and in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Warmly thanks to the following contributors to collect data and materials: Zhang Xing, Zhou Shuchen, Guo Cheng, Ma Jinrui, Zhang Zhiping, Wu Cunxin, Zhang Chuanjian, Zheng Wanze, Zheng Wener, and Li Weiping. Eryong Xue is the professor in China Institute of Education Policy, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University. Changjiang scholars (young scholars) awarded by the Ministry of Education in China. He is also a research fellow of the center for science and technology and education development strategy in Tsinghua university. He is also a postdoctoral fellow in the public administration of Tsinghua university. He has published more than 100 Chinese and English papers in the field of educational research. He has produced more than 100 CSSCI articles. He has won the xix

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About the Authors

seventh award for outstanding achievements in scientific research in institutions of higher learning, the fifth national award for outstanding achievements in educational scientific research, and the award for outstanding achievements in political participation and discussion by the central committee for the advancement of the people for more than 40 times. More than 40 independent or co-authored consulting reports were adopted by decision-making departments or approved by leaders.

Chapter 1

Compulsory Education Policy in China: A Perspective of Legal Analysis

This chapter concentrates on exploring the legal changes of compulsory education policy development. On the whole, China’s compulsory education development has gone through three stages: the first stage: advocating fairness and efficiency (1949– 1978); the second stage: efficiency first and equity consideration (1978–2000); The third stage: give consideration to fairness and efficiency and move towards balanced development (after 2000). In addition, the value choice of compulsory education policy development focuses on exploring the problem of economic development, which highlights the urgent need for the equity and efficiency in the compulsory education policy. It also involves the provisions of the social and political system of the equity and efficiency orientation of compulsory education, and the challenge of culture as a kind of capital to educational equity and efficiency. The questions and suggestions have been offered to examine the problems in the harmonious development of the pursuit of duty equity and efficiency and the promotion of the realistic path of realizing the harmony between fairness and efficiency in China’s compulsory education.

1.1 Legal Changes of the Compulsory Education Policy Since 1949, China’s compulsory education has undergone the tremendous reforms and development, especially in the process of the transformation of the market economy system. During the years of reform and opening up, the compulsory education has made a long-term development and exerted a far-reaching influence in the field of the compulsory education and Chinese society. On the whole, China’s compulsory education development has gone through three stages: the first stage: advocating fairness and efficiency (1949–1978); the second stage: efficiency first and equity consideration (1978–2000); The third stage: give consideration to fairness and efficiency and move towards balanced development (after 2000). © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li and E. Xue, Compulsory Education Policy in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6358-8_1

1

2

1 Compulsory Education Policy in China …

1.1.1 Phase 1: Efficiency First and Equity Consideration (1978–2000) After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Central Committee of the CPC made a series of new judgments and decisions on education after the guiding ideology was put out of order. The Third Plenary Session of the CPC Central Committee decided to shift the country’s focus to economic development. Accordingly, what kind of educational thought and system should be established and how to run education are important questions that must be answered again in this period. The strong demand of economic construction for specialized talents in all walks of life makes the education after the “cultural revolution” inevitably turn to the pursuit of efficiency and quality. This policy adjustment is highlighted in two aspects: one is the resumption of the college entrance examination. In October 1977, the State Council approved and transferred to the Ministry of Education to propose the Opinions on the Recruitment of College Students, proposing to adhere to the principle of moral, intellectual and physical comprehensive evaluation and selective admission, and to restore the college entrance examination system. Second, we build key schools. In 1977, Deng xiaoping proposed to set up key primary schools, key secondary schools and key universities, which triggered the rise of key schools after the Cultural Revolution (Fan and Sun 2008).

1.1.1.1

Efficiency Priority: Key Calibration and Hierarchical Management

Faced with the realistic conditions that China had just recovered from the “cultural revolution”, the economic recession and limited resources, in order to quickly train talents, we must concentrate on the limited educational resources and focus on the development of basic education. In May 1977, in a speech respecting knowledge and talents, Deng Xiaoping stated: education should be conducted on two legs. We will build key primary schools, key secondary schools and key universities. This can be regarded as the beginning of the “key system” after the “cultural revolution”. Under the promotion of Deng Xiaoping’s idea of “key system”, the ministry of education issued a series of policy documents to promote the development of “key system”, which provided guidance and guarantee in the implementation path and funding input. In 1978, the Ministry of Education issued the Pilot Program for Running a Number of Key Primary and Secondary Schools Well, requiring all localities to pool their efforts and effectively run a number of key primary and secondary schools well. At the same time, to make long-term planning after the construction of key primary and secondary schools: national key primary and secondary schools “pyramid” structure formation, and the fund’s investment, and operating conditions, the respect such as source of teachers and students to focus on school preferred tilt, thus formed the national, provincial, regional, county “layer upon layer focus on” key school pattern.

1.1 Legal Changes of the Compulsory Education Policy

3

“ChongDian Jiao” policy has been until the middle of the century s, as the state education commission was established in the national demonstration high school of decision is put forward and implemented, a large number of key primary schools and key schools in all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions and even the county built successively and development, marked the basic education stage “focus” policy to peak, “ChongDianJiao” pattern formed eventually (Fan and Sun 2008). In the 1980s, China’s rapid economic development enabled it to invest more resources in education to meet the basic needs of the public for compulsory education. The scarcity of educational resources, one of the policy environments for the existence and development of the emphasis system, has been greatly alleviated. At this stage, although the state has not explicitly proposed the abolition of the focus system, there is no emphasis on the promotion, resource preference and development requirements of the focus system as far as the policy text is concerned. On the contrary, in this stage, the education policy gives consideration to the fairness of compulsory education in terms of resource allocation, more reflects the development goal of compulsory education of “narrowing the education gap”, and the pattern of “emphasis system” begins to change. During this historical period, China began to implement the compulsory education system of “running schools at different levels and managing schools at different levels” (Fan 2008). The system of “running schools at different levels and managing them at different levels is the outcome of the economic and social development since the reform and opening up, which reflects the stage characteristics of the development of compulsory education with” efficiency first, giving consideration to fairness. As a competitive system arrangement, the system of “hierarchical management” shows a clear tendency of “efficiency”. In May 1985, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has issued a Decision on Reform of the Education System, officially put forward its “classification and classification management”. The education system of running a school, the nine-year compulsory education, and the implementation of basic education shall be the responsibility of the local, the principle of classification management, is the development of education cause in our country, the reform of the education system in our country foundation link (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2020). In April 1986, the Sixth Session of the Fourth Meeting of the National People’s Congress passed the Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China. It takes the form of legal regulation national implementation of compulsory education, the Article 8 of the regulation: “the compulsory education, under the leadership of the State Council, a place, hierarchical management”, it is in the form of law to further advance the classification, classification management system. Education policy in this period more to cultivate a large number of elite talent as the goal, to meet the tasks and goals of the modernization, thus attaching great importance to the efficiency of education, setting up ChongDianJiao, classification management, formulate the corresponding policy documents, in order to seek in the education under the condition of scarce resources, public education resources together, talent to be a good talent (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2020).

4

1 Compulsory Education Policy in China …

1.1.2 Giving Consideration to Fairness: Narrow the Education Gap and Make Compulsory Education Universal From 1978 to 2000, the reform and development of politics, economy, science and technology constantly put forward higher requirements for the development of education, especially the compulsory education. Meanwhile, it also provided abundant opportunities and powerful impetus for the development of compulsory education. Especially since the beginning of the century, with the further improvement of China’s political system and the transition of the economic system from planned economy to market economy, the reform and development of China’s compulsory education has been accelerated. In order to promote economic development, improve the national cultural level and practice the concept of educational equity, China has put forward the goal of basically universal nine-year compulsory education and basically eliminate illiteracy among young and middle-aged people (referred to as “two bases”), and intensified efforts to popularize nine-year compulsory education (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2020). In 1980, China promulgated the “Decision on Some Issues Concerning the Popularization of Primary Education”, which clearly set forth the historical task of basically realizing the popularization of primary education throughout the country in the century. By the beginning of the century, most of the country’s rural areas have basically formed a universal primary education network. In 1986, China issued the Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, which established the compulsory education system in the form of law. This marked that China’s compulsory education entered a new historical stage, further promoted the development and popularization of compulsory education, and put China’s basic education on the track of the rule of law. In a word, the stage of giving priority to efficiency and giving consideration to fairness is also the period when the compulsory education law was promulgated in 1986. The goal of basically popularizing nine-year compulsory education and basically eliminating illiteracy among young and middle-aged people (referred to as the “two bases”) was initially achieved, and quality-oriented education was comprehensively promoted. However, the overall level of basic education in China is still not high, the development is unbalanced, some places do not pay enough attention to basic education, there are still some serious problems: the compulsory education management system is not satisfactory. Long-term arrears of salaries to faculty and staff; The school running conditions are relatively poor; The development of compulsory education is unbalanced, and the primary education in a few poor areas has not yet been popularized. Therefore, in the new century, compulsory education is facing new challenges, and the task of reform and development is still arduous (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018).

1.1 Legal Changes of the Compulsory Education Policy

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1.1.3 The Third Stage: Giving Consideration to Fairness and Efficiency and Moving Towards Balanced Development (After 2000) In the twenty-first century, the focus of China’s education policy began to shift from advocating efficiency first and giving consideration to fairness to the balanced development stage of fairness and efficiency of education. On the one hand, countries clearly put forward the foundation education balanced development of education policy direction, cancel the system of the compulsory education stage, the emphasis and give more attention to the disadvantaged groups in weak schools and, efforts to close between regions, between schools and community education, practical concerns rural and migrant children’s compulsory education problem; On the other hand, we should further deepen the quality-oriented education policy in the stage of compulsory education, and carry out systematic and comprehensive school reform in the aspects of mechanism structure, curriculum reform, teacher training, teaching methods, learning content and examination and evaluation. In view of the above, the development of compulsory education after 2000 officially abolished the focus system, the landmark event is the 2006 revision of the compulsory education law of the People’s Republic of China. Article 22 of the compulsory education law of the People’s Republic of China, revised in 2006, stipulates: the people’s governments at or above the county level and their administrative departments of education shall promote the balanced development of schools, narrow the gap between schools in terms of operating conditions, and shall not divide schools into key schools and non-key schools. Schools shall not set up key and non-key classes. At the same time, article 53 also makes disciplinary provisions on the phenomenon of “dividing schools into key schools and non-key schools”, such as ordering them to make corrections within a time limit and issuing a notice of criticism. This is the first time that the state has abolished the key system of compulsory education in the form of law, which conforms to the objective demand of the current economic development for the improvement of the overall national quality and responds to the strong voice and deep hope of the people for fair access to compulsory education. At this point, the key system policy of compulsory education stage was completely abolished (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019). During this period, the school running system and the management system of compulsory education were constantly improved and developed. In terms of the compulsory education system, the basic education is mainly run by the government, and social forces are actively encouraged to run schools. Compulsory education should be mainly run by the government and supplemented by schools run by social forces. In addition, the “Decision on the Reform and Development of Basic Education” released in 2001 also specifically pointed out that private schools are treated the same as public schools in terms of enrollment, evaluation and employment of teachers, teaching and research activities, commendation and reward. The government should commend and reward those who have made outstanding achievements in running schools. The legitimate funds obtained from the running of full-time primary

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and secondary schools run by social forces may be appropriately arranged to reward the school organizers after the school development funds have been reserved. The administrative departments of education at all levels shall strengthen the guidance and supervision over the education and teaching of privately-run primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, earnestly examine and verify their qualifications and conditions for running schools, regulate their conduct in running schools, and ensure that they fully implement the party’s educational policy. In the compulsory education management system, the newly revised “Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China” in 2006 points out that compulsory education is implemented under the leadership of the state council, the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government with overall planning and implementation, and the people’s government at the county level is the main management system. The administrative departments of education under the people’s governments at or above the county level shall be specifically responsible for the implementation of compulsory education; Other relevant departments of the people’s governments at or above the county level shall be responsible for the implementation of compulsory education within the scope of their respective functions and duties. The State Council and the local people’s governments at various levels shall jointly bear the expenses for compulsory education according to their functions and duties, and the people’s governments of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government shall be responsible for the overall implementation of the system. Since 2000, China’s compulsory education has been further developed, new steps have been taken in the reform and development of education, new progress has been made in educational equity, the educational structure has been further optimized, remarkable progress has been made in the construction of the teaching staff, quality education has made solid progress, and school conditions have been continuously improved. In the aspect of the popularization of compulsory education, China’s “universal education” has entered a high level of development stage. By 2018, the universal coverage of compulsory education will remain at a high level, the net enrollment rate of primary school-age children will reach 99.95%, and the gender gap in the enrollment rate of boys and girls across the country and in most provinces will have been eliminated. The gross enrollment rate of junior middle school is 100.9%, and the universal coverage of compulsory education has reached the average level of high-income countries in the world. The popularization of compulsory education remains at a high level. The net enrollment rate of primary school-age children has reached 99.95%. The gross enrollment rate of junior middle school is 100.9%, and the universal coverage of compulsory education has reached the average level of high-income countries in the world (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018). In the period of taking into account the efficiency and fairness, the balanced development of education has become the dominant strategic policy of the development of compulsory education in China. The compulsory education law of the People’s Republic of China, revised in 2006, defines the balanced development direction of compulsory education in the form of law, and proposes that the state council and local

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people’s governments at or above the county level should rationally allocate educational resources to promote the balanced development of compulsory education. At the present stage, “balance” as a comprehensive development requirements and objectives, involves all aspects of compulsory education. At present, to promote the balanced development of compulsory education, the need to implement the “consolidate, deepen and improve, develop” work principle, focus further implement compulsory education work to do a good job in every school and pay attention to every child’s healthy growth, effectively curb between urban and rural areas, between different regions and schools, education inequality, actively improve the conditions of weak rural schools and urban schools and gradually achieve the balanced development of compulsory education (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2020; Li and Eryong 2020).

1.2 The Value Choice of Compulsory Education Policy Development The Compulsory Education Law constructs the basic frame for the legislation of compulsory education in our country. In the past 20 years, the compulsory education law has been the main law on which governments at all levels have operated and administered compulsory education in accordance with the law; schools run their schools in accordance with the law; guardians send their children to school in accordance with the law; Without this law, the historical process of compulsory education in our country could not have progressed to the present level. Over the past 20 years, the historical process of China’s socialist modernization has been constantly evolving, and major changes have taken place in the economic, social and institutional forms. Among the restrictions and collisions of various contradictions, the principle of “efficiency first, consideration of fairness” still pursued by compulsory education makes compulsory education in rural areas get into some difficulties and even reverse, which is not the fault of compulsory education law, but the contradiction caused by the constant change of economic and social environment, especially the system reform. Therefore, in order to further promote the development of compulsory education in China, it is very necessary to revise the compulsory education law. In the 22nd meeting of the standing committee of the 10th National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China on June 29, 2006, the Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China was revised and passed. The compulsory education law of 2006 regards balanced development as a fundamental guiding principle of the new law. And its basic idea is to pass this new “compulsory education law” to promote education equity. Educational equity is actually the foundation of social equity. Compulsory education is also a foundation for the realization of the principle of equality of education and opportunity. Therefore, one of the cores of the new compulsory education law is to promote the equality and efficiency of education and promote the balanced development of education. The following four aspects to

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analyze the new law revised value orientation (Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018; Li et al. 2019).

1.2.1 The Problem of Economic Development Highlights the Urgent Need for Equity and Efficiency in Compulsory Education In terms of economy, by 2000, China’s economic aggregate had ranked the sixth in the world, and its GDP was more than six times that of 1980, with an annual growth rate of 9%. At the same time, not only has the problem of food, which has plagued the Chinese for thousands of years, been solved, but the dream of a well-off life for generations is beginning to come true. According to statistics from relevant departments, at the end of the twentieth century, China’s overall average living standard entered the early stage of a well-off society, and about 75% of residents initially lived a well-off life, and about 13% of residents were close to the well-off level. The overall development of the economic field advances by leaps and bounds, but the new era also brings many new social problems. The adjustment of economic structure and the reform of financial system weaken the support ability of local government to compulsory education. Since the middle of the twentieth century, township enterprises, which once flourished as the main source of financial resources at the county and township levels, have been shrinking in the optimization and upgrading of the national economic structure, almost completely destroying the source of financial resources in the secondary industry at the county and township levels, resulting in the greatly weakened support for compulsory education at the county and township levels. The increasing burden on farmers has jeopardized social stability in rural areas. The state has taken measures to reduce the burden on farmers and cancelled the fund-raising for education, basically depriving rural primary and secondary schools of the ability to improve their schooling conditions (education financing is mainly used for the renovation of primary and secondary school buildings). In particular, the abolition of agricultural tax, rural education fees and then disappear. Relying on “additional” to pay private teachers in vain. Since 1994, China has adjusted its fiscal system, changed the structure of central and local fiscal expenditures, and made a large number of counties and townships “fight poverty” in their fiscal systems, thus weakening their support for compulsory education. A series of contradictions make people have to reflect on the development of compulsory education. Therefore, it is urgent to promote the equality and efficiency of education (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2020). One of the important indexes to measure the balanced development level of compulsory education is the balanced allocation of resources. Resource balance is the key to the balanced development of compulsory education. The balanced development of compulsory education aims to improve the overall quality of education and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas. The increase of educational funds

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is one of the important manifestations of the improvement of the balanced development of compulsory education. For the level of balanced development of compulsory education, there should be scientific quantitative indicators and national unified standards for balanced development. Compared with the schools with advantages in resources and students, rural schools and weak schools need more social concern, increasing investment and improving the conditions of running schools.

1.2.2 Provisions of the Social and Political System on the Equity and Efficiency Orientation of Compulsory Education In line with the rapid development in the economic field, China’s political system, democracy and legal system have also achieved brilliant results. At present, China has established a more scientific and reasonable state leadership system, legislative system, administrative system, judicial system, personnel system and so on. The basic political function of education determines that education serves politics, and the political demand determines the development direction of education. The development of democratic politics demands compulsory education directly and explicitly. No matter what form of democratic political system, in order to maintain its moral authority and political order stability, it is necessary to pass on the democratic values suitable for the development of democratic politics to the next generation of citizens through conscious educational activities. This kind of political demand must be reflected in the national educational goal, the syllabus and even the textbooks. Moreover, the political values embodied in the education process must represent the interests of the ruling class, rather than those of the ruling class or the marginalized social class. Therefore, it requires education to realize the unification of fairness and efficiency, so as to promote the democracy and fairness of the political system (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018). Education, as an important field for a country to implement public governance through the government, is not only an important means for individuals to achieve their own development, but also an important tool for the government to implement social governance. Its fairness not only reflects the state of social equity, but also serves as a catalyst to achieve social equity. As an important aspect of the public sphere, education should be regarded as an important area for the government to reflect and practice its responsibilities in any time and space. As the representative of modern countries, the contemporary government, on the one hand, enjoys the interests of education and is the biggest beneficiary of the development of education, especially the popularization of compulsory education. At the same time, the legitimacy of the modern government requires that it has to assume the responsibility of public education in the society and has the natural responsibility of ensuring the publicity of education. As a part of public undertakings, education not only plays an

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important role in promoting the development of public undertakings, but also plays an increasingly decisive role in the distribution of educational benefits in the future resource acquisition and life of individuals. The government’s legitimacy requires that it has to assume the social responsibility of public education to ensure the realization of the publicity of education. All members of society have virtually the same claim to a high attainable life plan commensurate with their gifts and talents, and it is morally unprovable to limit the life opportunities of individuals because of their social origins or other forms of injustice and discrimination. Therefore, the pursuit of the unification of educational equity and efficiency, as a necessary requirement to reflect the publicity of education, is bound to become the basic value pursued by the government in formulating and implementing educational policies.

1.2.3 The Challenge of Culture as a Kind of Capital to Educational Equity and Efficiency From the perspective of culture, as a habit, spirit, concept, the traditional value as a kind of capital, it is a great challenge to educational equity and efficiency. Culture as a shared value and a system of rules as well as more specific elements of social interaction within the community. Culture consists of language, thought, value, inner system and outer system. In most definitions, culture also includes tools, skills, and works of art, as well as rituals and symbols that support the purely institutional parts of culture. This definition covers a wide range of familiar cultural categories, namely material culture, institutional culture, and psychological culture, as well as what some scholars consider behavioral culture (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018). Due to economic problems such as the gap between rural and urban areas, from the beginning on the cultural capital ownership are in weak position absolutely, in compulsory education stage, due to the long time practice in urban mainstream culture as the guidance of national curriculum system and evaluation system, makes the generations don’t pay attention to culture adapted to the local sexual behavior and way of life of poor children cannot find the school education content and the link between the growth history, the school that is easier to generalize and express abstract idea “precision codes” language and its commonly used “limited codes” language contrast, It makes children from poor families have a sense of self-abasement and isolation consciously or not, so it is difficult for them to adapt to school education. This gap causes the unfair phenomenon of compulsory education and makes the development of education unbalanced. New revision of the compulsory education law pay more attention to the disadvantaged position of students, pay more attention to their living condition and reform the curriculum management system, strengthening the construction of local curriculum and school-based curriculum, school education will combine the content with their life experience, learning content and experience

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exchange and interaction, so that they can from the Angle of cultural capital, improve the fairness and efficiency of education unifies.

1.2.3.1

Pursuing the Fairness and Efficiency of Compulsory Education Is an Important Means to Resolve Social Conflicts and Contradictions

It can be said that China in the early twenty-first century is more prosperous, more democratic and more civilized than it was 20 years ago. But the new era has also brought many new social inroads and contradictions, such as the widening gap between the rich and the poor among different income groups, regions and industries, the oversupply of urban labor, official corruption, resources, energy supply and environmental affordability. From the perspective of education, there are not only the problems of rural education, the quality and fairness of education, the backwardness of vocational education, the advantages and disadvantages of the expansion of college enrollment, the high tuition fees and so on. For social justice, equality and justice of education to resolve social conflicts, this is because the implementation of education fairness, is advantageous to the position at a disadvantage to the advantage of class society, especially in the talents of the society to test system, test system of a more just, fair, can accelerate the flowing the advantage status in society, so as to change their living condition. Therefore, the concept of “equality and efficiency” in the new compulsory education law is also an important means to resolve social contradictions and conflicts and realize social equity (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018).

1.3 Questions and Suggestions 1.3.1 Problems in the Harmonious Development of the Pursuit of Duty Equity and Efficiency Since the development of the new compulsory education law, we have adhered to the principle of balancing equality and efficiency in education and pursued balanced development of compulsory education. First, the confusion in the financing, management and use of compulsory education. Although the new compulsory education law stipulates a variety of measures to ensure that funds are paid in full and not misappropriated, such as separate the funds for compulsory education in the financial budget, set up special funds for rural areas and ethnic minority areas, and increase the overall planning and implementation of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government. However, due to a variety of reasons, for example, provincial pooling efforts are not strong, provincial capital investment is not in place, or the responsibility will

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be decentralized layer by layer, eventually fall to the county-level finance, and the county-level finance itself is limited or overburdened, resulting in the sharing of funds is not in place; Or because some areas have not formed a standardized rural primary and secondary school budget management system, some have not implemented the real “school financial bureau management”; Or because of the long-term lack of external supervision, and the school internal control system is not sound and other reasons, from the national audit office of 16 provinces and 54 counties in the country from January 2006 to June 2007 rural compulsory education funds audit investigation, the financing, management, use of chaos is still very much. Serious imbalance of financial allocation system, cause serious debt crisis, backward area compulsory education school teaching equipment are scarce, the conditions for offering education gap directly led to the regional, urban and rural, school, community, education quality on the gap between a serious education gap, the gap will through generations inherit and become the new education opportunity not fair opportunity. Second, in the process of pursuing educational equity, there is a lack of perfect compensatory system. In his great work a theory of justice, Rawls clearly proposes that when there are differences in opportunity distribution among social groups or individuals, they should meet the basic requirements of social justice and compensate the disadvantaged groups in terms of resource distribution according to the compensatory principle. The new compulsory education law provides in chapter vi, article 44, that “people’s governments at all levels provide free textbooks and subsidize the living expenses of boarders to school-age children and adolescents from poor families”. At present, from the situation of subsidies for poor students in various places, not only the proportion of students who can enjoy subsidies is low, but also the number of subsidies is not enough to cover the cost of compulsory education. At present, in both the legislation and practice of compulsory education in China, there are some compensatory measures aimed at weak areas, weak schools and vulnerable groups, but there are still some unsatisfactory aspects in terms of the operation effect. Thirdly, the legal guarantee system for the balanced development of compulsory education in China has been preliminarily established, which provides an important legal guarantee for the balanced development of compulsory education in China. But from the overall view, promote the compulsory education balanced development is a long-term, systematic and arduous project, at present, our country compulsory education balanced development of the legal system is not perfect, only need to rely on the compulsory education law, it is difficult to effectively guarantee the balanced development of the compulsory education in our country, also need upper law legislation idea support, with the order of the supporting legal environment and under the rules of implementation. From the perspective of upper law, the upper law of compulsory education law fails to fully embody the legislative concept of balanced development of compulsory education. The constitution, as the fundamental law of our country, is the basis for making all laws, and the education law, as the mother law in the field of education, is the basic law of education and the basis for making all education laws. Although the constitution and the education law both have provisions on the equal right of citizens to education, they have not explicitly proposed to promote the balanced development of compulsory education.

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1.3.2 Further Promote the Realistic Pathway of Realizing the Harmony Between Fairness and Efficiency in China’s Compulsory Education First, we should improve the legal guarantee system of the compulsory education law and form a strong synergy to promote the balanced development of compulsory education. Legislation is the primary guarantee for promoting the theory of efficiency and equity of compulsory education and realizing balanced development. We will improve the education law, integrate the concept of the balanced development of compulsory education in the pursuit of fairness and efficiency, make legislation based on the blueprint of China’s economic and social development, enhance foresight and foresight, and give play to the fundamental role of the fundamental law of education in promoting educational equity. We will improve the law on compulsory education and form a powerful force to promote the balanced development of compulsory education. The balanced development of compulsory education can not only rely on the compulsory education law to solve all practical problems, and its realization cannot be separated from a good external education legal environment, but also from the good internal education legal environment which is coordinated and complementary. Only with “compulsory education law” closely related to all kinds of education laws such as “teacher law” and other laws to form a concerted effort to play the overall advantage, and gradually solve the bottleneck restricting the balanced development of compulsory education. The improvement of the law on compulsory education will promote the balanced development of compulsory education and create a favorable legal environment for the balanced development of compulsory education. Second, compulsory education balanced development cannot leave the perfect funds safeguard system, from developed countries to promote the experience of balanced development of compulsory education, to enhance investment in the central government for compulsory education aspect, can effectively increase the interest integration ability, promote the compulsory education balanced development, ensure the education fair, therefore we need to further improve compulsory education funds safeguard system. Perfect the laws and regulations, implement the education of “two, three growth” requirements, adjust the structure of fiscal expenditure, give priority to guarantee compulsory education spending, establishing education financial information disclosure system, guarantee compulsory education funds in place, the real is not use, misappropriate or intercept, and open to the society, accept social supervision. In a word, the new compulsory education law has made a great breakthrough in many aspects. But, also should see, on the one hand, the new compulsory education law also has some deficiencies; On the other hand, after the promulgation and implementation of the new compulsory education law, the implementation rules of the new compulsory education law and the formulation of relevant policies and regulations have also been put on the agenda. How to learn from the experience and lessons of history and how to continuously improve this law is an important issue that governments at all levels, schools of compulsory education and the whole society need to

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think about. We should realize that the new compulsory education law enacted is just a new starting point of our compulsory education legislation, we must according to the needs of the development of compulsory education in our country, in a timely manner, timely to improve the law, to better guide and regulate the compulsory education in our country towards the goal of fairness and efficiency and the direction of development (Bao and Feng 2009; Liu 2008; Fan and Sun 2008; Fan 2008).

References Bao, C. Y., & Feng, X. M. (2009). Hovering between equity and efficiency: Changes of China’s basic education management system and its value orientation. Education Science Research, 9(5), 27–33. Fan, G. R. (2008). Legal guarantee for the modernization of higher education governance in Shanghai. Wen Hui Bao, 2(1), 11–12. Fan, G. R., & Sun, W. Z. (2008). History and logic analysis of the reform of educational system and mechanism in the past 40 years of reform and opening-up. Education Research, 39(7), 15–23. Li, J. (2020). Compulsory educational policies in rural China since 1978: A Macro Perspective. Beijing International Review of Education, 2, 159–164. Li, J., & Eryong, X. (2020). Unveiling the ‘logic’ of modern university in China: Historical, social and value perspectives. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1–13 (SSCI, 2018IF:1.267). Li, J., & Li, J. (2019). Educational policy development in China in the 21st century: A multi-flows approach. Beijing International Review of Education, 1(1), 196–220. Li, J., Shi, Z., & Xue, E. (2020). The problems, needs and strategies of rural teacher development at deep poverty areas in China: Rural schooling stakeholder perspectives. International Journal of Educational Research, 99, 101496. Li, J., Yongzhi, Z., Eryong, X., & Zhou, N. (2019). Faculty ethics in China: From a historical perspective. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(2), 126–136. Liu, F. X. (2008). The basic educational responsibility of the government: Providing ‘fair’ educational policy. Journal of Beijing Normal University (Social Sciences Edition), 8(4), 5–10. Tian, P. (2018). A study on the practical logic of cultural governance in farmers’ centralized residential area—A case study of N community in northern Henan. Journal of China Agricultural University (Social Sciences Edition), 35(6), 44–51. Wang, W. (2010). The dilemma and solution of free compulsory education policy in rural areas—A case study of a minority area in western rural areas. Journal of Beijing Institute of Education, 10(1), 38.

Chapter 2

Compulsory Education Policy in China: A Perspective of Management System Analysis

This chapter concentrates on the management system in compulsory education policy in China. Through the analysis of compulsory education-related policies since China’s reform and opening up for more than 40 years, China has experienced the general-level primary education to universal nine-year compulsory education from eliminating chaos and restoring normal order to the educational governance. The management system of compulsory education is a multiple realistic topic involving education management, education finance, education economics, education policy, education law, and education politics. On the whole, the management system of “county-level government-led” has overcome many disadvantages, but there are certain problems. Based on the perspective of education economy and management, this chapter examines the management system of compulsory education in China since the 1980s. It also discusses on the management system of compulsory education in China and proposes suggestions for improving policies.

2.1 The Explanation of the Core Concept Educational management system: the educational management system is the general name of the organizational structure and its operation standard that manages the educational enterprise which is created according to the policy, the policy, the law and the rule system that the country formulates. Rural compulsory education is generally divided into county, township (town), village several levels of schooling, county, township (town) two levels of management system. Compulsory education management system, management system of compulsory education answer what levels of government supply and management problems of compulsory education, the compulsory education of government management, since 2001, the main body of China’s basic education system from the township-level government become the government at the county level, the central government’s policy to provide action © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li and E. Xue, Compulsory Education Policy in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6358-8_2

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and institutional arrangements, the government at a lower level to carry out and implement policy. Compared with the practice of fiscal decentralization based on federalism in western countries, China’s fiscal decentralization system is based on the framework of the appointment system between the central government and the superior government, which to some extent limits the attention of local governments to the needs of local residents (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018).

2.2 The Historical Context of China’s Compulsory Education Management System Reform 2.2.1 The Reform of the Education System (1978–1991) In January 1978, the Ministry of Education issued the Notice on the Pilot Program for Running a Number of Key Primary and Secondary Schools Well, stating that apart from the deployment of key primary and secondary schools, provincial and municipal levels could run a number of key primary and secondary schools well, and counties could run two or three key secondary schools and five or six key primary schools well. In November 1979, the CPC Central Committee approved the Report on the Development of Rural Education in Taojiang county, Hunan province, which affirmed the county party committee’s experience in popularizing five-year primary school education. In December 1980, the Party Central Committee and the State Council issued the Decision on Some Issues of Universal Primary Education. It is put forward: “the country should be a basic implementation of universal primary education history task”, “universal primary education should be based on regional economic, cultural, and other conditions of different, zoning by various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government”, and proposed the elementary education law (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2020). Promulgated by the central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1985, the CPC Central Committee Decision on Reform of the Education System put forward the nine-year compulsory education. Meanwhile, in order to promote the development of compulsory education, the Decision proposes that “the increase of the central and local governments’ education appropriations shall be higher than the increase of the regular fiscal revenue, and the average education expenses shall increase gradually according to the number of students in school”. Since then, the education input has imposed education surcharges on farmers, and the cost of education has been transferred to farmers “running schools by the masses” (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018). In April 1986, the Fourth Session of the Sixth National People’s Congress adopted the Law of the People’s Republic of China on compulsory education to open the door to universal compulsory education in the mainland and began to guarantee the right

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of school-age children to receive basic education by law. Compulsory education originated from Germany, and the compulsory education in China can be traced back to the “four-year compulsory education period” stipulated in the late Qing Dynasty. The Decision on the Legalization of Compulsory Education in the 1990s reflects that in the face of the reform and opening up and the rise of new technological revolution in the world, education is the most important means of intellectual capital in the changing international situation, and also promotes social mobility. However, Article 8 of the compulsory education law stipulates: “compulsory education undertakings, under the leadership of the state council, shall be subject to local responsibility and graded administration.” That although the popularization of compulsory education with the guidance of the present and the specification, but from the government at all levels on compulsory education for the division of administrative authority and the relationship between each other, the central government in the compulsory education stage accounted for 32% of total fiscal power, local finance accounted for 68%, the implementation of compulsory education subject transferred to local governments, although this can effectively arouse the enthusiasm of local education development, alleviate the plight of compulsory education funds investment is insufficient, but the lack of local supply ability of local government and education funding source is not stable, will cause the compulsory education management dilemma. The State Council on Forwarding the National Education Committee, the State Planning Commission, Ministry of Finance, and Labor Personnel Department jointly plan on the implementation opinions on some issues of Compulsory Education Law and further points out that, the classification management system is practiced in places where “permissions” career development planning and education business guidance should be focused on the education departments at county or higher in the 1980s. For example, the government of Qushui county of the Tibet autonomous region established a registration system for children aged 0–15 in 1986. In ten years, the enrollment rate of school-age children has increased from less than 30 percent in 1986 to more than 97 percent, and the dropout rate of primary schools has been kept below 3 percent for three consecutive years. However, after the reform of rural taxes and fees, the rural compulsory education input was changed from the original financial input, rural education surcharge and rural education financing to the financial input only (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018). In 1992, the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) put forward the reform goal of “establishing a socialist market economy system”, and made it clear that education should be given priority in the strategic position of development, and the country should be rejuvenated by science and education as a basic state policy. On March 14, approved by the State Council, the State Education Commission promulgated and implemented the implementation rules of the Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China. It has normative and directive effect to the implementation of compulsory education law, but still has not solved the financial problem caused by the lack of education fund raising and education surcharge. (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2020).

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2.2.2 The Exploration of Educational System Reform (1992–2000) In 1993, the Party Central Committee and the State Council promulgated the China education reform and development compendium, which points out that establishing the socialist market economic system and political system, appropriate to the new education system of science and technology system reform and the compulsory education. Administrative intervention has gradually strengthened the sense of responsibility of local governments in developing compulsory education. In July 1994, promulgated by the State Council on the implementation of the Chinese education reform and development compendium, it put forward in 2000 to popularize nine-year compulsory education task and the goals of development. The government at the provincial level shall be responsible for the implementation of basic education in this region. The county is responsible for the compulsory education investment and encourage enterprises and institutions and other social forces union school, various channels to raise education funds. To some extent, it promotes the expansion of educational resources and the promotion of basic education. After the state education commission issued the “measures for the evaluation and acceptance of universal nine-year compulsory education (trial)”, the state education commission organized forces to carry out evaluation and acceptance or supervision of the work of “universal nine-year compulsory education” in different regions in stages and in batches on the basis of county level self-inspection and provincial evaluation and acceptance. On countrywide character, formed initially “village does junior high school, village does primary school” compulsory education manages pattern (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018). In September 1995, the State Education Commission and the Ministry of Finance issued the Notice on the Planning and Feasibility Study of the national compulsory education in Poor Areas and launched the national compulsory education project in poor areas. In 1996, the State Education Commission promulgated the Ninth Fiveyear Plan for National Education and the Development Plan for 2010, which pointed out that during the ninth five-year plan period, various types of private schools shall be actively developed. When the conditions are ripe, existing public schools may be transformed into public schools or private schools. Since then, public school reform, the conversion of the mechanism of using the law of market economy and public nature of education institutions and management units, to “public private school” of public schools, to alleviate the shortage of education funds investment and expand the scale of education, the contradiction of the state to promote the diversification of education supply way and enhance selectivity of education, improve the efficiency of school management. From 1995 to 2000, the central government allocated 3.9 billion yuan to support the development of compulsory education in poverty-stricken areas, combined with local governments at various levels of matching funds, etc., total more than 10 billion yuan of funds, this was the central fiscal expenditure on education special funds the largest national education project, to solve the poor region

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compulsory education difficult played an important role. At the same time, local governments at all levels make plans for the development of compulsory education through various measures to coordinate county (city) township (town) villages and social forces to participate in the work of compulsory education. China’s education for all development index was 0.954 in 2002, ranking 38th among 121 monitored countries, up 16 places from 54th in 2001. (Fan and Sun 2008). The government has delegated power to lower levels and expanded the number of school providers, and China has basically achieved the goal of making nineyear compulsory education universal. This progress is an epoch-making change. In 1999, the national expenditure on education was 334.904 billion yuan, an increase of 13.56% over the 294.906 billion yuan of the previous year. Promoted by the national project of compulsory education in poverty-stricken areas, by the end of 1997, all the project counties in some provinces and municipalities had achieved universal coverage of compulsory education for six years. By the end of 2000, 264 (68.9%) of the 383 project counties in some regions had passed the acceptance of “universal education for nine”. In terms of school running facilities, governments at all levels of primary and secondary schools invested 7.256 billion yuan in teaching instruments and equipment in 2000, and the amount of experimental teaching instruments and equipment increased by 133% from 16.77 billion yuan at the beginning of the ninth five-year plan period to 39.1 billion yuan in 2000. According to the Notice of the State Education Commission on Raising Educational Funds from multiple channels to improve the conditions of running schools issued on 8 September 1992, from 1981 to 1991, the national funds for improving the conditions of running schools amounted to 106.591 billion yuan, the national financial funds 35.745 billion yuan and the other 70.846 billion yuan. Most of the funds from other channels come from the “education fund raising” to farmers. The negative consequences of education fund raising make the burden of farmers increasingly heavier, and the phenomenon of “disorderly fund raising, disorderly apportionment” appears. In particular, after the country carried out the tax -sharing reform in 1994, the financial structure has undergone great changes. The proportion of the central government’s financial resources has been increasing, and the proportion of local governments, especially at the county and township levels, has been decreasing year by year. Along with the education acceptance work, the main responsibility of running and management such as the education funds raising and management, appointment and removal of the principal, teachers’ employment, staff salary distribution and the responsibility and authority over all down on the township or town, some of the “visible” achievement projects such as equipment, buildings and other repair complete, but the lack of education funds raising, funds management, the inappropriate, staff wages in arrears for a long time (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018).

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2.2.3 Determination of Educational System (2001–Present) 2.2.3.1

The Management System with County as the Primary and Provincial Pooling

In this context, in 2001, the national basic education work meeting of the state council, issued by the Decision on Reform and Development of Basic Education and in April 2002 the State Council general office on the notice to improve the rural compulsory education management system, promote the reform of basic education, compulsory education administrative authority from “local responsible, hierarchical management” to “mainly on county”, and the people’s government at the county level have the main responsibility for rural compulsory education, the central government to give necessary support. Among them, the main responsibility for popularizing compulsory education, the payment of staff salaries, the management of principals and teachers, the guidance of education and teaching work are concentrated in the county. Teachers’ salary problem at the same time, the “decision” regulation: “since 2001, will receive county” on the management of the rural primary and secondary school teachers’ salaries, the people’s governments at the provincial level “approved by the county teacher preparation and total wages, for lack of financial resources, has difficulties in paying the wages paid teachers county, by adjusting the financial system and increase the transfer payment method to solve the problem of the distribution of the rural primary and secondary school teachers’ salaries.” The implementation of this issue further clarified the school-running system, the management system and the responsibilities of governments at all levels of compulsory education, strictly implemented the principle of “giving priority to counties”, compulsory education achieved a major transition from “people’s education people’s office” to “people’s education government office”, and the standard salary of teachers stipulated by the state was basically guaranteed. With the development of compulsory education, in 1986 promulgated the “compulsory education law should be further defined with the social development to carry out the central, provincial, municipal, county and township governments at all levels into responsibilities, established stable longterm mechanism of compulsory education investment, in June 2003, the National People’s Congress will be revised on the agenda of the compulsory education law, in 2006 on the standing committee of the National People’s Congress examined and approved the new” compulsory education law regulation: Establish compulsory education implementation of the leadership of the State Council, the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government overall planning implementation, the management system of the people’s government at the county level to give priority to management, in the form of law clear and perfect the education input mechanism, the central, provincial, municipal and county level 4 ensure compulsory education funds, will be fully incorporated into the scope of financial security, compulsory education make the relevant problems of compulsory education, including the management system of

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compulsory education to provide legal protection(Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019).

2.2.3.2

Continuation and Deepening of the Reform of the Education System

Before the twentieth century, the financial responsibility of compulsory education was mainly in the township (town) and the street, and then transferred to the people, the burden of the people is heavy, the phenomenon of dropping out of school is serious, with the “scientific concept of development” in 2003, the education reform gradually towards perfection. However, it still faces some problems such as nonstandard reform of public primary and secondary schools caused by imperfect legal system, excessive fees and loss of public education resources. It should be seen that these problems belong to the development dilemma of China’s education administrative authorization system, and the change of financial revenue and expenditure affects the operation of the system. In 2001, the State Council issued the Decision of the Elementary Education Reform and Development, which put forward to strengthen the public school education reform experiment of leadership and management, schools and weak schools, state-owned enterprises belong to the government’s new school can be run according to the mechanism of non-governmental schools such as the reform of experiment, further standardize cleared the public schools. In addition, starting from spring 2007, all students in rural areas receiving compulsory education were exempted from tuition and miscellaneous fees. In autumn 2008, all cities in China were exempted from compulsory education tuition and miscellaneous fees. In 2010, the Outline of the Education Plan put forwards the strategic goal of “basically realizing the modernization of education by 2020”. Since 1996, the State Education Commission, the State Planning Commission, and Ministry of Finance jointly issued the Interim Measures for Ordinary Senior Middle School Fee Management to improve the charge management rules and regulations. In February 2001, the state council approved, the Ministry of Education, the State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Finance issued the Notice on the Treatment of Rural Primary and Secondary School Fees Problem. To some extent, these systems reduce the burden on the parents of the extremely poor students and contribute to the popularization of compulsory education. In 2016, promulgated by the State Council to promote the county within the several opinions of the reform and development of the integration of urban and rural compulsory education, it has realized to promote reform and development of the integration of urban and rural compulsory education within the county as a whole, gradually establish a mechanism for ensuring adequate funding for rural compulsory education, establishing and perfecting the central and local projects, pro rata share of guarantee the public fiscal system of balanced development of compulsory education(Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018; Li et al. 2019).

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2.3 The Necessity of the Current Compulsory Education Management System Since the reform and opening up, China’s compulsory education system has been a process of transformation from rehabilitation and reconstruction to pluralistic governance. The change of educational management system inevitably involves the central and local governments, government and society, government and schools and the complex organizational relationship between society and school. The reform of the management system of compulsory education is an important balance unit for pluralistic interests to participate in social governance and maintain social order.

2.3.1 Politics Due to the Cultural Revolution, the college entrance examination system of China from 1966 to 1976 was abolished for ten years, facing the competitive environment of global knowledge education. The restoration of the unified college entrance examination system in 1977 marked the beginning of China’s respect for knowledge and talents and the modernization. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping, as the core of the second generation of party leadership, affirmed the view that “practice is the only criterion for testing truth” and established the Marxist ideological line of “emancipate the mind and seek truth from facts”, which was put forward at the national conference on education work in 1978. Education to the cultivation of the comprehensive development of socialism with revolutionary ideals new generation “when the reform is the core of” better mobilize all levels of government, the masses of teachers and students the enthusiasm of each respect employees and society, in the process of government education management, the core is to mobilize the enthusiasm of the governments at various levels of running a school, reform is one of the measures of “take responsibility for the development of basic education”. But produce under the administrative authority, the regional education development imbalances, accrual is differ, the contradiction between the government and the people encountered in the fiscal problems, in 2001, promulgated by the state council “about the decision of the elementary education reform and development”, changed the past 15 years mainly township (town) management system of rural compulsory education, clear “under the leadership of the state council, shall be the responsibility of the local government, classification management, system of relying mainly on county”, provincial, county is given priority to the establishment and perfection of management system of education, we will deepen reform of the education system, promote the beneficial exploration of balanced development of regional education. As the opinions on deepening the reform of education system and mechanism put forward, we should adhere to the combination of top-level design and grassroots exploration, strengthen systematic planning and respect the initiative of grassroots, fully mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of local and school reforms, and turn successful experience

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into system and policy in a timely manner. Therefore, straighten out between central and local, local governments at all levels of responsibility and management power, the relationship between both fully mobilize grassroots party committee, government and the masses of the people to deal with and manage the enthusiasm of the compulsory education, and give full play to the central and provincial government as a whole, is a compulsory education guarantee the smooth development of the system (Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018; Li et al. 2019). In 2018, the 19th the Third Plenary Session of the Deepening the Reform of the Party and State Institutions Plan proposed by the CPC Central Committee to put forward and organize their implementation in the field of education adhere to the leadership of the party, to strengthen the construction of the party’s policies. It is of great significance to deal with the relationship between central government and local government and to strengthen the formation of educational reform. Therefore, the core task of the reform of the education system in the new era is to further promote the separation of management, administration and evaluation, expand the right of provincial governments to coordinate education and the autonomy of schools, and improve the internal governance structure of schools. Deepen education system reform goal: by 2020, basic education system basic establishment, form a dynamic, efficient, more open and conducive to scientific development of the education system and mechanism, the people concerned about the education of hot difficult problem further relief, the government macro management, in accordance with the school run independently, in accordance with the law society orderly participation, and push the pattern to be more perfect, the parties together for the development, the world level modern education with Chinese characteristics to provide system support.

2.3.2 Economy 2.3.2.1

The New Investment Mechanism for Compulsory Education Is the Guarantee for Popularizing Compulsory Education and Promoting the Fair and Balanced Development of Education

In 2005, the State Council issued the Circular on Deepening the Reform of Rural Education Funding Guarantee Mechanism, which exempted all primary and secondary school students from tuition and miscellaneous fees in the rural compulsory education stage in the western region in 2006. The Compulsory Education Law of new revision in 2006 also stipulates the compulsory education and does not collect tuitional, incidental expenses. We continue to implement the eastern counterpart support western poverty-stricken areas school project and the large and medium-sized cities school counterpart support of provincial (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government), and schools in poverty-stricken areas project. We continue to arrange special funds for the project of compulsory education in poverty-stricken areas of “two basics” crucial to arrange the funds for key support.

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The eastern region, except the municipality directly under the central government, shall be determined by the province according to its financial situation. Textbook funding is provided free of charge, with the central and western regions bearing the full burden and the eastern regions bearing the full burden. The living expenses of subsidized boarders shall be borne by the local government. We improve the system of transfer payments and ensure that funds for the reform of the mechanism for ensuring funding for rural compulsory education at the central and local levels are fully implemented. The new compulsory education law stipulates that the state council and the local people’s governments at various levels shall jointly shoulder the responsibility for funding compulsory education, and the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government shall be responsible for the overall implementation of the system. The expenses for compulsory education in rural areas shall be shared by the people’s governments at various levels according to the provisions of the state council (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018).

2.3.2.2

Deepen the Reform of Education Management and Economic System and Establish a Market-Oriented Education Development Model

The central and local governments have adopted a number of measures to consolidate the achievements of universal education. We adjust the distribution and structure of primary and secondary schools, carry out the project to renovate junior middle school buildings in rural areas in the central and western regions, build boarding schools in rural areas, carry out the project to develop modern distance education in rural primary and secondary schools, and strengthen the construction of weak schools to improve the conditions of schools providing compulsory education. We start in the primary and secondary school teachers training projects, urban teachers supporting rural education and rural teachers distance training plans to give priority to the central government finance of the rural teachers’ jobs plan, organizing students to poor rural compulsory education schools and other measures to strengthen the construction of rural teachers. Efforts should be made to reduce the dropout rate of rural junior middle schools and to address the schooling problems of disabled children and rural girls, as well as children of the floating population (migrant children), so as to increase the coverage of compulsory education. Many studies believe that decentralized education has many inherent advantages. In terms of educational efficiency, because local governments are geographically and culturally closer to the recipients of educational services, they are able to make better decisions on the allocation of educational resources, so that students can get a better education at a lower cost, thus improving the productivity of the education system. Local government is responsible for, classification management, mainly on county rural compulsory education management system, need to “further implement the central and provincial financial measures for difficult areas increase transfer payments, strengthen the management of county government responsibility, clear and

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implement it is the responsibility of the villages and towns in the compulsory education”, so the public service should perform township (town) government, including the village-level organizations at the grass-roots level of the supply of compulsory education within their respective jurisdictions (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018).

2.3.3 Cultural Aspects 2.3.3.1

The Main Body Affecting the Management System of Rural Compulsory Education

The ideological education of migrant workers has been weak due to the absence of the responsible subject of ideological and political education and the deviation of educational work orientation. The household contract responsibility system not only makes the family independent from the collective economically, but also makes the family independent from the collective consciousness in terms of family ethics and cultural values. After the reform and opening up, with the reform of the rural management system, the administrative power began to be collected from the grass-roots society, the autonomy space of the rural society gradually expanded, and the pluralistic value began to spread in the rural society. The cultural governance is regarded as “a grand narrative of national construction and social integration led by state power, in which various relevant subjects within the social structure participate in the construction of social core value system and national cultural leadership with the help of network governance system”. With the promotion of compulsory education in rural areas, it is necessary to improve “the precision of matching the party’s policies with the needs of the public” in the interaction among the distant subjects under the leadership of the party, relying on the village committees, party branches and other organizations, so as to ultimately promote the internalization of compulsory education among rural groups and the promotion of compulsory education by social public culture (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020).

2.3.3.2

The Connotation and Structure of Rural Compulsory Education Management

In China’s political system, the relationship between the central and local authorities is embodied as an administrative mandate. Because there are a variety of national authority was produced through democratic mandate and the relationship between the central and local belongs to the administrative licensing. Ensuring the unity of the central leadership is one of the first, for all levels of local government and officials, administrative license on the influence than democratic mandate, so they tend to be more vertical responsibility, within the government system that is responsible for the superior. The pressure-type system refers to the management mode of quantitative

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task decomposition and the materialized evaluation system adopted by first-level political organizations in order to achieve economic catch-up and complete various indicators issued by the superior. From the beginning to the end, there is a superior “bureaucratic” state order in the township (town) village, and the township (town) soil order is the civil power. The village committee is the grassroots autonomous organizations, the compulsory education as public affairs, which is determined by the village committee. The overall interest and the autonomous organization scattered individual responsibility contradictions, which make it difficult to manage. As the most basic unit of education administration, county-level government is responsible for policy making. The education behavior of the township government is mainly reflected in the management of teachers and students. The rights of teachers’ personnel transfer and the distribution of school funds are all in the township government. The salary of teachers is transferred from the township (town) finance to the county finance, but the township (town) government is still in charge(Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018). In 2002, the Circular on Improving the Management System of Rural Compulsory Education stated that the provincial people’s governments were responsible for formulating the development plans for rural compulsory education in their respective provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. The people’s governments at the prefectural (municipal) level are responsible for formulating plans for the development of rural compulsory education in their respective areas, and for organizing and coordinating the development of rural compulsory education. The people’s governments at the county level are responsible for formulating plans for the development of rural compulsory education in their respective areas and for organizing the implementation of rural compulsory education. The people’s governments of townships (towns) shall be responsible for organizing school-age children and adolescents to enroll in school and shall strictly control the dropout of students in compulsory education. Some local governments have not fully fulfilled their responsibilities, according to the 2018 report on efforts to promote the integrated development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas and raise the level of compulsory education in rural areas. Compulsory education implements the management system of “overall planning at the provincial level and giving priority to the county level”. And further put forward: strengthen the compulsory education management responsibility of local governments at various levels, to further improve and implement the provincial plan as a whole, mainly on county “management system”, “start compulsory education quality balanced to supervise the determination of evaluation, and promote from ‘a study on’ to ‘academic’, effectively promoting the development of the integration of urban and rural compulsory education.” Therefore, the diversity of governance subjects emphasizes the joint participation of the government, social and cultural organizations and village committees in rural education. In the process of promoting the reform of rural education, we should not only expand the scope of compulsory education at the grassroots level, but also incorporate beneficial cultures. Thirdly, from a micro perspective, the promotion of compulsory education is influenced by the society, and a specific educational management mode will be formed. Meanwhile,

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the educational management actions of the government will also affect the effect and process of compulsory education management (Tian 2018; Li et al. 2019).

2.3.4 Social Aspects 2.3.4.1

Streamlining Administration and Delegating Power

The Decision on Reform of the Education System of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China points out that the reform of management system of strengthening the macro management and firmly implement and decentralization to expand school autonomy. It is the result of the government decentralization from the central to local practices. The management system of education embodies the decentralization in the process of running school of power and responsibility to carry on the management, promoting the modernization of education management. For the government, it is necessary to make an overall plan for national and local education development, make schools develop scientifically and healthily, and provide standards for schools to independently allocate teaching resources and supervise educational achievements. For schools, although there is no one for the school act has to be clearly defined and specification in the process of running school, however, for the implementation of all kinds of schools at all levels of the legal autonomy of running a school, can through the school rules formulated and perfect, will the school run independently in accordance with the specific to run independently, in accordance with the articles of association of school run independently rules-based; Through the school system construction, it can formulate and improve the management system of teaching, scientific research, students, personnel, assets and finance, logistics, security, foreign cooperation, student organizations, student associations and other aspects, and establish and improve various procedures, internal organization rules, rules of procedure, etc. We further strengthen and improve the party’s leadership over schools and improve the principal responsibility system for ordinary primary and secondary schools and secondary vocational schools, and the principal responsibility system for institutions of higher learning under the leadership of party committees. In Shandong province, for example, in 2014, the Opinions on the Implementation of the reform of basic education comprehensive is to promote the reform of middle and primary school headmaster rank system step by step, actively explore and principal rank system adapted to the ranks of management, set up to promote the principal professional development, ensuring the educator of running a school management system (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018).

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2.3.5 Market Participation The relationship of the socialist market economy and the government turned into the relations among the government, schools and the market. The market mechanism is introduced into the initial exploration in the field of education. It is to explore the transformation and the reform of public schools. In practice, there are private public assistance, public assistance and public schools. The private education, within the legal framework of the private education promotion law, developed from the investors to the classified management and development according to the classified management of profit-run schools or non-profit schools (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018).

2.4 Questions and Suggestions Generally speaking, China’s education management system has undergone great changes. With the definition of the subject of responsibility, the administrative authority of compulsory education at the county level is centralized, but there are still some problems in the development. For example, there is a big gap in regional development, underdeveloped areas are affected by natural and cultural conditions, and their funds are short, leading to the shortage of school facilities and equipment, and the use of housing, equipment and other crude; The contingent of rural teachers is not stable, new teachers are difficult to supplement; Education expenditure and income are not balanced, the fund cannot maintain sustainable development needs; The education management is maladjusted, the internal decision-making mechanism, the operation mechanism, the function distribution is unreasonable, the power and responsibility are different; The course teaching cannot meet the needs of the modernization development, has the hysteresis and so on. The financial amount of rural education is insufficient, the regional difference is large, and the direct consequence of the structural imbalance is that the educational capacity of economically developed areas is much higher than that of economically underdeveloped areas, while the administrative department that undertakes the management function of compulsory education cannot effectively manage the compulsory education in the areas under its jurisdiction due to the influence of personnel level and society. (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2020).

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2.4.1 Rights and Responsibilities of Compulsory Education Management In 2006, the new compulsory education law gives priority to the county-level people’s government, which shows county (city, district) assume school management responsibility, central, province, local and county assume compulsory education investment responsibility. However, in the implementation of county-level governments, they are restricted by the financial and administrative systems, which hinder the implementation of specific policies. For example, the flexible formulation of general transfer payment policy requires the payment of education funds when the financial resources of education are insufficient. In addition, the education imbalance within the province and the development imbalance between the provincial level also lag behind the effective promotion of compulsory education. Throughout the changes of China’s education policy, the asymmetry between the financial power and administrative power of county-level governments will lead to a series of supply problems. Which cause from the central to the provincial, city and county, township, layer upon layer of public responsibility transfer until the village-level organizations at the grass-roots level, which makes compulsory education under the influence of what financial resources within their respective jurisdictions, make this kind of public goods is influenced by the government at a higher level of “attention” and affected, causing financial governance does not match, a drop in the quality of basic public services such as consequences. It is the basis of improving the popularization of compulsory education and the quality of running schools to ensure that the salaries of the teaching staff in rural schools are paid in full and on time and to improve the quality of teachers in compulsory education. Secondly, in the compulsory education management system, functions of effective communication and coordination is the corresponding policies and participate in the unit and decisive, education administrative department or not according to according to adjust the education policy of superior communication, also missing penalties or execution does not reach the designated position, make the execution fuzzy, or “play”, superficial and formal. However, it also depends on the text of China’s education policy (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018).

2.4.2 Investment System of Funds for Compulsory Education At present, the financial system of education in China is under the responsibility of local governments and is raised through multiple channels. Although this way has aroused the enthusiasm of the society to some extent, it still shows the shortage of educational funds and the inequality of educational opportunities.

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Financial Education Funds

The proportion of financial education expenditure in the gross national product not only reflects the government’s efforts in education but also accurately reflects the strategic position of education in national development. The state budget for education mainly includes the education funds arranged in the general public budget, the education funds arranged in the budget of government-managed funds, the funds allocated by state-owned and state-controlled enterprises in running schools, and the funds used for education from school-run industries and social services. The proportion of national fiscal expenditure on education in GDP is a basic line to measure the level of education. According to statistics, the financial expenditure on education accounts for more than 6% of GDP in many countries. In recent years, China’s national financial expenditure on education accounts for more than 4% of GDP, but it still lags far behind developed countries and even many developing countries. The fiscal revenue and expenditure of different sub-governments can reflect the balance of fiscal revenue and expenditure capacity and structure among different levels of governments. In the vertical education financial system, the government that carries out the specific education obligation and guarantee according to the actual situation. After the reform of taxes and fees, cancel the rural educational expenses to add, and ensure that the rural basic education widely implemented, also increased the responsibilities of county government, but at the same time, due to the removal of rural education to attach and approved education funding of education funding gap, which formed such as transfer payments made itself exists regional differences, without excessive economic ability of the government burden, made rural compulsory education and difficult. The rural compulsory education with the county level as the main part aims to realize the transfer of educational funds from the policy and system. The financial resources are concentrated upward, and the administrative power is gradually moved downward. In many places, the county-oriented management system of compulsory education is confused with the investment system, which turns the investment problem. It should be shared by governments at all levels into the main burden of managers, resulting in the serious asymmetry of administrative and financial power and the embarrassing burden on county-level finance.

2.4.2.2

Input in Compulsory Education

The proportion of educational investment in compulsory education in China varies from region to region and stage to stage, and there are obvious differences in education investment in ordinary primary schools, rural primary schools, ordinary junior middle schools and rural junior middle schools. Rural primary and secondary schools are generally lower than ordinary primary and secondary schools. After the author random sampling from the east, west, six economic belt in central area of the data found that compulsory education regional development difference is larger, China, Middle East, and west regional education into poor for 50 billion, and from the development trend, the education difference expanded year by year, and in township level

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of government investment in education is influenced by regional, obvious gap, and unbalanced education development will cause imbalance of regional development (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li and Eryong 2020; Li 2020; Li and Li 2019; Tian 2018).

2.4.3 Conclusion From the perspective of China’s compulsory education management system, we build a reasonable and effective management organization and mechanism of China’s compulsory education. We should consider the concrete development countermeasures from the practical problems. After more than 40 years of the reform and opening-up of education management system reform, we should start with the local government responsibility and classification management. It mainly concentrates on the policy, perfecting compulsory education management mode and mechanism, cracking development dilemma, forming pluralism participation, center of gravity down, primary motivation, supply adequate compulsory education management pattern. First, the establishment of compulsory education funding sharing supply mechanism. Compulsory education of new mechanism has shown that the compulsory education management system plays an important role to narrow the gap between the education in the county to promote the balanced development of the education. Therefore, the central government, provinces, cities, counties, townships and villages should establish a supply mechanism to share the funds for compulsory education. It is not who is responsible for the main body, but joint efforts to develop compulsory education. Nationally, some townships and even some village-level organizations have strong financial strength, and they not only have the ability but also the will to provide financial support for the development of compulsory education within their jurisdiction. Timely adjustment of the existing compulsory education supply system let the township government and other grassroots organizations to undertake the responsibility of compulsory education supply and its economic development, to increase the supply of compulsory education, promote the provision of sufficient funds for compulsory education, has an important role. Secondly, in terms of the supervision of education responsibility, we should make use of the advantages of the township (town) government management and play a reasonable and effective supervision and inspection mechanism, effective administrative supervision. The compulsory education is not to let children learn to learn, but to have the ability to adapt to the society to live, and there is a thirst for knowledge, such education is conducive to the future development of the whole society is the core. Therefore, the superior government should give full play to the financial and material resources to make effective input. Second, the grass-roots government should give play to the more informed power of the grass-roots government, which is worth the material and financial resources and maximizes the utility. In terms of specific safeguard measures, the infrastructure construction may be directly invested

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by the superior, and the payment of teachers’ salary may also be coordinated and distributed by the superior government, so as to share the specific part that can be borne by each layer, which is conducive to the monitoring and supervision and forms a resultant force (Fan and Sun 2008; Li et al. 2020; Li and Eryong 2020).

References Fan, G. R. (2008). Legal guarantee for the modernization of higher education governance in Shanghai. Wen Hui Bao, 2(1), 11–12. Fan, G. R., & Sun, W. Z. (2008). History and logic analysis of the reform of educational system and mechanism in the past 40 years of reform and opening-up. Education Research, 39(7), 15–23. Li, J. (2020). Compulsory educational policies in rural China since 1978: A Macro Perspective. Beijing International Review of Education, 2, 159–164. Li, J., & Eryong, X. (2020). Unveiling the ‘logic’ of modern university in China: Historical, social and value perspectives. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1–13 (SSCI, 2018IF:1.267). Li, J., & Li, J. (2019). Educational policy development in China in the 21st century: A multi-flows approach. Beijing International Review of Education, 1(1), 196–220. Li, J., Shi, Z., & Xue, E. (2020). The problems, needs and strategies of rural teacher development at deep poverty areas in China: Rural schooling stakeholder perspectives. International Journal of Educational Research, 99, 101496. Li, J., Yongzhi, Z., Eryong, X., & Zhou, N. (2019). Faculty ethics in China: From a historical perspective. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(2), 126–136. Tian, P. (2018). A study on the practical logic of cultural governance in farmers’ centralized residential area—A case study of N community in northern Henan. Journal of China Agricultural University (Social Sciences Edition), 35(6), 44–51.

Chapter 3

The Compulsory Education Policy in China: The Perspective of Curriculum and Teaching Materials

This chapter examines the compulsory education policy development from the perspective of curriculum and teaching materials. The effective implementation of compulsory education curriculum and teaching materials policy are related to the quality of the national population, which is an important reflection of the comprehensive strength of the country, and is also an important way to protect the basic educational rights of school-age children and promote the all-round development of children. The hierarchical management system of curriculum and teaching materials established since the Reform and Opening-up is an important embodiment of China’s compulsory education curriculum and teaching materials policy. It will help us summarize and reflect on our country compulsory education curriculum and textbook development experience by carding the changes of the policy process, and adopt a multidisciplinary perspective analysis, to better promote the development of compulsory education for the future provide a reference basis, so as to better promote national comprehensive strength, for the early realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation the Chinese dream. As an important embodiment of the national will, educational policy is an important way to guarantee and realize the interests of public education. The implementation of the “three-level management” of curriculum and teaching materials in the compulsory education stage is an important reflection of China’s basic education curriculum and teaching materials management policy since the reform and opening up. It is the party and the state in the face of the “cultural revolution” in the education career and the world economic globalization, political multi-polarization and cultural diversity, and under the background of the rapid development of information technology, to do a good job in the people’s satisfactory education for the purpose, based on China’s basic national conditions, to adapt to the differences in regional development in our country, from centralization to decentralization, power from level to level 3 there are unique, in the policy to the curriculum and teaching material classification management gradually revealed. This year is the anniversary of reform and opening up, and to build a well-off society in an all-round way and final year “much © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li and E. Xue, Compulsory Education Policy in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6358-8_3

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starker choices-and graver consequences-in planning”, so, through to the compulsory education courses and teaching materials of the analysis of the management policy, we will be conducive to reflect and summarize achievements and deficiencies in the development of our country’s compulsory education, to better implement compulsory education modernization and establish lifelong education system to provide more experience.

3.1 The Concept Definition Before analyzing the policy of curriculum and textbook management in compulsory education since the reform and opening up, it is necessary to clarify the concepts of tertiary curriculum and curriculum management. This will help us to grasp the connections and differences between the three courses and the real meaning of course management on the basis of understanding each other and provide a direction for sorting out its policy development context, so as to better understand and think about the policy from a multidisciplinary perspective.

3.1.1 The Three Level Courses The three-level curriculum was first proposed in the late 1980s. At that time, China sent an expert delegation to major western developed countries for investigation. After the investigation, many experts and scholars proposed the concept of “threelevel course” based on the experience of other countries. From the perspective of curriculum adaptation scope, on the basis of the actual situation of China’s primary and secondary schools, think that China should implement three-level management of the curriculum and set up national, local and school three-level courses. On the basis of the former is more of a “three layers of course”, we are widely used in the field of curriculum level 3 course, which is more in accordance with the administrative level of administrative division. However, the author believes that from the perspective of course management, the two are conceptually involved. In terms of the results, the three-level courses are divided according to the administrative level, but in terms of the theoretical basis, they are proposed to adapt to the balance between the unity and diversity of educational resources in different regions. Therefore, it can be considered that the three-level curriculum administration is a national, local and school curriculum policy implemented by the central government, local government and schools in order to adapt to the development of education in different regions (Zheng 2019). National curriculum mainly refers to a series of curriculum policies formulated and implemented on behalf of the national will by the relevant departments of the national government. In a broad sense, it includes the curriculum management and development policies, curriculum plans, the proportion and scope of various courses, the

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compilation, review and selection of teaching materials formulated and promulgated by the ministry of education. In the narrow sense, it mainly refers to the compulsory curriculum or the curriculum standard or outline of the core curriculum of basic education that the state entrusts relevant departments or institutions to develop. It makes use of the state power to clearly define the standards for students in the basic education stage, including compulsory education, during the school education, ensures the most basic learning rights of students, improves the continuity and consistency of compulsory education, and provides the most basic reference basis for the public and educational circles to evaluate school education. Local curriculum mainly refers to the curriculum policy formulated and actually implemented by the provincial education administrative department or the education department authorized by it according to the provisions of national curriculum and the actual situation of the region. In a broad sense, this includes the management and implementation of local national curriculum in the region and locally open curriculum implemented only in the region. In the narrow sense, it refers to the curriculum developed and implemented locally. Thus, the local curriculum is an extension of the national curriculum and the result of the localization of the national curriculum. On the one hand, he promoted the effective implementation of national curriculum and made up for the lack of adaptability of national curriculum. On the other hand, it has strengthened the ties between the state and local governments in the field of education and aroused the enthusiasm of local governments to participate in the curriculum reform and implementation (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong, 2020; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li 2020). School curriculum mainly refers to the curriculum policy formulated and implemented by primary and secondary schools according to the provisions of national curriculum and local curriculum and the actual situation of the educational resources of the school. In a broad sense, it includes the national curriculum and local curriculum implemented by the school, as well as the curriculum developed by the school itself. In a narrow sense, it refers to the curriculum developed by the school on the premise of implementing the national curriculum and local curriculum well, which is suitable for the reality of the school and has its own characteristics, also known as “school-based curriculum”. Therefore, school curriculum is the place where curriculum policy can be truly realized. On the premise of ensuring the effective implementation of national curriculum and local curriculum, it further takes into account the individual differences of students and makes measures according to local conditions. Meanwhile, it also provides impetus for the sustainable development of teachers’ profession.

3.1.2 The Course Management In the field of pedagogy, the curriculum management is a new concept that is being developed and improved. From the perspective of management, first of all, in the Chinese word meaning, management is the meaning of jurisdiction and governance,

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and its essence is the dynamic and creative activity to effectively integrate various resources and achieve the established goals and responsibilities of the organization. In the course of curriculum development, curriculum management is a process of integrating various forces to achieve the expected goal in order to improve the efficiency of curriculum resources, including curriculum administration and school curriculum management. The former is equivalent to the national and local curriculum mentioned above, while the latter is equivalent to the school curriculum mentioned above. From the perspective of curriculum theory, the understanding of curriculum management mainly adopts the curriculum theory of the target mode proposed to manage the process of curriculum preparation. It includes the effective management of the four links of course objective, course content, course implementation and course evaluation. The curriculum management is characterized by hierarchical management and supervision of low-level personnel. Determine and maintain proper vertical communication; Establish clear written rules and procedures to determine standards and guide behavior; Promulgation of clear plans and schedules for participants to follow; In the organizational hierarchy to increase the number of supervisors and administrators and other five characteristics. In short, the three levels of curriculum management, namely national curriculum, local curriculum and school curriculum, are closely related to the background of China’s curriculum reform, and its focus is on the management of the three levels of curriculum. Therefore, in this paper, the three-level curriculum management refers to the curriculum policies set in four aspects: national curriculum, local curriculum and school curriculum, including curriculum objectives, curriculum contents, curriculum implementation and curriculum evaluation, which belongs to the category of curriculum administration. The rational development of the three-level compulsory education curriculum management is related to the effective development of China’s basic education, the realization of China’s educational goals and the future development of the country (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong 2020; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li 2020).

3.2 The Policy Change Process of Compulsory Education Curriculum and Teaching Materials The convening of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in December 1978 marked the formal proposal of reform and opening up as a basic state policy in China and symbolized that China’s basic education had entered a period of three-dimensional and diversified development. During this period, the state attached great importance to basic education, and introduced various teaching plans and syllabuses in an orderly manner. We strengthen the achievement of the goals for basic education and raise the level of governance. In terms of the compilation of textbooks, the state has also selected authoritative experts and excellent teachers from all over the country to form a compilation team. Thus, at the beginning of the

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reform and opening up, although the positive learning advanced western knowledge of curriculum theory, based on the experience of the multivariate results enrich our country compulsory education courses related to policy formulation and compiling the teaching material, but it is still influenced by the Soviet model in theory, the curriculum concept covers under the teaching concept, independent innovation is not strong enough, at the same time, in practice, its continued unified and centralized education management system have also been unable to adapt to the economic basis and the reality of education level is not balanced. In this context, in terms of curriculum planning, the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on the Reform of the Education System issued in 1985 and clearly stated that, the education must serve socialist construction, and socialist construction must rely on education. Nine-year compulsory education shall be implemented, and the principle that basic education shall be under the responsibility of local governments and administered at different levels shall be implemented. The responsibilities and powers are given to the local authorities. In addition to the school funding and quality control, the local authorities are also responsible for curriculum management. This not only promoted the rebirth of compulsory education in China, laid the foundation for the official promulgation of the law of the People’s Republic of China on compulsory education in 1986, but also marked the realization of the embryonic form of three-level management in the stage of compulsory education in China. In terms of textbook compilation, in 1988, the state education commission issued the program for compiling nine-year compulsory education textbooks, which proposed “to gradually realize the diversification of textbooks under the premise of unified basic requirements and the same examination and approval”. It opened a new stage of “one syllabus and multiple textbooks” for compulsory education in China and the diversification of textbook construction. In theory, they promote the independent development of curricular theories, and in practice, they also take an important step towards the realization of the new stage of the reform of the management system of compulsory education and the construction of teaching materials (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong 2020).

3.2.1 The Policy Changes of National Curriculum and Teaching Materials 1. National curriculum In terms of the curriculum, since the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Reform of the Education System in 1985 initiated the hierarchical management of the compulsory education system, the development of the national curriculum has generally gone through four stages: The first stage is the initial development stage from 1986 to 1991. In this stage, the country when making curriculum policy, breaking the original top-down, promulgated the implementing way, but the combination of top-down and bottom-up, first put into practice after the

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experiment, in October 1986, the state education commission issued the “full-time compulsory education elementary school, junior high school teaching plan (draft)” to solicit opinions, and in September 1988 has issued a “full-time compulsory education (trial draft) elementary school, junior high school teaching plan”, sum up the experiences of the experiment. The second stage is the stage of in-depth development from 1992 to 1996. In 1993, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the Outline of China’s Educational Reform and Development, which further clarified the development prospect of the curriculum policy for compulsory education. In 1994, in order to implement the new working hours system issued by the State Council, the State Education Commission issued the Opinions on the New Working Hours System for Full-time Primary School and Junior High School Courses (teaching) (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong,2020; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li 2020). The third stage is the diversification and localization development stage of compulsory education curriculum from 1997 to 2009. Facing the advent of the twenty-first century knowledge economy and information world, the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) made the strategic deployment of “rejuvenating the country through science and education”. All kinds of important documents outline developed about education reform: in 1997, the state education commission issued “on the current promoting the implementation of quality education of primary and secondary schools of several opinions, in 1998 the Ministry of Education issued the 21st Century Revitalization Action Plan and the State Council in 1999 concentrates on deepening education reform to comprehensively promote quality education. Under the guidance of the above-mentioned documents, the reform of compulsory education curriculum in China is gradually deepening. In 2001, the Ministry of Education issued the Basic Education Curriculum Reform Outline, Compulsory Education Curriculum Implementation Plan, and Compulsory Education Full-time School Discipline Curriculum Standard (experiment draft). At the same time, the curriculum standards are used to replace the original teaching syllabus for specific subjects, and the three-dimensional goals of knowledge and skills, process and methods, as well as emotions, attitudes and values are also adopted to carry out teaching specifically for the design of curriculum objectives, so that the transformation of curriculum functions can be reflected and implemented from the disciplinary level. That exist in the new curriculum reform the existing curriculum “difficult, complex, partial, old” and the status quo between student life and the real world, to enhance the curriculum content and student life, modern society and the development of science and technology, pay attention to the students’ interest in learning and experience, strengthen discipline knowledge and experience of the integration of social life and students, for students’ lifelong learning the necessary knowledge and skills to lay the foundation; The new curriculum structure adjusts the class hour setting of each course, and increases the class hour setting of natural science and art courses, which reflects the balance of the curriculum structure. At the same time, from grade 1 to grade 9, we offer comprehensive courses such as morality and life, morality and society, art, science, and comprehensive practice activities, which reflects the comprehensiveness of the curriculum structure. The new curriculum management officially puts

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forward the “three-level curriculum management”, which marks the formal establishment of the three-level curriculum management system of basic education in China and enhances the adaptability and flexibility of the curriculum to different regions, schools and students. New curriculum implementation to advocate active participation of students, to explore, diligently to begin, to improve the student’s study way, is the student under the guidance of teachers to study actively, rich individual character, to train the students’ ability to collect and process information, the ability of acquiring new knowledge, analysis and problem solving ability and the ability of communication and cooperation; New curriculum evaluation to promote students’ all-round development, set up to promote teachers to improve development and curriculum evaluation system, in terms of student assessment, not only focus on students’ academic performance, and to discover and develop the potential of students, promote the all-round development of students, in terms of teacher evaluation, establish a self-evaluation of teachers, principals, other teachers, students, parents to participate in the evaluation system. In 2006 the new revision of the compulsory education law of the People’s Republic of China from the aspect of law, the formal rules for compulsory education in our country implements the education for all-around development the total target and in addition, as well as the implementation of the tertiary education management system, for our country compulsory education curriculum standard revision and planning direction, also provide powerful guarantee for compulsory education curriculum management (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong, 2020; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li 2020). The fourth stage is from 2010 to now, which is the new era of compulsory education. On the one hand, with the rapid development of society, economic globalization, political multi-polarization and cultural diversity, and science and technology, especially the development of artificial intelligence for compulsory education provides new opportunities and challenges, on the other hand, compulsory education curriculum reform become more mature, education experts and scholars and frontline teachers in theory and practice, experience summary and reflection, and actively for the new development of compulsory education curriculum provides motivation. In order to adapt to the requirements of the full implementation of quality education in the new period, deepening the reform of basic education courses is to improve the quality of education. In 2010, the Ministry of Education issued the National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan Outline (2010-2020) in December 2011. the Ministry of Education for a better implementation of the outline for the new requirements of the compulsory education, organize experts to compulsory education curriculum standard revised each course. It officially launched the concerning the compulsory education language such as discipline curriculum standards (2011 edition) notice this set of curriculum standard covers the obligation education 19 subjects. In 2017, in order to further strengthen science education in primary schools, the Ministry of Education formulated the science curriculum standards for compulsory education primary schools in accordance with the general plan of the ministry of education on comprehensively deepening curriculum reform to implement the fundamental task of cultivating morality and cultivating people. The above measures

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further promote the continuous maturity of compulsory education curriculum reform in our country. In terms of curriculum objectives, we have deepened from “threedimensional objectives” to “core qualities” and revised the curriculum standards of basic education centering on “discipline core qualities”. In terms of curriculum management, it has strengthened the state’s management and control of Chinese, history, moral and other courses. In the course evaluation, the academic quality management and the national unified examination have been strengthened.

3.2.2 National Unified Compilation of Teaching Materials In terms of textbooks, since the state education commission issued the plan for compiling nine-year compulsory education textbooks in 1988, which opened a new situation of diversified development of compulsory education textbooks in China, the construction of national unified textbook has gone through the following three stages: The first stage is from 1988 to 2000, the construction of compulsory education textbooks began to enter a diversified stage. The outline of China’s education reform and development issued in 1993 proposed that “the textbooks of primary and secondary schools should be diversified on the premise of unifying the basic requirements”, and then the textbooks of primary and secondary schools presented a situation of “multiple textbooks with multiple programs” on the basis of “one program and multiple books”. The second stage is from 2001 to 2011. The compulsory education textbooks entered the stage of diversified development and continue to go deeper. In compiling textbooks, in 2001, the Foundation Education Course Reform Outline further put forward the country under the guidance of the basic requirements of the teaching material diversification policy, introduce the competition in the market a comprehensive field of textbook compilation, speeded up the process of teaching material diversification. It is the most notable features of the diversification of teaching material of main body, which is changed by the Ministry of Education or the people’s education press for local education administrative departments. In terms of the compilation of textbooks, the Ministry of Education issued the interim measures on the compilation and approval of textbooks for primary and secondary schools in 2001, which established the compilation and approval system of textbooks for primary and secondary schools, and changed the original examination and approval system into the approval system, further promoting the richness, objectivity and impartiality of the contents of textbooks. In the examination and approval of textbooks, in 2001 the State Council promulgated the “state council on the decision of the elementary education reform and development” as well as the “interim measures” mentioned above to the teaching material of compulsory education in our country executes the education administrative department under the State Council and provincial education administrative department of the two levels of examination and approval system, countries compile for universal use teaching material is given priority to, is predestined friends the teaching material of countrywide middle and primary school authorized committee

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specially invited to participate in the syllabus revision and new curriculum standard development expert and a line of special-class teacher, by adopting the combination of the referee system and review meeting to authorized teaching material. In terms of textbook publishing and distribution, in October 2001, the state issued the Implementation Measures for the Pilot Tendering of Textbook Distribution in Primary and Secondary Schools, which undertook the textbook distribution through competitive bidding on the premise of ensuring that “the book arrives before class. The pilot project began in 2002, and the implementation measures were revised in 2005 to expand the pilot scope. In terms of textbook prices, in 2000, the state planning commission and the press and publication administration issued the Notice on Issues related to the Assessment of Textbook Prices for Primary and Secondary Schools in the autumn of 2001, which stipulated that textbooks were priced on the basis of the standard price, and the gross profit margin of textbook publishing was limited to 5%. In 2001, the General Office of the State Council forwarded the Opinions on Reducing the Price of Textbooks for Primary and Secondary Schools and Deepening the Reform of Textbook Management System to the four departments including the economic restructuring office of the state council. In the same year and in 2006, various measures were introduced to ensure the control and preferential treatment of textbook printing cost, copyright and other publishing costs, so as to guarantee the stable and orderly supply of textbooks. Meanwhile, strict printing quality system of textbooks for primary and secondary schools was established to ensure the quality of textbooks. In terms of the use of textbooks, on the one hand, the state provides free textbooks for poor areas. In 2005, the state released the national report on education for all in China, which listed that the provision of free textbooks for compulsory education in rural areas should be fully implemented by 2015 at the latest, with the cost borne by the government. On the other hand, the implementation of the system of recycling compulsory education textbooks is reflected in the newly revised compulsory education law in 2006. The paper-based textbooks and teaching materials, electronic audiovisual and network teaching materials are established to further meet the needs of different regions and students, so as to put people first (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong, 2020; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li 2020). The third phase is from 2012 to now. It is a national policy for the unified compilation and use of textbooks in three subjects (Chinese, history, morality and rule of law) in primary and secondary schools. Since the eighteenth congress, the party central committee with comrade xi as the core of the teaching material work very seriously, and a series of important instructions, clearly put forward the construction of teaching material is the national finance, we will improve the system of national teaching materials, teaching materials committee was established in 2017 countries, guide the management of teaching material work throughout the country as a whole, make good educational textbooks of primary and secondary schools, to emphasis the countries compile for universal use„ review of the system. According to the requirements of the central committee, the ministry of education began to compile compulsory education ethics and rule of law, Chinese and history textbooks in 2012. The textbooks were approved by the national teaching materials committee in 2017 and were put into use in the first grade of all regions in the autumn semester of the

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same year. In February 2019, the state council issued the “modernization of education in China 2035”, which put forward the idea of “improving the national teaching material system, giving priority to overall planning, integrating unified and divided teaching materials and giving classified guidance”. The national unified compilation of textbooks has entered a new era.

3.2.3 Policy Changes of Local Curriculum and Teaching Materials Since the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Reform of the Education System in 1985, which initiated the hierarchical management of the compulsory education system, the development of local curriculum and teaching materials has generally gone through four stages: The first stage, from 1986 to 1991, was the beginning of the local curriculum and teaching materials for compulsory education. Since 1986, in accordance with the spirit of the decision and under the organization of the state education commission, China began to develop a curriculum plan for nine-year compulsory education. According to the document, “the administration of basic education is local. In addition to the decision of the central government on major policies and macro plans, the formulation and implementation of specific policies, systems and plans, as well as the leadership, management and inspection of schools, all responsibilities and powers are transferred to local authorities.” in the early 1990s, the basic shape of the curriculum plan was realized. In the same year, after the promulgation of the compulsory education law, the primary school curriculum began to be integrated with the junior high school curriculum and integrated into the curriculum plan of the general senior high school curriculum. The local curriculum has its beginnings in the government documents of the time. The second stage, from 1992 to 1998, was a period of rapid development of local curriculum and teaching materials for compulsory education. In 1992, the national education commission issued the curriculum plan for nine-year compulsory education for full-time primary schools and junior middle schools (trial), which was the first nine-year consistent curriculum plan issued after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. In this plan, “local curriculum arrangement” is set up, which explains the total amount of courses and the specific arrangement of courses in detail. At this stage, the purpose and requirements of “local curriculum arrangement” are to adapt the national curriculum to the different situations of urban and rural economic and cultural development and students’ own development. The second is to serve the region, carry forward and inherit the culture of the region, and enhance the love and pride of hometown, so we should set aside an appropriate amount of class hours in the total class hours of the subject to arrange local teaching materials. The program for China’s education reform and development issued in 1993 put forward diversified requirements on textbooks for primary and secondary schools, and the textbooks

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presented “multiple textbooks with multiple programs” on the basis of “one syllabus and multiple textbooks”, thus enabling local governments to have more authority to compile and formulate textbooks. However, most of these programs and textbooks are made, compiled and reviewed by the national unified organization. The local curriculum decision-making is responsible to the national education commission, and the decision-making power of the curriculum is still mainly concentrated at the central level, which is difficult to truly reflect the local nature of the curriculum (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong 2020). The third stage is from 1999 to 2009, which is the period of local curriculum and teaching materials of compulsory education. In 1999, the central committee of the communist party of China, the third national education work meeting of the State Council, issued a far-reaching “the central committee of the communist party of China, the State Council on deepening education reform and comprehensively promote quality education decision”, explicit requirements “adjustment and reform of course system, structure, content, set up the new basic education course system, experiment national curriculum, local curriculum and school curriculum. To change the curriculum to overemphasize the subject system, to break away from The Times and social development, and to the actual situation of students. We should promptly establish a mechanism to update the teaching content, strengthen the comprehensiveness and practicality of the curriculum, attach importance to the teaching of experimental courses, and cultivate students’ practical operation ability. We should make the compulsory education curricula and textbooks in rural areas, especially poor areas, more adaptable to local economic and social development. We should promote the diversification of teaching materials, and further improve the country’s evaluation system for basic education teaching materials. In 2001, the State Council further clarified the requirements of the national, local and school three-level curriculum management should be implemented. The state formulates a master plan for the development of primary and secondary school curriculum, determines the categories and hours of national curriculum, formulates national curriculum standards, and gives macro guidance to the implementation of primary and secondary school curriculum. While ensuring the implementation of national curricula, we encourage local development of local curricula tailored to the region. The administrative department of education under the State Council shall be responsible for the examination and approval of the compilation of textbooks for national courses, the examination and approval of textbooks for national courses and textbooks for local courses used across provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government). The provincial education administrative department is responsible for the examination and approval of the compilation of local curriculum textbooks and the examination and approval of textbooks. Authorized by the education administrative department under the state council, the provincial education administrative department may examine and approve textbooks for some national courses. It is a further policy of the state to make a clear provision of local curriculum management, showing that the construction of local curriculum is gradually maturing. That same year, the Ministry of Education issued the foundation education course reform outline (try out) “, “compulsory education curriculum implementation plan”, in the file in addition

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to continue to put forward a three-level-government is implemented in compulsory education curriculum management, and put forward the “provincial education administrative department according to the provincial (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) different parts of the social, economic and cultural development of the actual situation of different curriculum plan; The total number of class hours and the number of class hours per week should be controlled within the scope stipulated by the state. According to the guidance of the ministry of education on the management and development of local courses and school courses, the specific requirements for the management and development of local courses and school courses in this province (autonomous region, municipality directly under the central government) shall be put forward and reported to the ministry of education for the record. The document also stipulates that the principles of local curriculum construction are local principles, scientific principles, educational principles and normative principles. The main contents of local curriculum include local natural and humanities courses, local characteristic courses and special education courses. The local curriculum is arranged in the following ways: sub-subject arrangement, comprehensive arrangement and project arrangement (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong 2020; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li 2020). The fourth stage, from 2010 to now, is a new period for local compulsory education courses and textbooks. The outline of the national plan for medium—and long-term education reform and development (2010-2020), issued in 2010, Outlines a blueprint for China’s education development in the next 10 years, requiring that “improving quality is the core task of education reform and development. To establish a scientific concept of quality, to promote the comprehensive development of people, to meet the needs of society as the fundamental standard to measure the quality of education. We should foster the concept of educational development with improving quality as the core, pay attention to the development of educational connotation, and encourage schools to develop their own characteristics, develop their own standards, develop famous teachers, and cultivate talents. In accordance with the requirements for the spirit of the programmatic document, the Ministry of Education in 2001 since the implementation of the new curriculum has carried on the comprehensive summary. In the same year, the Ministry of Education issued the Reform of Basic Education Course’s Opinions on Further Promoting Quality Education to put forward the requirement of deepening the reform of basic education courses. It emphasizes the curriculum reform, which is a need to constantly improve and strengthen the field, to strengthen the local curriculum value and weight in the scheme, and requirements must be “further improve the basic education curriculum system. Guided by the ‘three directions’, we build an open and compatible basic education curriculum system that reflects advanced educational ideas and concepts, and comprehensively improve students’ scientific and humanistic qualities. Local governments should regulate and classify local and school curricula in accordance with local conditions (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005).

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3.2.4 The Policy Changes of School Curriculum and Teaching Materials 1. School curriculum It is different from the national curriculum, teaching materials and the development of the local curriculum, teaching material, although since 1985, Decision on Reform of the Education System of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China concentrated on the open hierarchical management of compulsory education system. The specific implementation of the school curriculum in China for a long time still belongs to the school curriculum in the broadest sense. The first stage, from 1999 to 2009, is the beginning period of compulsory education school curriculum and textbooks. We should make the compulsory education curricula and textbooks in rural areas, especially poor areas, more adaptable to local economic and social development. We promote the diversification of teaching materials, and further improve the country’s evaluation system for basic education teaching materials. In 2001, the State Council further specified requirements in the state council’s decision on the reform and development of basic education. It concentrates on the implementation of national, local and school three-level curriculum management. The school may develop or select a curriculum that suits its characteristics. It is a further policy of the state on the local curriculum management to make a clear provision, showing that the construction of school-based curriculum is gradually mature. In the same year, the Ministry of Education issued the Outline of Basic Education Curriculum Reform (for trial implementation) for the implementation plan of compulsory education curriculum. In the document, in addition to continuing to propose the implementation of three-level management of compulsory education curriculum, it also proposed the provincial education administrative departments. According to the guidance of the Ministry of Education on the management and development of local courses and school courses, we need to concentrate on the specific requirements for the management and development of local courses and school courses in this province (autonomous region or municipality directly under the central government). It can be put forward and reported to the Ministry of Education for the record. For example, Inner Mongolia autonomous region in 2009 introduced the Inner Mongolia autonomous region compulsory education program, the provisions of school curriculum by schools according to the national education policy, curriculum management policies and curriculum plan, according to the students’ interests and needs, combined with the school tradition and advantage, make full use of the curriculum resources of school and community to develop. We should focus on the development of students’ interests, needs and specialties, pay attention to the development of students’ personality, fully reflect the autonomy and creativity of teachers and students, and make them have distinct characteristics of the school (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong 2020; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li 2020). The second stage is from 2010 to now, the school-based curriculum and textbooks into a new period. We promulgated in 2010 to issue the National Medium

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and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan Outline (2010-2020). We depict the blueprint for the next 10 years education development in China. The Ministry of Education since 2001 has concentrated on the implementation of the new curriculum for the comprehensive summary. In the same year, the Ministry of Education issued the reform of basic education course’s opinions on further promoting quality education. It puts forward the requirement of deepening the reform of basic education courses, which emphasizes the curriculum reform to constantly improve and strengthen the field, to strengthen the school curriculum value and weight in the implementation of quality education. 2. School-based textbooks Each school can choose the unified edition teaching material that the country sets only or the teaching material that place examines and approves passes to begin teaching, do not have redundant choice leeway. However, regarding school-based teaching materials, according to the New Revision of the Compulsory Education Law in 2006, Article 39 stipulates that the state implements the textbook examination and approval system. Measures for the examination and approval of textbooks shall be formulated by the administrative department of education under the state council. And Article 5 and Article 11 of the interim measures for the administration of the compilation shall be managed by the education administrative department under the state council and the provincial education administrative department. The textbooks shall be diversified under the guidance of the basic requirements of the state. The administrative department of education under the state council shall be responsible for the examination and approval of the compilation of textbooks for national courses, the examination and approval of textbooks for national courses and textbooks for local courses used across provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government). The provincial education administrative department is responsible for the examination and approval of the compilation of local curriculum textbooks and the examination and approval of textbooks. Authorized by the education administrative department under the state council, the provincial education administrative department may examine and approve textbooks for some national courses. (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong,2020).

3.3 The Multi-disciplinary Analysis of the Policy Changes of Curriculum and Teaching Materials 3.3.1 Political Basis of Curriculum and Teaching Material Policy Political foundation refers to the sum of the consciousness and behavior of a country or political subject, which is embodied in the sum of the consciousness and behavior of the political system, state system, regime and other political systems towards

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education. The political system refers to the sum of the ruling methods adopted by the ruling class to realize the dictatorship of the class. It includes the organizational form of state power, the form of state structure, the system of state organs, the basic rights and obligations of citizens, political parties, elections and so on. State system refers to the nature of the state, also known as the class essence of the state. Polity refers to the organizational form of state power. At present, China’s political system is a socialist system, and the essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is to adhere to the leadership of the communist party of China. The body of our country is the people’s democratic dictatorship, while the regime is the people’s congress system. These political foundations all determine the manifestation of China’s education policy to a certain extent. Thus the economic basis of the specific performance for education policy in China under the unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee, appointed by the standing committee of the National People’s Congress of the law, laws and regulations formulated by the State Council regulations by the state education commission and the Ministry of Education to set rules as well as subordinate to the central committee of the department of local party committee under the leadership of the local people’s congress standing committee designated method and the local government, education department, education of laws, regulations, administrative rules, etc. According to the analysis above, since the reform and opening up, the policy of curriculum and textbook management at all levels of compulsory education in China has gone through four stages. From 1980s to 1990s, the political foundation of compulsory education was restored and rebuilt. The Communist Party of China (CPC) held the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee in December 1978, after the end of the decade-long cultural revolution. This has enabled party members, cadres and the general public to restore and establish the correct Marxist line in thought, politics, and organization, and led the cause of socialism under the leadership of the party to a path of sound development. Therefore, it is urgent to reflect on the mistakes in the field of basic education in the field of political thought, restore and rebuild the cause of basic education, improve the legal system construction of basic education, and focus on developing rural education. Thus in the field of legal system, passed in 1982 promulgated the “constitution of the People’s Republic of China”, become the reform and opening up to restore democracy and the legal system of important achievements, but also fundamentally to provide legal guarantee for the development of compulsory education, followed by 1986 introduced a new China’s first “compulsory education law, guarantee the rights of the school-age children and adolescents receive compulsory education in our country, for our country the whole nation culture quality of ascension to provide a solid backing. Countries in the field of curriculum in the spirit of the third plenary session of the guidance, in the early stage of the emergency introduced compulsory education in rural and urban schools teaching plan, in the late stage of full-time compulsory education curriculum of the school, with the method of experiment before promotion, more curriculum idea unceasingly, to test theory against practice development theory, for our country compulsory education curriculum and teaching material of

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precious experience for the development of policy (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong 2020; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li 2020). In the 1990s, is the rapid development of the political basis of the compulsory education, along with the development of domestic reform and opening up in the face of international of the bipolar structure collapse, the trend of multipolar pattern, the CPC Central Committee held in October 1992, the communist party of China 14 put forward greatly speed up the progress of science and technology, developing education, give full play to the role of the intellectuals, speed up the modernization construction and the construction of socialist spiritual civilization level. In fourteen great spirit, under the guidance of the CPC Central Committee under the State Council issued “China education reform and development outline” put forward in the 90 s in the national basic nine-year compulsory education, around to deepen education reform, comprehensively implement the education policy, face the modernization, facing the world, face future, on the basis of nine-year compulsory education, to develop the basic education, improve the rural educational condition, realize the standardization, in order to improve the quality as the goal, improve the comprehensive quality of students, on the respective characteristics of teaching mode. [56] it is in this program that the hierarchical management system of the education system and the hierarchical examination and approval system of teaching materials are basically established, which requires the formal implementation of quality-oriented education in the stage of compulsory education. It is also an important measure to reform the country’s political system, to realize the transition from centralization to decentralization, and to inject vitality into education. It also provides the direction for the revision of compulsory education curriculum plan in this period. The end of the twentieth century, the beginning of the twenty-first century, is our country compulsory education political foundation in-depth development and reform period. During this period, China’s reform and opening up and the development of the socialist modernization drive faced a critical moment, outstanding achievements in various undertakings. Facing the complicated and changeable international situation, as well as the important position in international competitiveness in science and technology, in May 1995, the State Council issued “the central committee of the communist party of China, the State Council on accelerating the progress of science and technology”, formally put forward the implementation of the strategy of developing the country, the full implementation of the thought of science and technology is the first productive force, adhere to the education, the science and technology and education in the important position of economic and social development, strengthen the ability of countries of the transformation of scientific and technological strength and productivity, improve the technological and cultural quality of the whole nation. In September 1997, the CPC central committee held the 15th national congress of the communist party of China (CPC). In the field of education, this paper has made plans for the release of the action plan for the revitalization of education for the twenty-first century, the decision of the CPC central committee and the state council on deepening education reform and comprehensively promoting quality-oriented education and other programmatic documents of curriculum reform in the field of

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education, and provided ideological guidance and political guidance for the formulation of curriculum objectives for the implementation of the new curriculum reform in 2001. From around 2010 to now, it is a new period for the political foundation of compulsory education in China, a period for adhering to the reform and opening up, building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, and developing the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In congress put forward the concept of scientific development, promote the construction of ecological civilization and sustainable development, under the general guiding ideology of the compulsory education is put forward to promote education fair, insist on education first, moral education first, the implementation of quality education, do a good job in the people’s satisfactory education, optimize the structure of education, promote the compulsory education balanced development, focus on increasing village teachers’ quality, guarantee family economic difficulties, the city migrant children equal chance to receive compulsory education. On this basis, in 2010, the ministry of education issued the outline of the national program for medium—and long-term education reform and development (2010-2020), which called for the comprehensive consolidation and improvement of the popularization of compulsory education, the improvement of the quality of compulsory education, and the enhancement of students’ health by 2020. On the basis of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) proposed that the education should be based on morality and cultivation of people, that education should serve the socialist modernization drive, and that quality-oriented education should be fully implemented. For this reason, the state has revised the curriculum standards of all subjects in the compulsory education stage one after another, reedited some unified textbooks, and gradually established a new trend of taking “core quality” as the goal of curriculum reform (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong 2020; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li 2020).

3.3.2 The Economic Basis of Curriculum and Teaching Material Policies The economic base refers to the sum of the aspects of the dominant relations of production in a given society. In a broad sense, production relations refer to the relations formed by people in the process of reproduction, including production, distribution, exchange, consumption and many other relations, including the form of ownership of production means, the status of people in production and their relationship with each other, as well as the distribution of products. In the narrow sense, the production relation mainly refers to the mutual relation formed by people in the direct production process, including the ownership of production means, the relation between individuals in production and the product distribution relation. All of these economic bases to a certain extent determine the form of China’s education policy.

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Therefore, the concrete manifestation of the economic basis of China’s education policy is the impact of China’s financial policy, financial leverage, tax policy and other economic policy tools on education (MOE 2019). According to the analysis above, since the reform and opening up, the policy of curriculum and textbook management at all levels of compulsory education in China has generally gone through four stages. Since the latter two stages of the original compulsory education course policy have the same economic foundation, they are integrated into three stages for specific analysis. From the 1980s to the 1990s, it was the period of compulsory education financial system under the “division of income and expenditure, classification and allocation”. After ending the decade of the cultural revolution, the party held the third plenary session of the eleventh central committee in December 1978. The meeting decided on a strategy to gradually shift the focus of the party’s work to economic development. In February 1980, the state council issued the circular on the implementation of the financial management system of “dividing revenue and expenditure and assigning responsibility by grades”, which further delegated the power of the central government to the local governments. With the promulgation of the decision on educational system reform of the CPC central committee in 1985, the administrative power of basic education was decentralized. It is not only the gradation management of nine-year compulsory education curriculum and teaching materials, but also accompanied by the decentralization of educational financial power. Due to the great destruction of China’s economic foundation by the “cultural revolution”, the fiscal revenue of the central and provincial governments was insufficient. The focus on economic construction meant that the limited financial resources should be mainly used for economic infrastructure construction, and the fiscal expenditure on education was bound to be insufficient. During this period, the financial work of compulsory education focused on three aspects: first, to broaden the source of educational funds, through collecting tuition and miscellaneous fees and other ways to obtain the funds for compulsory education, as much as possible to raise non-financial funds for the development of compulsory education, to make up for the shortage of financial funds for running schools. But fees have also brought about the decline of compulsory education enrollment rate and the increase of dropout rate. Second, improve the efficiency of the use of funds, carry out the key school system, and train more available talents for economic development. Thirdly, the responsibility of the government’s investment in compulsory education is determined by law, and a new tax is tried to provide a stable source of funds for education. The implementation of the law of the People’s Republic of China on compulsory education in 1986 marked the official introduction of compulsory education into the legal text. As for the part of funding guarantee, it is clearly stated that “the increase range of the government’s financial input in compulsory education shall be higher than the increase range of the regular fiscal revenue, and ensure that the salaries of the teaching staff and the public expenditure per student shall increase year by year”. In April of the same year, the state council promulgated the “interim provisions on the collection of additional education fees”, which collects 1% of the additional education fees based on the value-added tax revenue of enterprises. The additional tax revenue is specially used to improve the teaching facilities and conditions of primary and secondary schools. It

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can be seen that in this stage, the financial focus of compulsory education is financing (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong 2020; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li 2020). The 1990s is the period of compulsory education financial system under the “tax distribution system”. With the continuous advance of economic globalization and the deepening of domestic reform and opening up, China’s economic system has moved forward toward a socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics. At the same time, the development of compulsory education in China is developing steadily. Although the decentralized fiscal system has played a positive role in mobilizing the enthusiasm of local economic construction and increasing fiscal revenue and reducing expenditure, it has also led to the growth and spread of local protectionism, which has seriously endangered the long-term sound development of China’s economy. Accordingly, in 1993, the State Council promulgated the Decision on the Implementation of the Financial Management System of Tax Sharing System, which realized the centralization of financial power in the reform of tax sharing system and significantly enhanced the central government’s ability to regulate and control the macro economy. While the central government’s revenue has increased, the local government’s revenue has decreased correspondingly. In this context, most of the responsibility for public expenditure remains local. The hope that through financial centralization and expenditure responsibilities brought by the separation of powers in the local finance income gap can be added by the central transfer payments, but the focus of the central government to the local transfer payment was mainly in the aspect of supporting the local economic development, the distinction is used to balance local financial resources and people’s livelihood expenditure of transfer payment is not much, leading to a series of negative consequences. In the field of compulsory education finance, the financial input of compulsory education is seriously insufficient, and the gap between urban and rural areas and regions is huge. In the same year, the CPC central committee and the state council promulgated the outline of China’s education reform and development, which further clarified the provisions on the graded management of compulsory education courses, and proposed that the proportion of national financial education funds in the GDP should reach 4% by the end of the twentieth century. This is the first time that the financial expenditure on education is linked to economic growth at the national policy level, and a quantitative assessment standard and evaluation basis are given for the financial input on education in the form of a central document. However, although the central government has constantly stressed the responsibility of local governments to the compulsory education financial input of the laws and regulations, and through the formulation of per capita public funds standards, education funds special budget and other ways to ensure that the compulsory education funds can maintain the same rate of growth with the economic development and fiscal revenue, but the effect is not obvious. During this period, the proportion of national financial expenditure on education in GDP hovered around 2.5%. The mismatch between the administrative power of compulsory education and the responsibility of expenditure is the main reason that leads to the lack of increasing expenditure of compulsory education in this period.

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From the end of twentieth century to the beginning of twenty-first century till now, it is the period of compulsory education financial system under “public finance”. China is facing a critical moment in its reform and opening up and development of socialist modernization. China has made outstanding achievements in all undertakings. In the field of compulsory education, for a long period of time, finance is more to serve the state and political power, this concept has been fundamentally reversed after 2000. In 2000, the proposal on formulating the tenth five-year plan for national economic and social development began to emphasize that finance should meet public needs and proposed to establish a public demand-oriented public finance system by 2005. This concept of a major change in the subsequent development of compulsory education laid the foundation. After 2000, the financial system of compulsory education in China has undergone two major reforms, namely “county-centered” and “new mechanism”. Compulsory education expenditure responsibility center of gravity, especially after the reform of “new” 2005, compulsory education has been fully into the protection scope of public finance, fiscal system compulsory education from “mainly township” to “mainly on county”, then transition to provincial government as a whole “and” Shared between the central government and local government system. After the reform of the “new mechanism”, compulsory education in China is truly free nationwide for the first time. Since 2000, the focus of compulsory education finance has been pushed forward from the previous fund raising and efficiency priority to the direction of promoting equity, providing economic guarantee for the reform of basic education curriculum since 2001. It mainly includes two measures: first, the responsibility of financial investment in compulsory education is transferred from the township level government to the county-level government with more financial resources. Second, led by the State Council, the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, National Development and Reform Commission and other departments to formulate policy, in 2003 for the Midwest rural school buildings dangerous house renovation, the popularization of modern distance education, introduced in 2011 rural compulsory education students nutrition improvement plan implemented a lot of aspects such as special transfer payments, the provinces should make this province of China rural middle and primary school funds allocation standard, the central transfer payments according to certain proportion, and whether standards implementation audit monitoring for the provincial education expenditure. A series of reforms have effectively alleviated the shortage of funds for the daily operation of primary and secondary schools in the rural areas of central and western China, and to some extent narrowed the gap between urban and rural areas and between regions (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong 2020; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li 2020).

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3.3.3 The Social Foundation of Curriculum and Teaching Material Policies Social foundation refers to the fundamental and starting point of the system and relationship of the people with common cultural characteristics and behavioral norms within a certain scope, which mainly refers to the social structure. In the structure, there are groups formed according to natural or cultural differences such as gender, class, race, ethnicity, etc., and active or passive relationships such as flow, stratification, interaction, migration, exclusion caused by inequality caused by their differences, which together constitute the core of human life world. The social basis of education policy can be understood as the social structure that constitutes the basis and criterion for guiding and coordinating the educational interests of all parties. Therefore, the social basis of education policy is a complex system closely related to politics, economy, society and culture. As a part of social structure, education is an important part of social foundation. For the compulsory education in our country, equity is the issue of formulating the requirements of the social foundation of educational policy. According to the analysis above, since the reform and opening up, the policy of curriculum and textbook management at all levels of compulsory education in China has gone through four stages. From 1980s to 1990s, it was a period of constructing social equity for compulsory education. After ending the decade of the cultural revolution, the CPC central committee held the third plenary session of the 11th CPC central committee in December 1978 and made major new decisions on reform and opening up. Since the reform and opening up, the speed of policy building has been gradually accelerated, and a series of educational policy documents promoting equity have been promulgated and implemented to improve the basic knowledge and basic ability of the whole people. In the construction stage of the policy of promoting the fair development of education, the core goal of the policy is to popularize education, which is mainly reflected in the implementation of literacy education, so that more people have access to education and equal access to compulsory education. Compulsory education law of the People’s Republic of China in 1986 and 1991 the minors of the People’s Republic of China protects a law “two laws, and the State Council in 1980 and 1983, 1985 promulgated” the party central committee and state council on some issues of universal primary education decision “, the central committee of the CCP, the State Council on strengthening and notice some issues of rural school education reform, the “decision on reform of the education system of the central committee of the communist party of China” and in 1987 the Ministry of Education issued the interim provisions on about running a number of social forces (1987). While emphasizing the importance of promoting literacy education, the above policies also put forward the important role of compulsory education curriculum in popularizing primary education on the basis of universal primary education. Aiming at the specific measures of compulsory education literacy to achieve educational equity, the relevant policies put forward to take the specific measures of “one block, two sweeps, three

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improvements”, and achieved phased results (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong 2020; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li 2020). In the 1990s, social equity in compulsory education was improved. With the deepening of the domestic reform and opening up, in the face of international of the bipolar structure collapse, the trend of multipolar pattern, the CPC Central Committee held in October 1992, the communist party of China 14 put forward greatly speed up the progress of science and technology, developing education, give full play to the role of the intellectuals, speed up the modernization construction and the construction of socialist spiritual civilization level. Under the guidance of the spirit of the 14th national congress of the communist party of China (CPC), educational equity mainly starts from the basic popularization of compulsory education, which is embodied in a series of educational policy documents. Including 1995 “education law of the People’s Republic of China and the central committee of the communist party of China, the State Council in 1993, 1994, 1999” Chinese education reform and development compendium “, “the seven-year priority poverty alleviation program”, “the central committee of the communist party of China, the State Council on deepening education reform, comprehensively promote quality education decision” and the Ministry of Education in 1995, published in 1996 the state education commission, Ministry of Finance about literacy work of notice of funds, the state education commission of rural adult schools and primary and secondary schools to attend literacy work notice, etc. Through a series of policies to ensure the compulsory education fair development and literacy, made clear the unrealized education popularization, the relative education fairness of equal education opportunities, at the beginning of the twenty-first century a more balanced fair to the realization of the new curriculum reform, complete quality education and provide the basis of students’ all-round development (MOE 2019). The end of twentieth century, the beginning of twenty-first century, is Chinese compulsory education social equity consolidation period. China’s reform and opening up and the development of socialist modernization are facing a critical moment. Our country has made outstanding achievements in all undertakings. Facing the complicated and changeable international situation, our country in 2001 published “the elementary education curriculum reform outline (try out)” and “China’s rural poverty alleviation and development program (2001-2010)” for China’s national conditions, put forward to develop normal education, train high quality teachers, implement compulsory education funds safeguard, the incentive mechanism in the consolidate literacy results at the same time, further realize the improvement of education quality, so as to realize in the true sense in a higher level of education fairness. In 2003 to 2009, 2003–2012, 2 countries issued policy documents related to the education fairness, including 1 or the documents of the State Council, the central committee of the communist party of China in 2003 the State Council on further strengthening rural education work of the decision “and 1 ministries documents, in 2004 the” national “two basics” in the western region crucial plan (2004–2007). This period, countries pay more attention to the education in the protection of education fair play an important role, through the rational allocation of education resources, key support poverty in rural areas, remote areas and ethnic minority areas such as

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education, promote the balanced development of compulsory education, to ensure that the new curriculum reform to the people-oriented, to achieve the training objectives of development of each student (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong 2020; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li 2020). From around 2010 to now, it is a period of promoting and developing social equity in compulsory education in China. It is a period of adhering to reform and opening up, winning the building of a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, and developing the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. After the construction and improvement stage of China’s education fair development policy, after about ten years of consolidation, the education fair development policy has entered the re-promotion stage. The policy contents focus on not only the realization of educational opportunity equity, but also the realization of educational process and outcome equity. The state has gradually given priority to education resources in rural, poor and ethnic minority areas, coordinated the development of education in urban and rural areas, and made nine-year compulsory education free in all urban and rural areas. On this basis, the state amended the education law in 2015 and issued the outline of the national medium—and long-term education reform and development plan (2010–2020) in 2010. The state council and the ministry of education issued more than 20 policy documents to ensure the comprehensive promotion of education equity and education opportunity equity. Education fair, therefore, in the field of curriculum, as the value orientation of curriculum standards, makes everyone has grown to make contributions to social development and national development, has the sense of responsibility, creative and practical ability of the possibility of the excellent talents, countries for the update of interdisciplinary curriculum standard in compulsory education stage, again to write some compile for universal use teaching material, and gradually establish a “core literacy” strive for the goal model of curriculum reform (MOE 2019). The cultural basis of curriculum and teaching material policies Cultural foundation is the sum of people’s ideas, values, ways of thinking and behavior patterns presented in material or spiritual activities. As the concentrated reflection or embodiment of people’s material or spiritual activities, education policy is interlinked with culture. [67] therefore, the cultural basis of educational policy is understood as the combination of people’s ideas, values, ways of thinking and behavior patterns formed in the specific process of making, implementing and evaluating educational policies. In China, the education policy is embodied in the process of making, implementing and evaluating the education policy, which is led by the socialist culture with Chinese characteristics. According to the analysis above, since the reform and opening up, the policy of curriculum and textbook management at all levels of compulsory education in China has gone through four stages. From the 1980s to the 1990s, Deng Xiaoping’s “spiritual civilization” was the core of the socialist cultural construction period. [68] after ending the decade of the cultural revolution, the party held the third plenary session of the 11th central committee in December 1978. The plenum realized the rectification of the ideological line, promptly corrected the “left” mistakes in the cultural field, re-established the Marxist

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ideological line of “seeking truth from facts”, and consolidated and strengthened the dominant position of Marxist guiding ideology under the new situation. As the core of leadership of comrade Deng Xiaoping, proposed the high degree of socialist spiritual civilization “construction” of strategic thinking, always toward the direction of Marxism and socialism, criticism and inheritance of Chinese traditional culture, draw lessons from and absorbing the advanced culture of other countries, based on the history and reality in our country, under the theoretical achievements of Sinicization of Marxism, adhere to the development to serve the people and the service of the socialist culture. Under the guidance of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, which takes “spiritual civilization” as the core, comrade Deng Xiaoping put forward the goal of “four new people” and “three orientations” for talent cultivation and cultural construction to embody “all-round development of people” and practice the socialist spirit of “people-oriented” with Chinese characteristics. This thought became the most important two educational policies in this period: the decision of the CPC central committee on the reform of the education system in 1985 and the guiding ideology of the first compulsory education law of the People’s Republic of China in 1986, which provided the most important basis for the introduction of the teaching plan and the fundamental goal of the curriculum plan in this period (MOE 2019). The 1990s is a period of socialist culture construction with Jiang Zemin’s “socialist culture with Chinese characteristics” as the core. With the deepening of the domestic reform and opening up, in the face of international of the bipolar structure collapse, the trend of multipolar pattern, the CPC Central Committee was held in July 1991, the seventieth anniversary of the founding conference of the communist party of China, the first time put forward the concept of “the culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics”, and in September 1997 formally put forward on the communist party of China 15 big, define it as “guided by the Marxism, to foster have ideal, have culture, have discipline of citizens as the goal, development oriented to modernization, the world and the future, national science and popular socialist culture”. This is the first time that the central government has put forward and established the specific contents and plans of the cultural program of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In under the guidance of “the culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics”, our country enacted in 1995, the education law of the People’s Republic of China, the CPC Central Committee and state council have issued “China education reform and development compendium”, “education facing the twenty-first century revitalization action plan” and “the central committee of the communist party of China, the State Council on deepening education reform, comprehensively promote quality education decision, such as policy, put forward in the 90 s in the national basic nine-year compulsory education, around to deepen education reform, comprehensively implement the education policy, cultivate face the modernization, facing the world, for the future in the new century talents, adhere to the education for this, Science and technology and education should be placed in an important position in economic and social development, with the goal of improving the scientific and cultural quality of the whole people, improving the comprehensive quality of students and developing distinctive teaching modes. It is in this program that the hierarchical management

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system of the education system and the hierarchical examination and approval system of teaching materials are basically established, which requires the formal implementation of quality-oriented education in the stage of compulsory education. It is also an important measure to reform the country’s political system, to realize the transition from centralization to decentralization, and to inject vitality into education. It also provides the direction for the revision of compulsory education curriculum plan in this period (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005; Li and Eryong 2020; Li et al. 2019, 2020; Li 2020). The early twenty-first century is a period of socialist cultural construction with the great development of advanced socialist culture with Chinese characteristics as the core. During this period, China’s reform and opening up and the development of the socialist modernization drive faced a critical moment. Facing the complicated and changeable international situation, as well as the important position in international competitiveness in science and technology, we put forward the “big development” of the advanced culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It put forward the “people-oriented” for the purpose of cultural development, and construction of the national spirit with patriotism as the core and the spirit of reform and innovation as the core. It advocates the “eight honors, eight disgraces” as main content of the socialism outlook for honor and dishonor lead social climate. In 2001 the State Council promulgated the State Council on the Decision of the Elementary Education Reform and Development and issued the Basic Education Course Reform Outline, and Compulsory Education Curriculum Implementation Plan in the process of execution. It concentrates on the leading role by the thoughts and practice of “people-oriented”, “comprehensive development” of the compulsory education balanced development concept. The tertiary course management system carries forward the spirit of the Chinese excellent traditional culture and national spirit and emphasizes the educational function of advanced culture (MOE 2019). From around 2010 to now, it is a period of socialist cultural construction with the “core values of socialism with Chinese characteristics” as the core. This period is a period of persisting in reform and opening up, building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics. The CPC Central Committee attaches great importance to the importance of the cultural construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics, attaches great importance to the construction of ideology, stick to the ideology of the construction of the two “consolidation” and “four clear” two fundamental task, attach importance to improve the national cultural soft power, cultivate and carry forward the socialist core values, deepening the reform of cultural system, trying to show the unique charm of Chinese culture, deepen the cultural exchanges with other countries, set up cultural confidence. In 2010, the ministry of education issued the outline of the national program for medium—and long-term education reform and development (2010–2020), which requires the comprehensive consolidation and improvement of the popularization level of compulsory education, the improvement of the quality of compulsory education and the enhancement of students’ physique in 2020. Under the guidance of general secretary xi’s socialist culture with Chinese characteristics,

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we will regard the cultivation of morality and cultivation of people as the fundamental task of education, insist on education serving the socialist modernization, and implement quality-oriented education in an all-round way. Therefore, in 2012, the state has revised the curriculum standards of various subjects in compulsory education, strengthened the examination and approval of textbooks, and recompiled some unified textbooks, so as to actively explore the new trend of taking “core quality” as the goal of curriculum reform (MOE 2019).

3.4 Questions and Suggestions The curriculum policy has not yet achieved “real fairness” in value orientation. The Report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) pointed out that the principal contradiction in Chinese society has been transformed into the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s growing needs for a better life. Since the new curriculum reform in 2001, the compulsory education curriculum has adhered to the concept of “people-oriented” and adhered to the principle of balance in the curriculum structure to promote the all-round development of students through quality-oriented education. However, the development of compulsory education in different regions, groups and schools in China is still faced with the problem of unbalanced and inadequate education, mainly in the gap between urban and rural education, education poverty alleviation, the quality of education in ethnic minority areas and the level of school-level education development. At the present stage, China’s compulsory education has basically realized the equality of educational opportunities, but it still needs efforts to realize the “real educational equality” in the higher level of teaching quality. Therefore, in the formulation of curriculum policy, it is necessary for governments at all levels to gather the strength of all sectors of society and take fair and quality education as the goal of curriculum policy The level of theorization in the course policy formation needs to be improved At present, there has been a significant increase in the number of theoretical researches on curriculum standards for specific subjects in the compulsory education stage in China, which provides a lot of beneficial support for the development of curriculum policies. However, from the perspective of the research results, the existing research is based on the practical needs, and the research on practice improvement is far from the research on the curriculum theory itself. The two types of research show an unbalanced development trend, which is not conducive to the scientific principle in the course policy making process. Secondly, in the application-oriented research, there are also problems such as lack of innovation, lack of multidisciplinary vision, copying foreign experience, and lack of critical thinking on curriculum policies, which are not conducive to the objective and systematic principles in the formation of future policies.

3.4 Questions and Suggestions

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Lack of supervision over school-based teaching materials There are loopholes in the supervision of school-based teaching materials in various regions of China, and the educational administrative departments in many regions have not made clear regulations on the examination and use of school-based teaching materials. Although the provisions of the state schools shall be forbidden to use without examination and approval of the state or local education administrative department teaching material, but the school-based teaching material writing and use of the new curriculum reform, the three-level management an important part of a course, so if for school-based curriculum does not have a specific process to monitor the development of the school-based teaching materials, easy to cause the policy deviation in the implementation process, yes a divergence or superficial policy goals, serious even can cause bad influence to student’s thought, the threat to the students’ ideological and moral consciousness, is not conducive to the students’ mental health development, also is not conducive to social harmony and stability. The evaluation mechanism of curriculum policy needs to be improved Since the reform of basic education curriculum in 2001 has been implemented for more than ten years, but there has been a lack of authoritative voice in the evaluation of the implementation effect of the new curriculum reform. Education policy evaluation for the benefit of the education policy, efficiency and value judgment, is an important link in the process of education policy, it’s application for improving the education policy, to overcome the disadvantages of policy implementation of education, enhance the vitality and influence of education policy, improve the level of education policy is of great significance. However, China’s education policy evaluation is still in its early stage, which is not scientific and normative, and also faces many uncertain factors. Therefore, there are many difficulties and a long way to go. The measures and Suggestions on the policy of curriculum and teaching materials 1. Further improve the financial system of compulsory education and use educational information technology to promote the realization of educational equity. Compulsory education in our country in the region, community, school, imbalance between the problem of insufficient, should first to further improve the financial system of compulsory education, to determine the basic compulsory education funds safeguard standard, deepen the reform of the school budget and strengthen budget binding, perfecting the supervision and evaluation system of compulsory education funds at the same time, different regions and communities, schools, the gap in basic education funds and resources to the optimal regional groups, school standards, improve compulsory education “hard power”. At the same time, the network can be used to share high-quality education resources to further realize accurate education equity, meet the personalized needs of different students and teachers, and enhance the “soft power” of compulsory education. So as to better promote the realization of fair and quality “real educational equity”. 2. Improve the theoretical construction of compulsory education courses and optimize the formation basis of curriculum policies. On the future course of theoretical research, the need to balance the proportion of curriculum theory research and applied research, at the same time avoid averageness, on the theoretical study, need

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pay attention to the importance and necessity of theoretical research, more necessary, based on theoretical research more material support, on application research, the need to keep pace with the times, pay attention to adopt more wide subject field of vision, the curriculum concept, approach to innovation, establish both closer community of academic research, thus better theory in the service of course practice, serve the curriculum policy formulation and form, In order to establish a new curriculum system with “core accomplishment” as the curriculum objective, we make unremitting efforts. 3. Reasonably and appropriately supervise school-based teaching materials to promote the sound development of school-based teaching materials. Regional administrative department of education for school-based teaching materials need to establish relatively reasonable regulation policy regulation system, within the scope of the legal provisions of the state, giving schools develop school-based teaching materials full autonomy, ensure that the teacher and the student right to education and enjoy a high quality education resources at the same time, also want to ensure the correctness of the school-based teaching materials in thinking, on the use of suitability and public welfare, beware of school-based teaching materials without authorized to market. For the monitoring of school-based teaching materials, we also need to work with other relevant departments to cover the whole process of school-based teaching materials development, so as to make comprehensive predictions in advance, monitor in the process and evaluate afterwards. Meanwhile, we also need to consider the actual situation of the region and adopt scientific and effective monitoring methods to ensure the realization of the objectives of compulsory education courses. 4. Explore and initially establish the evaluation system of compulsory education curriculum policy. Although the current evaluation system of compulsory education curriculum policy in China is not perfect and there are many difficulties, the importance of the evaluation system of education policy to the policy is far greater than the degree of difficulties. Therefore, for the development and development of the compulsory education curriculum policy evaluation, it is necessary to raise the awareness of the importance of the policy evaluation from the perspective of ideology. Secondly, a reasonable course evaluation system should be established to make the evaluation standardized, operable and legitimate. Finally, it is necessary to introduce advanced assessment theories, methods and techniques to promote the effectiveness and improvement of course assessment (Zheng 2019; Xu 2005).

References Li, J., (2020). Compulsory Educational Policies in Rural China since 1978: A Macro Perspective Beijing International Review of Education, 2, 159–164. Li, J., & Eryong, X. (2020). Unveiling the ‘logic’ of modern university in China: Historical, social and value perspectives. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1–13. (SSCI, 2018IF:1.267). Li, J., & Li, J. (2019). Educational policy development in China in the 21st century: A multi-flows Approach. Beijing International Review of Education, 1(1), 196–220.

References

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Li, J., Shi, Z., & Xue, E. (2020). The problems needs and strategies of rural teacher development at deep poverty areas in China: Rural schooling stakeholder perspectives. International Journal of Educational Research, 99, 101496. Li, J., Yongzhi, Z., Eryong, X., & Zhou, N. (2019). Faculty ethics in China: From a historical perspective. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(2), 126–136. Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2019). The Ministry of Education of the elementary education curriculum reform outline (try out) “notice [EB/OL]. http://www.moe.gov. cn/srcsite/A26/jcj_kcjcgh/200106/t20010608_167343.html,2001-06-08/2001-06-08. Xu, J. J. (2005). The meaning, purpose and status of national, local and school-based curriculum. Education Research, 5(8), 32–35. Zheng, Y. F. (2019). Evolution and development of three-level curriculum management concept in the past 40 years of reform and opening-up. Educational Science Research, 19(5), 54–59.

Chapter 4

Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of Teacher Personal Management Policy

This chapter involves exploring the teacher policy in the compulsory education policy development. The compulsory education is an important part of China’s education cause, because the teacher staffing problem has been linked with the treatment of teachers in fact, so the importance of the compulsory education teacher staffing policy and the treatment of teachers policy can be compared, is an important factor to achieve educational equality. Reviewing the changes of the compulsory education teacher establishment policy since the reform and opening up, it can be divided into three stages: the teacher establishment standard stage (1984–2000), the teacher establishment stage (2001–2010), and the teacher establishment stage (2010–present). The rationality of the current compulsory education teacher establishment policy comes from many aspects. The political aspects include the value pursuit of social equity and justice, the proposal of the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education, and the priority development of education. The economic aspect includes the sustained growth of Chinese economy and the rational allocation of public finance since the reform and opening up; Social aspects include the influence of public opinion, social system and social institutions; Cultural aspects include the impact of the two value orientations of efficiency and equity. Suggestions for the reform of the current compulsory education teacher establishment policy include further refining the teacher establishment standard, establishing the teacher withdrawal mechanism based on the professional level, and carrying out the teacher supply side reform. The compulsory education in China includes primary school education (6 years) and secondary school education (3 years), it is the commonweal undertaking that the country must give safeguard. The quality of compulsory education bears on the healthy growth of hundreds of millions of children, the development of the country and the future of the nation. The establishment of organizational structure and its personnel post distribution and the number of provisions, compulsory education teacher establishment refers to the establishment of compulsory education stage public schools and their teachers distribution and the number of provisions. From © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li and E. Xue, Compulsory Education Policy in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6358-8_4

63

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4 Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective …

the perspective of unit nature, the establishment status of compulsory education teachers belongs to the establishment of educational institutions. The establishment of undertakings mainly refers to the establishment of personnel used by the units of national enterprise expenses to create and effectively improve production conditions, improve social welfare for non-profits, and meet the basic needs of the people’s science, education, culture and health. The compulsory education teacher, because its establishment belongs to the public institution establishment attribute of full appropriation, thus enjoys the salary treatment of the public institution. Therefore, the issue of teacher establishment has always been linked with the treatment of teachers. Although it is not included in the definition of teacher establishment, it is the most important reason for the change in the policy of teacher establishment of compulsory education. Like other educational policies, the establishment policy of compulsory education teachers is also influenced by political, economic, social and cultural factors.

4.1 The Historical Changes of the Compulsory Education Teacher Establishment Policy Since the Reform and Opening Up Since the reform and opening up policy of the compulsory education teachers’ preparation, the academic circles have different views and some scholars’ teachers prepare policy can be divided into three stages, respectively: the establishment of the unified national teacher establishment standard stage (1977–2000); the achievement of education connotation of ascension adjustment stage (2001–2014); the education fair the improvement of the urban and rural areas as a whole stage (since 2014). Some scholars have divided the teacher establishment policy into four stages, which are: the basic equilibrium stage of urban-rural establishment (1977–2000), the inversion stage of urban-rural establishment (2001–2008), the overall planning stage of urban-rural establishment (2009–2014), and the integration stage of urban-rural establishment (2015–present). Therefore, based on previous research, this chapter takes the teachers of compulsory education in our country since the reform and opening up policy was divided into three stages, respectively is a teacher establishment standard establishment stage (1984–2000), city priority teacher preparation stage (2001–2010), a unified teacher preparation stage (2010–present), a sign of the three changes are the release of a key file (Table 4.1).

4.1 The Historical Changes of the Compulsory Education …

65

Table 4.1 The list of key policies Time

Stage

Policies

1984年

1

Opinions on the establishment standards for teachers and staff of secondary normal schools and full-time compulsory education

2001年

2

Decision on the reform and development of basic education

2001年

2

Notice on opinions on the establishment of standards for teaching and administrative staff of compulsory education

2010年

3

Outline of the national plan for medium—and long-term education reform and development (2010–2020)

2012年

3

Opinions of the state council on furthering the balanced development of compulsory education

2014年

3

Notice on the unification of the standards for the establishment of teaching staff in urban and rural compulsory education

2017年

3

Opinions on comprehensively deepening the reform of the construction of teachers in the new era

4.1.1 The First Stage: The Establishment Stage of Teacher Establishment Standards (1984–2000) After the reform and opening up, it is urgent to raise the requirements for compulsory education, formulate policies conducive to compulsory education, expand the teaching staff, improve the level of teachers, and increase the investment in education funds. Therefore, in 1984, the Ministry of Education of China issued the Opinions on the Establishment Standards of Teachers and Staff in Secondary Normal Schools and Full-Time Compulsory Education, which marked a new starting point for the establishment management system of teachers in compulsory education in China, and it has far-reaching significance and plays an important role. According to the spirit of this document, the specific compilation standards and management approval methods are formulated in combination with the local actual conditions. It is to be in charge of by the education administration branch above county level commonly to examine and approve and issue. Under the influence of this document, the local compulsory education carried out the orderly establishment management work, and gradually improved the school establishment management system. At the same time, it also provides a basis for deepening the reform of the establishment management system of compulsory education, standardizing the establishment management system, improving the overall educational level and improving the quality of school running. From the content point of view, the document contains about the establishment of school institutions, the control of class size, reasonable addendum and not to occupy the establishment of educational undertakings, etc. It clearly requires the school to be the unit, calculated by class (including single and combined), the number of students in each class is determined according to the source of students within the school service radius. Large scale, good conditions of the school appropriate some tight, small scale, poor conditions of the school to be appropriately wide. The number

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Table 4.2 The secondary normal schools and full-time compulsory education staff to prepare a standard reference in 1984 School type

Urban

Rural

Average Average number of staff Average Average number of staff number of per class number of per class staff per class In total Teacher Staff staff per class In total Teacher Staff

Secondary 40 normal school

6.0–6.5 3.5–4.0

2.5

Higher school

45–50

4.0

2.8

1.2

45–50

4.0

2.8

1.2

Middle school

45–50

3.7

2.5

1.2

45–50

3.5

2.5

1.0

Primary school

40–45

2.2

1.7

0.5

30–35

1.4

1.3

0.1

of students per class in such sparsely populated areas as pastoral areas, mountains, lakes and islands can be appropriately reduced or double class can be conducted according to the actual situation. In the nearly 20 years after this document, China’s compulsory education teachers compiled the standard for the class ratio, that is, under the category of class size standard, each class is equipped with a certain number of teachers. In this stage, except for high school teachers, the standards for teachers in primary schools and middle schools are higher in urban areas than in rural areas, which reflects the priority of urban education development. However, it is important to note that primary school is the requirement of the rural and town move troops than considering difference under the condition of large class amount, the decision made by the urban areas move troops ratio is 1:1.7, the rural areas move troops ratio of 1:1.3 (Table 4.2), that teachers in urban areas and rural areas of preparation of standard is in a state of fundamental equilibrium. Although this document affirms the existence of urban-rural gap is an indisputable fact, from the perspective of class teacher ratio, the teacher establishment standards in urban areas and rural areas are basically in a balanced state. The file after the founding of the people in the compulsory education teachers prepare the long term, under the premise that there is no clear regulation is a new starting point of our country compulsory education teacher preparation development, the structure of secondary normal school and general compulsory education, faculty preparation, the number of each class have more detailed requirements, the establishment of a unified national teacher preparation standards (Bao 2005; Wang and Liang 2015; Liu et al. 2019; Liu 2016; Li et al. 2020; Zhao 2012).

4.1 The Historical Changes of the Compulsory Education …

67

4.1.2 The Second Stage: The Establishment Stage of City-First Teachers (2001–2010) In May 2001, the State Council promulgated the Decision on the Reform and Development of Basic Education (Guo fa [2001] No. 21), which proposed that the management of the establishment of compulsory education teachers should be strengthened, and the central establishment departments should work with the education and financial departments to establish scientific and reasonable standards for the establishment of compulsory education teaching staff. The people’s governments at the provincial level shall, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the state and the standards for their establishment, formulate their own measures for implementation in accordance with the local conditions. All localities shall verify the establishment of staff and workers for compulsory education, standardize the establishment of institutions and posts in schools, and strengthen the management of establishment. Those who increase the number of teaching staff without authorization in violation of staffing regulations shall be dealt with seriously. At the same time, the decision also said that we will gradually eliminate substitute teachers, streamline and reduce non-teaching staff in compulsory education, and clean up all kinds of “on the payroll or not on the payroll personnel. In the same year, in accordance with the spirit of the above-mentioned documents, the central compilation office, the ministry of education and the ministry of finance issued the notice on opinions on the establishment of standards for staff and workers in compulsory education (Guo ban fa [2001] No. 74). This “circular” to compulsory education teaching staff establishment principle, standard put forward more scientific, specific requirement. On the basis of the previous documents, the principle of “striving to be streamlined and efficient” was formulated, and specific requirements were put forward for the proportion of administrators in schools, stressing that “the management of compulsory education schools should be conducted as part-time as possible by teachers, and logistics service work should be gradually socialized. If there is a need for staff, support staff and work staff, the proportion of staff in high schools is normally not more than 16 per cent, in middle schools not more than 15 per cent and in primary schools not more than 9 per cent.” It can be seen that the teacher establishment system in this stage has been preliminarily improved, and detailed regulations have been made on the number of teachers and the number of administrators, which can improve the overall quality of the teacher team to some extent and promote the rational flow of teachers. The document’s “standards for the preparation of compulsory education staff” (see Table 4.3) changes the previous “teacher to teacher ratio” to “teacher to student ratio”. At the same time, it is pointed out that the establishment of compulsory education staff should be determined according to different educational levels and regions and in accordance with a certain proportion of the number of students. In junior middle school, the rural area is 1:18, the county town is 1:16, and the city is 1:13.5. In high school, the rural area is 1:13.5, the county town is 1:13, and the city is 1:12.5, so as to ensure the basic needs of the development of basic education. However, “due to the lack of research on the actual demand of

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Table 4.3 The establishment standards of compulsory education teaching staff in 2001

School type

Teacher versus students

High school

Urban

1:12.5

Town

1:13

Middle school

Primary school

Rural

1:13.5

Urban

1:13.5

Town

1:16

Rural

1:18

Urban

1:19

Town

1:21

Rural

1:23

compulsory education in China, especially in the rural areas, and especially the lack of research and analysis on the new situation and future development of compulsory education”, the gap between urban and rural teachers was obvious. We can see that the urban-rural polarization is very serious, and the policy follows principles that do not include narrowing the urban-rural gap, but only include “(1) basic needs to ensure the development of basic education; (2) to adapt to the level of economic development and financial capacity; (3) strive for streamlining and efficiency; (4) adjust measures to local conditions and treat them differently”, ignoring the balanced development of compulsory education (Bao 2005; Wang and Liang 2015; Liu et al. 2019; Liu 2016; Li et al. 2020; Zhao 2012).

4.1.3 The Third Stage: Urban-Rural Unified Teacher Establishment Stage (2010–Present) With the further development of education, in the context of the substantial improvement of education popularization level and everyone can go to school, people from all walks of life are calling for education equity more and more strongly. The education gap between urban and rural areas caused by the long-term implementation of the urban-rural dual structure has become the core concern of the government and the academic community. At this stage, the compulsory education policy began to consciously incline to backward areas, weak schools and vulnerable groups, and balanced development became the main theme of the compulsory education policy. About further implement the State Council on forwarding the public sector, the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance to develop compulsory education faculty establishment standard advice notice announcement concerning the problems in the notes to” vigorously strengthen the construction of rural teachers, promote the compulsory education balanced development between urban and rural areas, promote the education fair; We will strengthen and improve the management of the establishment of compulsory education teachers and staff, and focus on solving the shortage

4.1 The Historical Changes of the Compulsory Education …

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of the establishment of some rural compulsory education teachers. Subsequently, the outline of the national program for medium—and long-term education reform and development (2010–2020), formulated in 2010, clearly stated: “gradually implement the uniform standards for compiling compulsory education in urban and rural areas, and implement preferential policies for rural and remote areas.” The opinions of the state council on further promoting the balanced development of compulsory education, issued in 2012, required that “all localities should gradually implement unified standards for compiling compulsory education in urban and rural areas, and give preference to village primary schools and teaching sites. Reasonably allocate teachers of all subjects, with teachers of physical education, music, art and other courses; To promote and promote the special post plan and innovate the teacher supplement mechanism; Policy measures to strengthen the construction of rural compulsory education teachers. The guideline clearly calls for the establishment of standards for the establishment of compulsory education teachers in urban and rural areas. The establishment of compulsory education teachers in urban and rural areas has always been higher in cities than in rural areas. The requirement of “considering the actual demand, the rural remote areas should be appropriately titled” explains that the national policy stipulates that the teacher establishment should be tilted from the urban to the rural teacher establishment. At the same time, “adhere to strict and tight, strict control of the total amount of work; Strengthen the cooperation of departments, do a good job of dynamic adjustment and overall use; We will deepen reform of logistics and increase government procurement of services. We will strengthen supervision and supervision, and strictly standardize the management of the staffing of teachers and staff in compulsory education. After this announcement, the urban-rural integration of compulsory education teachers was finally recognized in law and realized. However, the circular also stressed the need to “adhere to strict and tight control of the total number of staff. To carry out the unified work of compulsory education staff and workers in urban and rural areas, the provincial government should take the overall responsibility for the total amount, make full use of the stock, optimize the structure and balance the increase and decrease. In other words, the teacher establishment policy is more stringent, which is one of the reasons for the serious shortage of teacher establishment. Subsequently, in 2015, the general office of the state council released the support plan for rural teachers (2015–2020). The plan calls for “the unification of urban and rural teaching and administrative staff establishment standards,” and again clearly emphasizes the importance of the integration of urban and rural compulsory education teachers’ establishment and implements the unification of standards. In November 2017, the first meeting of the central leading group for comprehensively deepening reform examined and approved the opinions on comprehensively deepening the reform of teacher troop construction in the new era, which will be formally promulgated and put into effect by the state council in 2018. The “opinions” again “compulsory education teachers’ innovation and criterion with” to “adapt to accelerate the modernization of education of the urgent needs and the integration of urban and rural education development and reform of the new situation, give full consideration to the new urbanization, comprehensive two child policy and the college entrance examination reform brings new situation”,

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reiterated “to carry out the urban and rural compulsory education faculty of the unified standard” and “preparation of tilt to rural small schools” policy requirements, continue to strictly in accordance with the “move troops than” and “a” student/teacher ratio combination of preparation of standard of check and ratify. At the same time, the guideline also called for “the combination of teacher staffing and the purchase of work services to meet the needs of the rapid development of education.” Through the employment system to supplement the teachers to solve the problem of insufficient teachers. Three stages since the reform and opening up teachers prepare the policy change, from the guarantee of basic “a study on”, the priority to the development of the urban education, guarantee of basic education development needs, and then to aims to promote education fair unified urban and rural areas “studious”, which is closely related to China’s economic and social development strategy, as well as on the continuous improvement of the teachers’ preparation system and improvement (Bao 2005; Wang and Liang 2015).

4.2 The Contradiction Between Supply and Demand of Teacher Establishment Reform Policy Since 2013, the total size of local enterprises has been strictly controlled according to the basic principle of “only reducing but not increasing”. Under the influence of the dual factors of the contractionary establishment policy and the inferior distribution, the amount of establishment of compulsory education from the “master plate” of enterprise establishment is very limited. However, on the demand side of the establishment, the drastic change of the school-age population and the reform within the education system have new increasing demands on the total number of teachers, resulting in a serious shortage of the establishment of teachers. In order to alleviate the contradiction between the supply and demand of teachers, different policies have been put forward to deal with this problem.

4.2.1 Make Full Use of the Work Force Within the System Activating the establishment in the system refers to the reform of adjusting the current or future establishment in the system to expand the total supply of teachers based on the current establishment system framework and without breaking the limitation of the total establishment of enterprises. We prepare the cross-regional complementary regulate teachers, set up additional preparation, reserved motor dynamic adjustment methods such as teachers’ establishment, relieve teachers prepare the insufficient total amount and the problem of uneven configuration.

4.2 The Contradiction Between Supply and Demand …

71

4.2.2 Employ Teachers Outside the Ranks Due to the unsurmountable addendum limitations in the system, some regions began to explore ways to supplement teachers from outside the system and hire teachers from outside the system by purchasing social services to alleviate the problem of teacher shortage. This method can be directly employed by the education department or the employing school, or indirectly employed through the purchase of education services from a third party. For example, some areas in Beijing, Shanxi, Hubei and other provinces ae allocated by the government to solve the problems of school security, dormitory administrators and other logistics support personnel allocation and salary payment through the purchase of social services, so as to make room for full-time teachers in rural schools.

4.2.3 Cancellation of the Establishment of All Staff In order to completely eliminate the various barriers to the recruitment of teachers, some areas have carried out a larger range of reform—the abolition of staff. For example, in 2017, a district in Jinan tried to abolish the establishment of teachers and implement the “full employment” system. Subsequently, more than 1700 teachers from 33 of the 34 schools in the region submitted applications, voluntarily gave up their “status” and were included in the “post” management of the district’s basic education group.

4.3 Analysis on the Rationality of the Current Compulsory Education Teachers’ Establishment Policy Since the reform and opening up, the teacher establishment policy of compulsory education has gone through three different stages. From the establishment stage of teacher establishment standards (1984–2000), China has initially established the immature teacher establishment standards of compulsory education. To the stage of the establishment of city-first teachers (2001–2010), this stage focused on the streamlining of teachers and universities and widened the gap between urban and rural education. Then to the stage of unified teacher establishment in urban and rural areas (from 2010 to now), the integration of compulsory education teacher establishment in urban and rural areas was finally recognized and realized in law. After many adjustments and improvements, the establishment policy of compulsory education teachers in our country has profound rationality, which will be analyzed from the perspective of politics, economy, society and culture (Bao 2005; Wang and Liang 2015).

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4.3.1 Political Perspective 4.3.1.1

Value Pursuit of Social Equity and Justice

With China’s reform and opening-up and the deepening of the socialist market economy, in the face of economic globalization, the challenge of international political multi-polarization and cultural diversification, our country in 2012, the eighteenth big report for the first time put forward the socialist core values: “advocating prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized and harmonious, advocating freedom, equality, justice, rule of law, advocating patriotic, dedicated, sincere, friendly, actively cultivate the socialist core values.” Here “justice” refers to social fairness and justice, which is the fundamental value concept of the country and the society on the premise of people’s equal rights. Fairness and justice are the ideological guidance of socialist harmonious society and the core value pursuit of socialism. Urban and rural integration is the integration of urban and rural areas as a whole, “equality” and “justice” is the core of urban and rural integration. Education is the cornerstone of a country’s development, teachers are the propellers of education, is an indispensable part of the teacher staffing policy should also conform to the historical development and the national process as a part of urban and rural integration. The value pursuit of urban and rural unification and fairness and justice is a mutual relation and interaction. At present, the establishment policy of compulsory education teachers conforms to the requirement of “justice”.

4.3.1.2

Put Forward the Strategy of Rejuvenating the Country Through Science and Education and Giving Priority to the Development of Education

“Rejuvenating the country through science and education” is one of the basic state policies of our country. Of all productive forces, education can effectively improve the quality of the workforce. Education needs the input of production, and education reacts to production and accelerates the development of production. Our country gradually formed after the middle of the twentieth century “in one hundred, education for this” priority strategy for the development of education, 1993, the China education reform and development compendium explicitly pointed out that “education is the foundation of socialist modernization, must adhere to the education on the strategic position of priority development”, then, in 1995 officially put forward after the implementation of the strategy relying on science and education, the status of education and science and technology to the same level. The teacher establishment of compulsory education is the most important, the most basic and the most basic for the whole education system. It is the best proof and requirement to carry out “rejuvenating the country through science and education” and give priority to the development of education to manage the establishment of teachers of compulsory education.

4.3 Analysis on the Rationality of the Current Compulsory Education …

73

4.3.2 Economic Perspective 4.3.2.1

Achievements of China’s Sustained Economic Growth Since the Reform and Opening up

Since the reform and opening up, China’s economy has continued to grow at a high speed, and fiscal revenue has been increasing year by year. The state has gradually been able to not only meet the basic needs of financial investment in education, but also to support rural compulsory education. At the same time, the consumption structure of residents brought by economic growth has been significantly improved, and the people’s pursuit of food and clothing has gradually shifted to the pursuit of quality. In the early years of reform and opening up, the Engel coefficient of urban residents was about 57.5%, and that of rural residents was about 67.7%. In 2012, the Engel coefficient for urban residents was 36.2% and that for rural residents was 39.3%. With the improvement of living standard, people’s need to realize their self-value through equal access to education is also gradually improved, and people pay more attention to how to distribute the “cake”, which to some extent promotes the reform of compulsory education teacher establishment policy, and promotes the formation of urban-rural unified teacher establishment policy.

4.3.2.2

Rational Allocation of Public Finance

Public finance is one of the important guarantees to promote the urban-rural integration development of teachers of compulsory education. After the 17th national congress of the communist party of China (CPC), China set the long-term goal of establishing a long-term mechanism of promoting agriculture through industry and taking rural areas with cities. In the process of establishment, the public finance shoulders the major responsibility of adjusting the distribution pattern of national income and accelerating the development of agriculture. The tilt of the rural education resources is an important part of rational allocation of public finance, the current policy of compulsory education teachers actually depends on the configuration of public finance in rural tilt, through increasing financial support to the countryside this weak area, narrow the gap between urban and rural, promote the balanced development of the education, the role of the rational allocation of public finance.

4.3.3 Social Perspective The social perspective mainly refers to the influence of social institution, social system and public opinion on educational policy and the influence of educational policy on social institution, social system and public opinion.

74

4.3.3.1

4 Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective …

The Influence of Public Opinion

The influence of public opinion on the formulation of compulsory education teachers’ policies is very significant. Both the people’s attention to issues related to educational equity and the upsurge of public opinion raised by opinion leaders during the two sessions have influenced the formulation of relevant policies to a certain extent. For example, regarding the issue of how to promote the balance of education between rural and urban areas, 46.5% of netizens think that the government should increase the financial investment in rural education to achieve the balance from the source of funds. A total of 34.4% of netizens thought that the salary and welfare of teachers in rural areas should be improved. This shows that promoting the balanced development of urban and rural education is one of the concerns of the public opinion (Bao 2005; Wang and Liang 2015; Liu et al. 2019; Liu 2016; Li et al. 2020).

4.3.3.2

The Influence of Social System

China belongs to the socialist system country, attaches great importance to the requirements of fairness and justice, in the process of building a socialist harmonious society, promoting social equity and educational equity is not only an ideal, but also a realistic development goal. Therefore, it is an inevitable requirement of China’s social system to promote the balanced development of compulsory education and try to narrow the various educational and social gaps through effective education policies, which determines that the direction of China’s education policy reform will eventually be toward fairness and justice. The unification of urban and rural compulsory education teachers is the embodiment of educational equity.

4.3.3.3

The Influence of Social Institution

Social institutions mainly refer to non-governmental organizations, namely public welfare organizations and enterprise organizations. The outline of the education plan clearly stipulates that the main responsibility for equity in education lies with the government, and the whole society should work together to promote equity in education. In other words, the government is not the only one responsible for achieving educational equity. For example, “project hope” is the most extensive and influential non-governmental education public welfare undertakings in China. Its main content is to fund the return to school of out-of-school children in poor areas, build hope primary schools, and improve the rural school conditions, which is an important form of non-governmental education compensation to promote educational equity. To a certain extent, the actions of public organizations not only promote educational fairness, but also influence the concerns and public opinions of policy makers, thus promoting the reform of the establishment policy of compulsory education teachers in China.

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4.3.4 Cultural Perspective The influence of culture on educational policies refers to the infiltration of values, ways of thinking, habits, customs and other spiritual cultures into educational policies. In China, efficiency and justice have always been two important value orientation. Nature is the most satisfying both efficiency and justice, however, at the beginning of the reform and opening up, China’s main contradiction is people’s increasing material and cultural needs and the contradiction between the backward social production, the need to develop the economy in our country, in 1993 the central file, put forward the principle of “efficiency first, fairness considered” efficiency is the most important value orientation of all kinds of policies in China at that time. Therefore, in the first two stages of the compulsory education teacher establishment policy, the problem of the imbalance of the urban and rural teacher establishment has been suspended temporarily. However, after entering the new century, especially since the 19th congress, transformation of the principal contradictions of our country the growing demand for a better life for the people and the contradiction between the inadequate development of unbalance, fair has become one of the value orientation of policy making is the most important, is also the people most concern, the people want the “Shared development achievement, eliminate polarization, and gradually achieve common prosperity, is to do big cake points good cake at the same time, realize social fairness and justice.” Therefore, China’s current compulsory education teacher establishment policy is consistent with the value of the unity of fairness and efficiency, but also affected by this value (Bao 2005; Wang and Liang 2015).

4.4 Problems and Suggestions on the Establishment Policy of Compulsory Education Teachers in China 4.4.1 The Establishment Standard Is not Sound The current teacher establishment standard is based on the ratio of teacher to student, but there is no specific subject for the relevant configuration and requirements, more macro and rougher. This led to some schools lack of new teachers, and the arts disciplines such as information technology, art, music, etc., is not conducive to the balanced development of students, on the other hand the macroscopic standard also cannot adapt to specific areas, specific school, such as small schools in the countryside, without considering the different school teacher workload. Under the influence of urbanization, school-age population appears as the coexistence of urban density and rural sparse two-level distribution situation, resulting in less amount of small rural school teachers, curriculum categories more situation will persist over a longer period, just “a” student/teacher ratio “move troops than” and “teacher than” a combination of check and ratify the teacher quantity can’t solve the rural small-scale school establishment to the problem of shortage of “reality”, can also lead to the rural

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teachers’ workload is too big, difficult to complete the teaching mission, will only employ a large number of substitute teachers, ultimately affect the teaching quality of rural education.

4.4.2 Lack of Teacher Exit Mechanism Teachers preparation policy is basically not only retreat and occupies one after establishment places until retirement. It does not increase the total preparation of cases, and the influence of graduation into the number of primary and secondary school teachers working in colleges and universities every year. It is bound to be far greater than the number of teachers in the same year retirement. It inevitably led to new teachers lack preparation, resulting in parts, especially the rural areas lack of preparation for many years, even several years without new business teacher. To a great extent, affecting the normal development of the education teaching in rural and poor areas, there is no establishment can only through the school itself or in the form of local government subsidies to hire a substitute teacher, you can imagine, this for schools and government in rural and poor areas is very difficult, this will aggravate uneven economic development in different areas of education.

4.4.3 Further Refine the Standards for Teacher Preparation The teacher establishment standard not only needs to make the request to the student teacher ratio, the class teacher ratio, but also should guarantee the teacher disposition sufficient premise, causes the teacher establishment discipline structure to be relatively reasonable. Through the establishment of standards for teachers in different subjects and regions, the specific situation and actual needs of the school are considered to meet the needs of individual development and comprehensive development of students. In this way, the problem of structural shortage of rural teachers can be solved to some extent.

4.4.4 Carry Out Teacher Supply Side Reform The situation of small rural schools requires that each teacher should have the ability of multi-subject teaching. Therefore, based on this demand, reform should be carried out on the teacher supply side, and local normal colleges and universities should be directed to train “one specialty and many abilities” general subject teachers for smallscale rural schools, so as to alleviate the contradiction that there are more courses and less teachers in small-scale rural schools.

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4.4.5 Establish a Teacher Withdrawal Mechanism Based on Professional Level At present, there are problems of overstaffing and structural deficiency in teacher staffing in our country. The main reason for this problem is that the withdrawal mechanism of teachers is not perfect, which leads to the increase of the total number of teachers and even the problem that the teachers are not on the job. The key to solve this problem is to establish a reasonable and effective teacher withdrawal mechanism and deal with the placement of teachers. On the premise of protecting the rights and interests of teachers, the overall structure of the teaching staff is optimized by means of post transfer, early retirement and reduction of class size. Only in this way can we maintain the balance between the supply and demand of the total teaching staff and improve the overall quality of the teaching staff (Bao 2005; Wang and Liang 2015; Liu et al. 2019; Liu 2016; Li et al. 2020; Zhao 2012).

References Bao, C. Y. (2005). Policy review on the gap between urban and rural compulsory education in China. Journal of Beijing Normal University (Social Sciences Edition), 5(3), 16–24. Li, J., Yongzhi, Z., Eryong, X., & Zhou, N. (2020). Faculty ethics in China: From a historical perspective. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(2), 126–136. Liu, S. H. (2016). Research on the optimization of teacher staffing structure in rural areas of China. Education Research, 37(4), 81–88. Liu, S. H., Xiu, H. Z., & Li, Y. Y. (2019). Rural teacher preparation system reform research. Chinese Journal of Education, 9(1), 7–12. Wang, H., & Liang, W. J. (2015). Evolution and reflection of the policy of universal compulsory education in new China. Journal of Hebei Normal University (Education Science Edition), 17(3), 36–41. Zhao, Z. J. (2012). Reform of personnel system in public institutions—A case study of Chinese academy of social sciences. Management and Review of Social Science, 2(2), 3–13.

Chapter 5

Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of Teacher Treatment Policy

This chapter concentrates on exploring the teacher treatment policy to examine the compulsory education policy development. Since the reform and opening up, the treatment and status of teachers in compulsory education stage have been improved to some extent, especially the establishment of the “teachers law of the People’s Republic of China” in 1993, which provides a guarantee for the legitimate rights and interests of primary and secondary school teachers. With the arrival of the information age in the twenty-first century, China is in the transition of market economy. Therefore, the rationalization of teachers’ salary is one of the important ways to stabilize the teachers’ team and improve their specialization. The formulation and implementation of national policies is an important aspect to guarantee the reasonable salary of teachers. Since the reform and opening up in China, the salary system of teachers in compulsory education has been constantly reformed and improved, which has roughly gone through the following four periods. The policy changes of the treatment of teachers since the reform and opening up, background of the implementation of merit pay system for compulsory education teachers, and problems and suggestions on the treatment of teachers in compulsory education have been offered in this chapter.

5.1 The Policy Changes of the Treatment of Teachers Since the Reform and Opening up 5.1.1 Single Wage System (1978–1984) In the early period of reform and opening up in China, the salary system of teachers in the compulsory education stage is still the salary system implemented in the middle and late 1950s. In 1956, the three major socialist reforms were completed, © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li and E. Xue, Compulsory Education Policy in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6358-8_5

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the socialist system was basically established, the domestic economic situation gradually improved and the living standard gradually improved. In the early days after foundation of our country have not formed a unified wage system, at the time of physical “wages” system cannot meet the actual needs of people’s life, therefore, countries at the beginning of the founding of the “wages” system on the basis of the reform, the main content is “cancel prices allowance system, on the basis of the original wage and price subsidies, to kind of pay zone system; An additional percentage of living allowances will be given to remote minority areas, and the salaries of senior scientific and technical personnel, primary school teachers and township officials will be raised in many areas.” The primary and secondary school wage reform abolished the division between cities and general areas, and between middle and high schools, and divided primary and secondary school staff into teachers and administrators. Teachers and administrators implement their own pay scales. Its basic characteristic is to divide a few salary grades by the post, each post grade crosses each other up and down again, because this is a single post grade wage system. Therefore, starting from April 1, 1956, the salary of teachers in the stage of compulsory education in China was implemented by a single post grade wage system. In addition, the reform of the compulsory education teachers’ salary system requires that according to the conditions of the compulsory education teachers’ teaching duration, educational background, work quality and quantity, the grade is re-assessed and the highest and minimum wage standards of primary school teachers are raised on the basis of the increase in salary, and the grade is reduced and the grade difference is increased. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, China entered a new period of historical development. Between 1977 and 1982, five adjustments were made to teachers’ salaries and other corresponding measures were taken to improve the living conditions of the teaching staff. For example, in November 1979, in order to encourage teachers to do a good job as head teachers, the state council issued the draft of trial measures on subsidies for head teachers in ordinary middle schools and primary schools. The draft provides for the head teacher allowance to be given to the head teachers of primary and secondary schools according to the number of students. In order to further solve the problem of low wages for middle and primary school staff, in August 1981, the state council wholesale the wages of middle and primary school staff of the ministry of education. The implementation of the single post grade salary system makes the salary system of compulsory education teachers tend to be unified and reasonable, which reflects the principle of distribution according to work to some extent, and changes the situation that the increase of teachers’ salary and the growth of labor productivity do not adapt to. The salary level of teachers of compulsory education has been greatly raised, the life of teachers of compulsory education has been improved, and their social status has been correspondingly improved (Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2019, 2020).

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5.1.2 Structural Wage System (1985–1993) Since 1985, the structural salary system has been widely used in the salary system of compulsory education teachers in China. Formed in the late 1950s single wage system in China, under the social background at that time played a positive role, but because of the limitations of historical conditions at that time, the wage is not cast off the yoke of the egalitarian distribution way, and still exist in the salary management system of the rigid management problems. For decades, such a salary system has been inherited, which can neither reflect the principle of distribution according to work, nor mobilize the enthusiasm of teachers. Moreover, in 1985, under the background of economic system reform and educational system reform, the malpractice of the single wage system could not meet the needs of economic development and educational development at all, so it was necessary to reform the wage system. From January 1985 to the end of September 1993, the structural wage system based on post salary was implemented. At this stage, the salary of primary and secondary school teachers was mainly composed of basic salary, post salary, length of service salary and bonus. In 1985, it was 40 yuan. Post salary is mainly determined according to the technical, business requirements and responsibilities of the post, and is divided into several levels. Length of service pay is determined by the length of work. Year-end bonus, mainly combined with attendance, performance appraisal. In August 1991, the ministry of personnel, the ministry of finance and the state education commission jointly issued the notice concerning the policy of carefully examining the salary treatment of teachers. With the development of education, teacher’s position and role of more and more highlights, on October 31, 1993, the eighth National People’s Congress by the fourth session of the standing committee of the pedagogic law of the People’s Republic of China: mentioned in article 25 teachers’ average salary level shall not be less than or higher than the national average wage standard of the civil service, and gradually increase. The state council shall formulate specific measures to establish a normal promotion and increase salary system; Article 26. Teachers of primary and secondary schools and vocational schools shall enjoy the allowance for teaching age and other allowances. Article 30 after retirement or resignation, teachers shall enjoy the retirement or resignation benefits prescribed by the state. The local people’s governments at or above the county level may appropriately increase the pension ratio of retired primary and secondary school teachers who have been engaged in education and teaching for a long time. Article 31 the people’s governments at various levels shall take measures to improve the treatment of teachers in primary and secondary schools who receive state subsidies and are paid salaries collectively, and gradually achieve equal pay for equal work for teachers who are paid salaries in the countries where wages are received. Teachers’ law of the People’s Republic of China links the average salary and income level of teachers in compulsory education with the average income level of local civil servants, providing an effective system guarantee for protecting teachers’ rights and interests, improving teachers’ working and living conditions, and improving teachers’ status (Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2019, 2020).

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5.1.3 Hierarchical Wage System (1993–2006) The salary structure based on post salary has made a big step forward in the salary system of teachers in compulsory education. There is still a tendency of equalitarianism in the structure wage system which is dominated by post salary, and the reasonable system of increasing capital and promotion has not been established. In addition, the salary of teachers has not actually increased with the increase of national income. On February 5, 1994, the Ministry of Personnel and the State Education Commission jointly issued the Opinions on the Implementation of the Reform Program of the Staff Salary System of Public Institutions. The salary of the staff consists of two parts: the salary of the post technical grade and the allowance. The salary of job skill grade is a fixed part of salary, which mainly reflects the working ability, responsibility, contribution and the onerous complexity of labor. In each unit total wages constitute, the part of the post technical grade salary occupies 70%, the part of the allowance occupies 30%. Primary and secondary school teachers to implement the national unified job sequence and job wage standard. Those employed as teachers in primary and secondary schools shall be subject to the wage standards for their post grades.” This policy has indeed led to a general increase in the salary and welfare of teachers in the compulsory education stage. On 3 July 1994, the Opinions of the State Council on the Implementation of the Program for the Reform and Development of Education in China mentioned the issue of the treatment of teachers for improving the treatment and social status of teachers. We ensure that the goals set forth in the teacher’s law of the People’s Republic of China and the program for education reform and development in China. The average salary level of teachers is not lower or higher than the average salary level of state public servants. It is to establish an effective mechanism and never allow teachers’ salary to be delayed, personnel and financial departments should make corresponding plans and plans to raise teachers’ salary. On August 15, 1997, the State Council General Office on the Protection of Teachers’ Salaries Notification is put forward that, in recent years, due to the leading comrades of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council’s care and attention, people’s governments at various levels and the joint efforts of the whole society, with the large amount, wide scope, time characterized once get the serious situation of a certain degree of wage arrears for teachers (Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2019, 2020). The hierarchical wage system adopts a variety of ways to increase wages normal upgrade, where the assessment of qualified, every two years to promote the promotion of a salary level of professional and technical level to increase wages regularly adjust the wage standard, but also to raise the level of subsidies set up a regional allowance system. And this corresponding salary treatment is exactly the same. In this way, a large number of people with very different working years are squeezed into the same pay scale without considering other indicators. In this way, teachers with long working hours think that they have worked more than ten years to get reflected in the salary is not as much as before, also as before the structural wage system, because the previous structural salary in addition to the teaching age allowance with the growth

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of the number of years of service, but also with the length of service allowance. To some extent, this discouraged them from working. In addition, the assessment work is very difficult to operate in the specific operation. In order to avoid causing some unnecessary trouble, many schools stipulate that every teacher can be promoted to a salary scale every two years except in some special cases. Year-end bonus is the same, everyone has a share, everyone can get an extra month’s salary at the end of the year. Egalitarianism, the phenomenon of eating “big pot rice” has been transplanted into the new wage system with a new look.

5.1.4 Performance Pay System (2006–Present) The Outline of the National Plan for Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development (2010–2020) proposes to improve the status and treatment of teachers, and ensure that the average salary level of teachers is not lower or higher than the average salary level of state civil servants in accordance with the law, and gradually raise it. We implement merit pay for teachers. For teachers who have been working at the grass-roots level in rural areas and in difficult and remote areas for a long time, we will adopt a preferential policy in terms of salary and professional titles and improve standards for subsidies and subsidies. On December 21, 2008, State Council Executive Meeting examined and passed on the implementation of compulsory education school performance wage guidelines to deepen the reform of the education system for strengthening the construction of teacher’s team to promote education development. Since January 2009, we have in the full implementation of the new compulsory education stage teacher income distribution reform policy and the compulsory education teacher performance salary system. In December 2019, the Supervision Office of the State Council issued a Notice on Salary and Income Security of Teachers in Compulsory Education. It makes it clear that the salary and income security of teachers in compulsory education as the key content of supervision in 2020. It is suggested that all localities should attach great importance to the guarantee of the salary of teachers of compulsory education, and earnestly implement the provisions in the compulsory education law and relevant documents of the central government that the average income level of teachers of compulsory education should not be lower than the average salary level of local civil servants. The promulgation of these policies has effectively improved the treatment of teachers in the stage of compulsory education, provided a legal basis for raising the pay of teachers, and also provided a guarantee for the implementation of teachers’ merit pay system. Performance pay is composed of four parts: post salary, salary scale salary, performance salary and subsidy, among which post salary and salary scale salary are the basic salary. The post salary mainly reflects the responsibility and requirement of the post hired by the teacher. Teachers according to the employment of the corresponding post wage standard. The salary scale mainly reflects the performance and seniority of the staff. There are 65 pay scales for primary and secondary school teachers, with one pay scale for each scale. Set different starting pay scales for different positions. Primary

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and secondary school staff according to their own fixed number of years, years of service and the post, combined with work performance, set the corresponding salary scale. Merit pay mainly reflects the performance and contribution of staff, and the state regulates and directs the total amount of merit pay distribution in public institutions. Public institutions shall, within the approved total amount of performancerelated pay, independently distribute it in accordance with standardized procedures and requirements. The salaries will be “piloted with policies to limit high, steady and compensate for low levels, so as to limit excessive inter-school disparities”. This part of salary has been the first in the compulsory education school to enter the implementation stage on January 1, 2009. In addition, primary and secondary school subsidies, “divided into hardship and remote areas subsidies and special post subsidies. The allowance for difficult and remote areas is mainly based on the differences in the natural geographical environment, social development and other aspects. The expenses needed for the implementation of subsidies for arduous and remote areas shall be borne by the central government if they are paid by the government. The allowance for hardship and remote areas of primary and secondary school workers shall be implemented in accordance with the unified provisions of the state. The special post allowance mainly reflects the policy preference to the staff of the institution who are hard, dirty, tired, dangerous and other special post. The state implements unified management of subsidies for special positions.” In short, the new salary system consists of two parts: basic salary and merit pay, and merit pay is divided into basic merit pay and incentive merit pay. The basic salary reform completed in 2006 mainly reflects the principle of “fixed salary by post and salary by post”, while the performance-based salary reform implemented on January 1, 2009 mainly reflects the principle of “more work, more gain, better performance and better pay”. Basic merit pay highlights the “health care” role of salary, while incentive merit pay focuses on the “incentive” function of performance, promotes flexible internal distribution of school, encourages teachers to make real achievements and contributions, and gives priority to outstanding talents and key positions in a big way to open a reasonable and appropriate income gap. After the implementation of the merit pay system, the salary of teachers increases significantly. According to the Education Blue Book: China’s Education Development Report (2010) jointly released by the twenty-first century education research institute and social science literature in Beijing. Since the implementation of the performance-based pay policy for teachers in primary and secondary schools, teachers’ salaries have increased with a slight preference for rural teachers. According to the Blue Book Survey, before the implementation of merit pay, teachers with salaries of less than 2000 yuan accounted for 59.16% of the total number of teachers surveyed, of which teachers with salaries between 1500 and 2000 yuan accounted for 28.85%. Above 3000 yuan only 7.07%. After the payment of 70% of merit pay, the monthly salary of less than 2000 yuan will be reduced to 26.39% based on the local average. Between 2000 and 3000 yuan increased to 43.76%; For those above 3000 yuan, the increase was 24.90%. On the whole, teachers’ salary increases, and the increase is obvious.

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5.2 Background of the Implementation of Merit Pay System for Compulsory Education Teachers From the single salary system in the early stage of reform and opening up to the performance-based salary system implemented since 2009, China’s compulsory education teacher salary policy has undergone four major changes and adjustments and has been gradually improved. Every teacher salary reform is generated in a specific political, economic, social and cultural background, and the current compulsory education teacher salary system with post performance pay as the core is the same (Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2020).

5.2.1 The Political Background of the Implementation of Teachers’ Merit Pay System The implementation of teacher performance pay system is an inevitable requirement to guarantee the salary of teachers in compulsory education. Education is the foundation of a century-long plan and the development of education. However, under the condition of market economy, the teachers are willing to engage in education as the supply of education labor force. The supply of actual labor of teachers in the education position involves how much energy to teach and depends on the reward they can get for engaging in education and labor, and also depends on the current income of their past human investment. It is related to the level of remuneration. However, for a long time, the salary level of teachers in the stage of compulsory education in China is low, and the salary level of the education system is always ranked low in all industries of the national economy. In 1978 the average wage of workers in the education and cultural system was the lowest among the 12 sectors of the national economy. In addition, according to the investigation of 11 provinces and cities such as Tianjin, Beijing, Shaanxi and Anhui, the gap between the average salary of the staff and workers in the education system and the average salary of the whole people in 1988 was about 150 yuan. From 1990 to 1999, the average salary of the education system was always in the 10th to the 13th place among the 15 social industry systems, and the average salary of the education system was less than the average salary of the society in most years. Although the average salary of the education system in 2001–2006 has exceeded the average salary level of the society, it is still relatively low in the ranking of various industries in the national economy. In 2001–2002, the education system ranked ninth among 15 industries, and in 2003–2006, it ranked 11th or 12th among 19 industries. In 2006, 273 counties (8.5% of the total number of districts and counties) had primary school staff and 210 counties (6.5%) had middle school staff and staff with an average annual salary of less than 12,000 yuan and an average monthly income of less than 1000 yuan. And the level of teacher’s salary is also a reflection of the distributive relationship between teachers and other sectors of society. Under the condition of market economy, teacher’s salary is an economic lever

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to adjust and allocate the human resources in the field of education, and it is also an important factor affecting the quantity, quality, structure and stability of the teaching team. Therefore, it is an inevitable requirement for compulsory education schools to take the lead in carrying out the reform of merit pay system to guarantee the salary of teachers in the compulsory education stage and to strengthen the construction of the contingent of teachers in the compulsory education stage (Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2019, 2020).

5.2.2 The Economic Background of the Implementation of Teachers’ Merit Pay System China’s economic development is extremely unbalanced, the implementation of teacher performance pay system is to improve and improve the economic treatment of teachers, improve the urgent need of the economic status of teachers. For a long time, due to the serious imbalance of economic and social development, the pay gap between regions, between urban and rural areas and between schools has been obvious. Especially in some remote rural areas, the pay of teachers is not only low, but also in arrears. In order to improve and improve the economic treatment of teachers, the state has decided to implement the merit pay system in institutions of higher learning, secondary vocational schools and primary and secondary vocational schools in accordance with the characteristics and specific conditions of institutions of higher learning, primary and secondary vocational schools and secondary vocational schools. Post-performance salary consists of post salary, salary scale salary, performance salary and allowance. Post salary and salary scale salary are the basic salaries. The basic salary implements the uniform policy and standard of the country. The establishment of post-performance pay system meets the needs of the reform of personnel system in public institutions from identity management to post management, and closely links the income of staff with their post responsibilities, work performance and actual contributions. In recent years, teacher’s post salary, salary pay scales can distribute in place in time, however, due to various reasons, pay-forperformance hasn’t been implemented and fulfilled, especially the mechanism for ensuring adequate funding for rural compulsory education in 2006 and 2008 fall semester started after the introduction of free compulsory education between urban and rural areas, the state expressly provided otherwise, resolutely banned by charge to all students, borrowing and misappropriation of public funds or use the “two free fill” special funds to make teachers place tianjin subsidies. School fees have been scrapped and local subsidies for teachers are not in place. At the same time, after the reform of the salary system in 2006, the post salary, grade salary and subsidies of civil servants began to be gradually in place, which objectively led to the widening gap between the actual income of teachers in compulsory education schools and that of local civil servants. “Law of the People’s Republic of China” and “law of compulsory education of the People’s Republic of China” on the average salary level of teachers should not

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be lower than the average salary level of local civil servants cannot be implemented. According to the data provided in the report on the supervision of national education (2008), in 2006, the average annual salary of teachers and workers in Putong primary school and ordinary middle school was 17,729 and 20,979 yuan respectively, which were 5198 and 1948 yuan lower than those in state organs. The widening gap between teachers’ real incomes and those of local civil servants has seriously dampened the enthusiasm of teachers in compulsory schools. Some primary and secondary school teachers in some areas even resorted to a disguised strike to express their dissatisfaction. Therefore, in order to further improve the teachers’ salary system in our country, fully arouse the enthusiasm of compulsory education school teachers’ work, attract and encourage all kinds of talents to the compulsory education schools, especially to the rural compulsory education school teaching, from teaching for life for a long time, according to the business unit personnel reform of the income distribution system, an urgent need to take the lead in implementing performance salary system in compulsory education school reform (Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2019, 2020).

5.2.3 The Social Background of the Implementation of Teachers’ Merit Pay System It is an important measure to promote the balanced development of compulsory education to implement the teacher merit pay system under the demand of social equity. The balanced development of compulsory education is a strategic policy of education development in the new historical period established. National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan Outline (2010–2020) promotes the compulsory education balanced development up to the height of the compulsory education strategic mission, their quest to establish a perfect compulsory education balanced development safeguard mechanism, equilibrium configuration teachers, equipment, books, school buildings, and other resources, to narrow the gap between school, speed up the narrow gap between urban and rural areas, efforts to narrow regional gap and realize the basic area by 2020 compulsory education balanced development. The key to the balanced development of compulsory education is the balance of schools, and the key to the balance of schools lies in the balance of teachers. It can be said that the key to the balanced development of compulsory education lies in the teachers. If the imbalanced economic and social development is the main reason for the imbalanced development of teachers in compulsory education and compulsory education, then the huge gap in teachers’ income caused by the imbalanced economic development is the fundamental reason for the disordered flow of teachers in compulsory education. Therefore, in order to realize the balanced allocation of teachers in compulsory education, the income gap between teachers should be eliminated and the income balance between teachers in compulsory education should be realized. However, for a long time, it has become an indisputable fact that the income gap between teachers in compulsory education schools in China is too

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large. For example, according to the sample survey results of the national education supervision report (2008), nearly 50% of rural teachers and teachers in counties and towns reported that they did not receive subsidies on time or in full. The per capita annual income of rural primary and middle school staff is only 68.8 and 69.2% of that of urban staff. Among them, the per capita annual salary of rural staff in primary and junior high schools in Guangdong province is only 48.2 and 55.2% of that of urban staff. Due to the low pay of teachers in rural areas, poor living conditions and few opportunities for personal development, some areas cannot guarantee the payment of basic salaries for teachers, which leads to the serious loss of rural primary and secondary school teachers, especially backbone teachers and outstanding young teachers. According to our sampling survey of some hard in school, 50% of the principal teachers erosion have been reported in recent years, and that the loss of the main is the backbone teachers and young people under the age of 35, and even in some places due to the large number of loss of teachers, the school can’t normal, only a “left-behind” some school teachers. The mass loss of rural teachers exacerbates the shortage of teachers in the stage of compulsory education in rural areas, especially the loss of most outstanding young teachers, backbone teachers, resulting in a serious imbalance in the allocation of teachers in the stage of compulsory education, which undoubtedly brings a very adverse impact on the development of compulsory education in rural areas. The implementation of the reform of merit pay, through the government’s purposeful regulation and guidance, can make the salary level of compulsory education teachers reach the basic equilibrium in a specific administrative region. Therefore, it is a necessary measure to promote the balanced development of compulsory education that schools of compulsory education take the lead in carrying out the reform of merit pay (Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2019, 2020).

5.2.4 The Cultural Background of the Implementation of the Merit Pay System for Teachers According to the Report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, we should regard the cultivation of morality and cultivation of people as the fundamental task of education, and train builders and successors of socialism who are well developed morally, intellectually, physically and aesthetically. Virtue is not only the spiritual pursuit of China’s excellent traditional culture, but also the internal requirement of practicing and cultivating the core socialist values. President Xi Jinping has stressed on many occasions that no country can prosper without morality and no person can stand upright without morality. Prosperity, democracy, civilization, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, the rule of law, patriotism, dedication, integrity, friendship, inherit the genes of China’s fine traditional culture, but also carry the beautiful vision of each of us. The key to the balanced and effective development of compulsory education lies in the quality of teachers. The implementation of a scientific and reasonable teacher performance pay system can help

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teachers fulfill their moral responsibilities, promote their professional development, and enhance their sense of happiness and gain. Unreasonable teacher salary system will lead to teachers’ job burnout, resulting in teachers do not feel the dignity, joy and happiness of the teacher’s career, and then affect the professional development of teachers.

5.3 Problems and Suggestions on the Treatment of Teachers in Compulsory Education Since China’s reform and opening up, along with our country state organs and institutions of wage system reform, perfecting and development, compulsory education school teacher salary system also has profound changes, these changes generally presents the following characteristics: a radically improve compulsory education school teachers working activeness and enthusiasm; Second, from the overall increase of the majority of compulsory education school teachers work from the monetary income; Thirdly, it is necessary to improve the sense of identity and belonging of teachers in schools of compulsory education. However, the development of reform and opening up for more than forty years to promote the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics into a new era, new historical position on career development in the country put forward many new and higher requirements for the third plenary session of the 18 major deployment to comprehensively deepen reform, the fourth plenary session of the 19th to uphold and improve the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, promoting the modernization of governance to make strategic plan, which is to promote education modernization. Under the background of education modernization, compulsory education is required to make more basic contributions to the country. To achieve high-quality development of compulsory education, the treatment of teachers in compulsory education must be absolutely guaranteed. Treatment at the same time it should be noted that the current compulsory education teachers still exists some problems need to solve, especially in the aspect of teachers’ performance salary system, teacher performance salary system is to motivate the teachers’ positive as, struggled as, innovation as one of the basic system design, the implementation has indeed to implement compulsory education has made certain contribution to the development of high quality. Affirmatory achievement cannot evade existence problem, discover a problem to want to find the countermeasure that has possibility to solve, proceed from actual situation, better prompt teacher merit pay system to play bigger, better incentive effect.

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5.3.1 The Existing Problems of the Teacher Merit Pay System In December 2008, the executive meeting of the state council deliberated and adopted in principle the guidance on the implementation of merit pay in compulsory education schools, and decided to implement the merit pay system in compulsory education schools nationwide from January 2009, and formally establish the merit pay system for teachers in compulsory education schools. It should be said that compulsory education after school teacher merit pay salary system for compulsory education teachers team working activeness and enthusiasm plays an important role in promoting, but in the implementation of the performance salary system still possess perfect and development space, specifically speaking, knowledge level, execution level of related problems.

5.3.1.1

Some Local Governments Still Have Insufficient Understanding and Support for Further Improving the Merit Pay System for Teachers in Compulsory Education

Compulsory education is an important livelihood project of the local government, which is related to the issue of children’s compulsory education in thousands of families. The state attaches great importance to it and has made a series of regulations and norms, requiring the local government to ensure the healthy and stable development of compulsory education in the territory. But, it’s actually not the case, as part of the local economic and social development is relatively slow, the relatively low quality, under the financial income less reality, combined with insufficient understanding of importance of compulsory education, its financial support to compulsory education schools are still inadequate, unable to realize the compulsory education school teacher performance salary system implement, result in compulsory education school teacher performance salary cannot be guaranteed. Teachers’ merit pay in compulsory education schools cannot be well guaranteed, which has a certain negative impact on the stability of the teaching team, and makes many teachers with high education background, good experience, good teaching and achievements unable to engage in educational and teaching activities at peace, which is a hindrance to the high-quality development of compulsory education.

5.3.1.2

In Some Compulsory Education Schools, the Implementation of Teachers’ Merit Pay System Is Not Flexible Enough and the Incentive Is Not Sufficient

The purpose of the merit pay system for teachers in compulsory education schools is to better promote the high-quality development of compulsory education, better stimulate the teachers in compulsory education schools to take on their responsibilities, and promote the students in the compulsory education stage to be more successful

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with the actual teaching effect. From the current situation, most compulsory education schools focus on the factors of teachers’ personal qualifications, secondary to the factors of teachers’ actual work performance. Both factors of teachers’ personal qualifications and actual work performance have an important and positive impact on education quality. With the empirical research shows that teachers’ personal qualifications factors influence teachers’ performance more wages, this situation is bad for young teachers get higher levels of performance wage advantage, will produce the problem of incentive enough, is also a kind of compulsory education school teacher performance salary system is not flexible execution problem, should attach importance to it (Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2019, 2020).

5.3.2 Suggestions on Improving Teachers’ Merit Pay System 5.3.2.1

Improving the Teacher Performance Salary System Is Conducive to Better Stability of Compulsory Education Schoolteachers

It is more conducive to activate compulsory education schoolteacher to more effectively enhance the compulsory education teachers’ professional appeal. It is to implement compulsory education high quality development, boost the development of higher education, and promote sound and rapid social development. We urge local governments to increase financial support for schools providing compulsory education and ensure adequate funding for schools providing compulsory education. Local governments attach importance to and support the development of compulsory education and must ensure that the funds for running schools for compulsory education are fully implemented. The government at the next higher level and the competent department of education shall formulate strict rules and urge the local government to implement the financial support for the running of compulsory education schools, so that the salary level of teachers in compulsory education schools can be constantly raised, the ranks of teachers can be expanded and the quality of the ranks can be improved, and students can get a good education in the compulsory education stage.

5.3.2.2

Deepen the Reform of the Structure of Teachers’ Performance-Based Pay, and Shift from the Teacher’s Individual Qualifications to the Teacher’s Performance-Based Pay System

. The current compulsory education in China still maintains a teacher performance salary system guided by the factors of teachers’ personal qualifications. Due to the lack of performance-oriented incentive mechanism, some teachers lack enthusiasm and enthusiasm for work, and the problem of job burnout is serious. The design and implementation of merit pay, especially incentive merit pay, should be mainly related

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to teachers’ work performance, and less based on teachers’ personal qualifications, so as to effectively stimulate teachers’ work enthusiasm and enthusiasm, so as to improve teachers’ work efficiency and education quality. When implementing the merit pay system for teachers in China’s compulsory education schools, it is necessary to reform the merit pay system guided by teachers’ personal qualifications, establish the performance-based pay system, and embody the principle of more work, more pay, and better pay, so as to give full play to the incentive function of merit pay distribution (Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2019, 2020).

References Fan, X. Z., & Fu, W. D. (2011). Reform of teachers’ performance pay in compulsory education: Background, effect, problems and countermeasures—Based on investigation of 32 counties (cities) in 4 provinces in central China. Journal of East China Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciences Edition), 11(6), 129–137. Li, J., Shi, Z., & Xue, E. (2020). The problems, needs and strategies of rural teacher development at deep poverty areas in China: Rural schooling stakeholder perspectives. International Journal of Educational Research, 99, 101496. Li, J., Yongzhi, Z., Eryong, X., & Zhou, N. (2019). Faculty ethics in China: From a historical perspective. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(2), 126–136.

Chapter 6

Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of Teachers’ Titles/Ranks Policy

This chapter involves exploring the teachers’ titles/ranks policy in the compulsory education policy development. It has been 34 years since the “Provisional Regulations on the Title of Secondary School Teachers” and the “Trial Regulations on the Title of Primary School Teachers” were promulgated in 1986. During this period, the state has continuously promulgated relevant policies to improve the policy of teachers’ professional titles at the compulsory education stage. Through a retrospective analysis of the policy, this article divides it into a preliminary establishment phase (1986–2009), a reform pilot phase (2009–2015), and a reform perfect phase (2015–present). The economic, political, social, and cultural reasons that underpin policy operations are analyzed. Put forward five suggestions for the current compulsory education teacher job title system: all departments should continue to cooperate with the operation mechanism system, rural teacher senior title designation ratio, job title setting and job title standardization, job title review method diversification and streamlined procedures, and appraisal and engagement methods.

6.1 What Is the Teacher Title/Rank in China? The professional title system is one of the basic systems of teacher management in China. Its basic connotation mainly includes “professional and technical position”, “professional and technical level” and “occupation access”. The implementing subject of “professional and technical positions” is the employing unit, and the evaluation standard is the level and seniority of the in-service personnel. “Professional and technical level” mainly refers to the professional level of on-the-job personnel, whose implementer is the whole industry organization or social organization, and the evaluation standard is the professional standard designated by the industry organization or social organization. “Occupational access” mainly refers to the professional

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li and E. Xue, Compulsory Education Policy in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6358-8_6

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qualification standard of whether to engage in the industry, the main body of its implementation is mainly the country, and the evaluation standard is whether to enter the industry. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the connotation and nature of professional titles have changed constantly. In the early years of reform and opening up, professional titles were gradually transformed into academic titles, which became a mark to measure the work achievements and professional competence of in-service personnel, resulting in the generalization of professional titles. After that, a series of reforms were carried out to return professional titles to professional and technical positions. Therefore, the definition of teacher’s professional title is the name of the professional and technical position in the teacher team. The professional title level represents the teachers’ academic and technical level and professional ability.

6.2 Reform of the Professional Title System for Primary and Secondary School Teachers From 1986 to 2019, China issued a total of 8 concerning compulsory education teachers’ title policy documents. They are respectively in 1986 issued by the Central Title Reform Leading Group. In 2006, the compulsory education law of the People’s Republic of China provided in Article 30 to set up a unified revision of compulsory education teachers’ position system, which it is divided into primary, intermediate and advanced. Through the text analysis of the above policies, the teacher’s title system can be divided into three stages (Cai and Zia 2016; Hu et al. 2016; Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2008, 2019, 2020).

6.2.1 Preliminary Establishment of Professional Title of Teachers in Compulsory Education (1986–2009) The purpose of establishing the title of teacher is to stimulate the enthusiasm of the whole teaching team through the recognition of the excellent teachers’ teaching skills and working ability. At the same time, by giving teachers the name of this professional and technical position, to enhance the status of the entire teaching team. Therefore, on May 19, 1986, China promulgated the regulations on the trial implementation of middle school teachers’ duties, the regulations on the trial implementation of primary school teachers’ duties, and the opinions on the implementation of the regulations on the trial implementation of primary and secondary school teachers’ duties.

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6.2.1.1

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Establishment of Professional Title Setting

The regulations on the trial implementation of the post of middle school teachers stipulate that the post of middle school teachers should be set up as senior middle school teachers, first-level middle school teachers, second-level middle school teachers and third-level middle school teachers, which is a four-level professional title sequence. Teachers at all levels shall have quotas for their duties. Middle school teachers include three levels: senior middle school teachers for senior positions, secondary middle school teachers for intermediate positions, secondary middle school teachers and secondary middle school teachers for junior positions. “The primary school teacher duty tries out byelok” in the regulation primary school teacher’s duty establishment: primary school senior teacher, primary school first class teacher, primary school second class teacher, primary school third class teacher. Teachers at all levels shall have quotas for their duties. Primary school teachers also include three levels of senior primary school teachers for senior positions, primary school teachers for intermediate positions, secondary primary school teachers and primary school teachers for junior positions.

6.2.1.2

Establishment of Professional Title Review Institution

Establish evaluation committees at all levels. Evaluation committees at all levels shall be composed of leaders of administrative departments of education at the same level, school principals, teachers and experts. Evaluation committees at all levels shall have one chairman, one to three vice-chairmen and several members. The review committees at all levels may set up several subject review teams to assist the review committees in their work. The school may set up a review panel composed of school leaders and teachers, of which the number of teachers shall not be less than two thirds, and the middle and young people shall account for a certain proportion, and shall be responsible for the assessment of the qualifications of the teachers of the school. The members of the evaluation committees at all levels and the evaluation teams of schools must have a high level of policy and professional competence, be upright in their conduct, handle affairs fairly and have prestige among the masses. The members of the appraisal committees at all levels shall be appointed by the administrative departments of education at the same level for a term of two to three years and may be reappointed according to the needs of the work. The members of the school evaluation team shall be recommended by teachers after deliberation, determined by the school council or the school leaders after collective discussion, and submitted to the county education administrative department for approval. The appraisal committee at all levels is a permanent institution with an office under it. The number of teachers attending the evaluation committee should be no less than two thirds of all the members. The evaluation opinions must be voted by secret ballot and approved by more than half of all the members. Through strict examination and review system, and in 2006

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the law of the People’s Republic of China compulsory education law provided for in article 30 in the domestic set up a unified revision of compulsory education teachers’ position system, divided into primary, intermediate and advanced, to provide the legal protection system of primary and secondary school teachers titles, gradually establish the title system of primary and secondary schools of our country. At the same time, the professional title salary began to implement, education departments according to the teachers of different levels of professional title pay different amounts of salary. Under this system, in addition to the basic salary of teachers, the salary of professional titles has been increased, although the salary of teachers with different professional titles varies in number. But from the overall point of view, the implementation of the title system is equivalent to giving teachers a general raise in salary, effectively improve the overall treatment of teachers, effectively stimulate the enthusiasm of teachers. But at the same time has been hiding a very serious problem is: the secondary and primary school title system is not unified, but parallel two tracks. The title of senior teacher in primary school is only equivalent to that of middle school level, not middle school level. The same teachers are struggling in the teaching line, but the professional title is shorter than high school, the result of this innate inequality is that primary school teachers are not as good as middle school teachers. Therefore, the reform of professional title is imperative (Cai and Zia 2016; Hu et al. 2016; Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2008, 2019, 2020).

6.2.2 Pilot Stage of Professional Title Reform for Teachers in Compulsory Education (2009–2015) In order to promote the scientific development of education, we should strengthen the construction of primary and secondary school teachers and promote the reform of the classification of professional titles. At the same time, considering that the reform of the professional title system for primary and secondary school teachers has a strong policy, involves a wide range of people, and has a great social impact, the state decided to choose pilot reform first. On January 15, 2009, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued a Notice on the Issuance of the Guidance on Deepening the Pilot Reform of the Professional Title System for Primary and Secondary School Teachers (hereinafter referred to as the guidance). The guidance clearly recognizes that the current professional title system for primary and secondary school teachers still has some problems, such as unreasonable grade setting, unscientific evaluation standard, imperfect evaluation mechanism, and inadequate connection with the employment system of public institutions. Under the guidance of the guidelines, the three cities of Weifang, Jilin, Songyuan and Baoji in Shandong province. They were selected as pilot cities by the ministry of human resources and social security and the ministry of education for reform. The reform mainly includes:

6.2 Reform of the Professional Title System for Primary …

6.2.2.1

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Solve the Parallel problem of Secondary and Primary School Titles

The posts of teachers are divided into junior, intermediate and senior positions. The former middle school teacher position series and the primary school teacher position series are integrated into the newly established primary and secondary school teacher title (position) series. Unified title (post) grade and name. Junior staff level and assistant level; The senior class consists of the sub-senior class and the positive senior class. The titles of staff level, assistant level, intermediate level, deputy senior level and senior title (post) are in the order of third-level teachers, second-level teachers, first-level teachers, senior teachers and senior teachers. The corresponding relationship between the professional titles (positions) of primary and secondary school teachers and the professional and technical positions of primary and secondary school teachers after unification is as follows: former senior middle school teachers (including senior middle school teachers employed in primary schools) correspond to senior teachers; Primary school teachers and senior primary school teachers correspond to primary school teachers; Secondary school teachers and primary school teachers corresponding to secondary teachers; The original secondary school grade 3 teachers and primary school grade 2, grade 3 teachers corresponding to grade 3 teachers. The unification of the primary and secondary school teachers title respectively correspond to institution specialized technical post grades: is senior teacher professional and technical positions corresponding to level 4, corresponding professional and technical posts for five to seven senior teachers, primary teachers corresponding professional and technical posts eight to ten steps, secondary teachers corresponding professional and technical posts eleven to twelve grades, triple ten tertiary teachers corresponding professional and technical posts. This shows that the country attaches importance to teachers.

6.2.2.2

Innovate the Professional Title Review Institutions and Evaluation Methods

In 1986, the regulations on the trial implementation of the post of middle school teachers and the regulations on the trial implementation of the post of primary school teachers were promulgated, which mainly relied on the evaluation committee to evaluate the professional titles of teachers. In this regard, the guideline points out that an industry evaluation mechanism based on peer review should be established. In accordance with the requirements of classification reform and classification management, a peer review system should be established and improved. Each pilot province should strengthen the leadership and guidance of primary and secondary school teachers’ professional title evaluation, improve the organization and management of evaluation committees, expand the scope of members of evaluation committees, pay attention to the selection of high-level education and teaching experts and experienced front-line teachers, and improve the evaluation procedures and rules. Establish a responsibility system for evaluation experts (Cai and Zia 2016; Hu et al. 2016; Fan and Fu 2011; Li

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et al. 2020). At the same time, evaluation methods should be diversified. Should seriously review to promote peer experts review successful experience in the evaluation of primary and secondary school teachers’ professional technology level, continue to explore the realization form of society and the industry recognition, take practice lecture, interview rejoin, expert review and so on a variety of evaluation methods, effective evaluation on the performance, ability of primary and secondary school teachers, to ensure that the evaluation results objective and fair, enhance the credibility of expert evaluation. The system of publicizing evaluation results should be fully implemented in the level evaluation to increase the transparency of evaluation work. In August 2012, the executive meeting of the state council adopted the guidance on deepening the pilot reform of primary and secondary school teachers’ professional title system and expanding it. The meeting summarized the experience of the pilot reform of the professional title system for teachers in the past two years and decided to spend another year to promote it in some provinces and cities. On August 28, 2015, the ministry of human resources and social security and the ministry of education issued a notice on printing and distributing the guidance on deepening the reform of the professional title system for primary and secondary school teachers. We decided to carry out nationwide reform of the professional title system for primary and secondary school teachers. Extend previous pilot experience. Further clarified the next primary and secondary school teacher title development direction. It can be seen that the pilot reform of compulsory education teachers’ professional titles has achieved fruitful results, which has solved the problem of unequal professional titles of teachers, innovated the professional title examination institutions and evaluation methods, and realized the effective connection with the post-employment system of public institutions. However, the unequal distribution of teachers’ professional titles and the large gap between urban and rural primary and secondary school teachers led to a series of problems. For example, on March 15, 2014, the People’s Daily online reported that a teacher from the 19th primary school in Suzhou city, Anhui province, was qualified for senior titles in primary schools, but faced great competition pressure due to the limited number of places. If we wanted to be evaluated, we needed to pay 10,000 yuan, and hinted that the place was in demand and that other teachers had said they would buy it. Due to the teacher’s limited economic conditions, after some bargaining, he with 8000 yuan “transaction price” to get the quota, and the success of the senior title. Afterwards, he communicated with his colleagues and found that this “hidden rule” had existed in the school for a long time, so he reported it to the media and caused huge social repercussions (Cai and Zia 2016; Hu et al. 2016; Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2008, 2019, 2020). In addition to the problem of unscientific quota allocation, the assessment standard of the professional title of primary and secondary school teachers is stumped by a large number of teachers. According to the notice on the issuance of the guidance on deepening the reform of the professional title system for primary and secondary school teachers issued in 2015, senior teachers must “have a doctor’s degree and have been teaching at a first-level teacher position for more than two years; Or have a master’s degree, a bachelor’s degree, or a bachelor’s degree, and have been teaching

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at a first-level teacher position for more than 5 years. We have a college degree, and in the primary school, junior high school teacher post teaching for more than 5 years. In principle, urban primary and secondary school teachers should have more than one year of teaching experience in weak schools or rural schools. If you have a bachelor’s degree, you must have been in a teaching position for five years. If you do not have a university degree, then you are not qualified to evaluate senior teachers in primary and secondary schools. In addition, the title of senior teachers also faces the number of papers published, foreign language level, computer grade and a series of barriers. Cause a few series buy certificate, buy paper, look for a person to take an examination of phenomenon.

6.2.3 Reform and Improvement Stage of Teachers’ Professional Title in Compulsory Education (2015–Present) The General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Professional Title System (hereinafter referred to as the opinions) on January 18, 2017, aiming at a series of problems in the process of the professional title reform of teachers in compulsory education. The opinions fully affirmed the significance of the professional title system for the party and the government to unite and unite professional and technical talents, stimulate their career development and strengthen the construction of professional and technical personnel. It also made a series of demands.

6.2.3.1

Improve the Current Professional Title System

Maintain the overall stability of the existing professional title series. We continue to use the professional title series in engineering, health, agriculture, economy, accounting, statistics, translation, press, publication, radio, television, art, teachers, scientific research and other fields, cancel some professional title series that are not suitable for economic and social development, and integrate professional title series with similar occupational attributes. To meet the new demands of economic and social development, we explore the creation of new professional titles in emerging fields. The new series of professional titles shall be proposed by the relevant departments of the central government and state organs and submitted to the state council for approval after examination and verification by the ministry of human resources and social security. Regions and departments shall not set up professional title series without approval. Professional title series can be set according to the corresponding professional category (Cai and Zia 2016; Hu et al. 2016; Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2008, 2019, 2020). The participation of military professional and technical personnel in the assessment of general professional titles shall be carried out in accordance with

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relevant regulations of the state; The assessment of similar professional titles may refer to the relevant provisions of the state; Evaluation methods for special professional titles may be formulated according to the actual situation of the armed forces, and the evaluation results shall be incorporated into the national talent evaluation and management system.

6.2.3.2

Improve the Professional Title Evaluation Standard

We must uphold both moral integrity and ability and put morality first. We should put moral character at the first place in the evaluation of professional and technical personnel and focus on the professional and technical personnel’s professional ethics. The employer shall comprehensively investigate the professional ethics and practices of professional and technical talents by means of personal duty reporting, assessment, and public opinion survey, advocate scientific spirit, strengthen social responsibility, and stick to the moral bottom line. We explore ways to establish a credit filing and blacklisting system for the application and evaluation of professional titles and incorporate them into a national credit information sharing platform. We improve the mechanism for punishing dishonesty and commitment to integrity, implement a “one vote veto system” for academic fraud, and revoke all titles obtained through fraud, back-room operations and other disciplinary violations. Scientific classification evaluation of professional and technical personnel ability and quality. We focus on the professional and technical talents of the professional, technical, practical, creative, highlighting the evaluation of innovation ability. The research achievement conditions in the professional title evaluation should be set reasonably, and the paper should not be regarded as the restrictive condition for the evaluation of applied talents. There are no uniform requirements for foreign language and computer application ability tests of professional titles. If it is really necessary to evaluate the level of foreign language and computer, the employer or the evaluation institution shall independently determine the evaluation conditions.

6.2.3.3

Strengthen the Supervision of the Review Process

We need actively recruit universities, scientific research institutions, industry associations, enterprise experts, the implementation of dynamic management. We improve the work procedures and rules of the professional title review committee, strictly enforce the review discipline, clarify the responsibilities of the staff members and experts of the review committee, strengthen the review and assessment, and establish a mechanism for reviewing and holding accountable those responsible. We establish an open system for evaluating professional titles, and make public policies, standards, procedures and results. It is strictly prohibited for social organizations to carry out professional title evaluation for the purpose of making profits, highlight the non-profit nature of professional title evaluation, strengthen the capacity building of evaluation, and strengthen self-restraint and external supervision.

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On June 7, 2017, General Office of Human Resources and Social Security jointly issued the General Office of the Ministry of Education about to do a good job of 2017 Primary and Middle School Teacher Title Appraisal Notice. It is to further improve the evaluation standard of the primary and secondary school teachers title keep your ethics on the primary and secondary school teacher’s evaluation. We need to pay attention to investigate teachers’ teaching performance and the actual contribution. It plays a leading role is senior teachers in urban and rural parts of the world to support more excellent teachers from rural and remote areas of primary and middle school. We promote a fairer and more balanced allocation of educational resources. On the whole, the reform in this stage is mainly to make more detailed requirements on the assessment system of teachers’ professional titles in primary and secondary schools, so as to ensure the smooth operation of the policy of teachers’ professional titles in the compulsory education stage. The whole system of professional title has not been adjusted to a large extent.

6.3 Why to Choose Such a Title Policy in China? 6.3.1 Economic Factors 6.3.1.1

Supply-Side Structural Reform

Since the 12th Five-year Plan Period (2011–2015), the long-term unreasonable structure of China’s economic development has become increasingly prominent. president Xi Jinping put forward the “supply-side reform” for the first time at the meeting of the central leading group for financial and economic development, clearly stating that “while moderately expanding aggregate demand, we should strengthen the supplyside structural reform, improve the quality and efficiency of the supply system, and enhance the driving force for sustained economic growth.” Since then, president Xi Jinping and premier Li keqiang have repeatedly stressed “supply-side reform” on various occasions. The economic theory of “supply-side structural reform” is derived from the thought of classical liberal economics in the nineteenth century. Neoclassical economics emphasizes the absolute efficiency of the market and believes that the market can clear automatically, thus reaching the pareto optimal state. After the great depression of the capitalist world economy, Keynesianism with demand management as the core prevailed, emphasizing the intervention and control of the state. By the 1970s, capitalist countries were generally faced with the phenomenon of “stagflation” with high unemployment rate and high inflation rate. Lower taxes and public spending, a balanced budget; The emphasis on controlling the money supply in response to inflation has been successful. China’s supply-side structural reform theory is to draw from the nutrition, came into being. Its core is the adjustment of the economic structure and the transformation of the economic

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development mode. It can improve the total factor productivity by improving the adaptability and flexibility of the supply structure. The supply-side structural reform covers both the economic and social sectors. Education belongs to the social sector. What education does not only affect the development of education itself, but also affects the overall situation of economic and social development. Throughout the policy on the professional title of compulsory education teachers in China, the main reason for the trial implementation of the professional title system of compulsory teachers is to affirm the teaching skills and working ability of excellent teachers and stimulate the enthusiasm of the whole teaching team. Through the promulgation of the policy of teachers’ professional title, it can promote the improvement of the quality of teachers, optimize the structure of teachers, let the excellent teachers to stimulate the backward teachers, and improve the adaptability and flexibility of the whole society to the change of teachers’ demands. This is the embodiment of the country’s increasingly strong supply-side structural reform. Education, like economics, has both “supply” and “demand” sides. Education reform can also be divided into two ways: demand-side reform and supply-side reform. In the past, the country used the method of demand-side reform to expand the enrollment scale and solve the problem of rural students’ difficulty in attending school, which achieved great results. However, for the problem of teachers’ professional titles, if only the demand side reform is adopted and the number of professional titles is simply expanded, the result will be the decline in the credibility of teachers’ professional titles, and “senior teachers” are everywhere. For society as a whole, if something is available to everyone, it loses its value. Therefore, it is necessary to choose supply-side structural reform to solve the problem of teachers’ professional titles in primary and secondary schools (Cai and Zia 2016; Hu et al. 2016; Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2008, 2019, 2020).

6.3.2 Educational Requirements China’s education funds mainly include two types: central special funds and local funds for running schools. Just as the so-called ability to work, the means of equal distribution of teachers’ wages is not enough to stimulate the enthusiasm of teachers teaching. Therefore, the state promulgation compulsory education teacher title post, will it and teacher’s salary is linked. At present, the salary of teachers in China is composed of basic salary, salary scale salary, performance salary and allowance salary. The professional title reform started in 2009 divides the professional title grade of primary and secondary school teachers from low to high into three levels of teachers, two levels of teachers, one level of teachers, senior teachers and senior teachers. The “basic salary”, “performance salary” and “salary scale salary” of the teacher’s salary are all linked with the teacher’s professional title. The purpose of this arrangement is mainly to encourage teachers to improve their professional skills and work ability and facilitate the allocation of funds.

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6.3.3 Political and Social Factors One of the objective reasons for the revision of the teacher’s title system in China is the change of China’s economic and social environment. The development of market economy brings about the diversification of social organization forms. The professional title system, while exploring and reforming itself, needs to get out of the bondage of the system and adapt to the social needs outside the system. [] the reason why China has chosen such a policy is that it meets the needs of society. Take the examination and approval of the teacher’s professional title system as an example. In the regulations on the professional title of teachers in primary and secondary schools promulgated in 1986, the examination and approval of the teacher’s professional title is entirely in the charge of the professional title committee organized by the state. “Promulgated in 2009 pilot guidance” deepening the reform of system of primary and secondary school teachers titles should clear earnest summary to promote peer experts review successful experience in the evaluation of primary and secondary school teachers’ professional technology level, continue to explore the realization form of society and the industry recognition, take practice lecture, interview reply, expert evaluation of a variety of ways. The peer experts, the society and the recognized form of the industry are included in the teacher’s professional title assessment, which meets the needs of social development (Cai and Zia 2016; Hu et al. 2016; Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2020). One reason is that the occupational level certification in essence belongs to the market behavior, we should pay attention to play the role of social intermediary organizations to promote the socialization of occupational ability certification. The so-called socialization is the de-administration, the society is relative to the government, once the government has more control, the role of the market will be weakened. We can’t just hear one sound in our ears. The second is neutrality, which mainly requires the third party besides the laborer and the employing unit, especially the role of industry or professional organization evaluation. This is why peer experts should be included in the process of teacher title certification. Therefore, teachers are not only disseminators of knowledge, but also shapers of personality, with high moral cultivation and personality charm. The implementation of the professional title system of teachers is not to divide teachers into three or six classes, but to encourage teachers to continuously improve themselves, constantly improve moral cultivation and personality charm. This can be seen from the notice on evaluating the professional titles of primary and secondary school teachers issued in 2017, which insists on putting teacher ethics at the first place in the evaluation of teachers’ professional titles. Embodiment is the traditional culture of our country to the teacher’s professional title requirements.

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6.4 Questions and Suggestions First, according to the research of relevant scholars [], the shortage of middle and senior positions is the most prominent contradiction in promoting the reform of the professional title system for primary and secondary school teachers. At present, the macro-control target of the professional and technical senior, intermediate and primary post structure in China is 1:4:5, and it is further subdivided in each learning section and various schools. Positions in each region are determined strictly according to the post proportion structure, and the number of middle and senior posts is very scarce. This reform has promoted the rationalization of professional title evaluation standards, and more teachers are qualified for promotion of professional title, but the proportion of post structure is fixed, which makes the contradiction of professional title evaluation and employment more acute. Three of the seven problems summarized in the text analysis are directly related to this problem. Among them, the frequency of “urgent shortage of middle and senior positions” reached 139 times, and the relevant text accounted for 20.1% of the effective text. The frequency of nodes of “the sharp contradiction of post shortage after standard adjustment” reached 124 times, and the relevant texts accounted for 17.7% of the effective texts. The frequency of nodes of “teachers with no hope of promotion lose enthusiasm” is 101, and the relevant text accounts for 14.3% of the effective text. The cumulative frequency of the three nodes reached 364 times, accounting for 52% of the total frequency of the nodes. The cumulative text coverage reached 52%. The accumulative text coverage reached 52.1%, that is to say, more than half of the interview texts about the existing contradictions reflected the lack of middle and senior positions, and the contradictions were extremely prominent. Second, the proportion of senior professional titles in rural schools is generally low, and it is difficult to evaluate and hire. Although the country has issued a series of policies to enhance the proportion of rural teachers in senior titles. However, in the implementation of the policy and the specific operation process, the distribution of the proportion of senior professional titles generally has a “city-oriented” tendency, that is, the number and proportion of senior professional titles in rural schools are far lower than that in cities. Specifically speaking, the proportion of teachers with senior professional titles in the national scope, the eastern and western regions, and the non-student’s section, the urban schools are generally higher than the county and town schools, and the county and town central schools are generally higher than the rural schools. Some studies have found that the overall structure of professional titles of urban and rural teachers is not only unreasonable, but also the gap between their professional titles is too large, and the proportion of rural teachers with senior professional titles is too low, which is not conducive to the coordinated development of urban and rural education (Cai and Zia 2016; Hu et al. 2016; Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2008, 2019, 2020). Third, there is a lag in the professional title assessment of primary and secondary school teachers. In the process of primary and secondary school teachers’ professional title evaluation, will encounter such a problem, is the teacher’s professional title should be evaluated by whom. There is no clear answer to this question, which

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leads to many unfair phenomena in the process of teachers’ professional title evaluation. In primary and secondary school teachers title evaluation should set up a more authoritative organization, review of data from as the evaluation of teachers, for evaluation of post of teachers’ teaching work in practical field investigation, and take scientific and reasonable evaluation method of justice, for teachers to establish evaluation archives, authorized by the government for public review, review the results to the manner of the public announcement. However, elementary and secondary school teachers may encounter some bottlenecks in the process of evaluation, for them, their performance cannot be well quantified, and the professional title evaluation will also lag compared with the main subject teachers. In many cases, the professional titles of many teachers of minor subjects in primary and secondary schools lag by three to five years, especially in the assessment of intermediate or higher professional titles, this phenomenon is more obvious. A lot of small subject teachers get out of the training opportunities are relatively few, although our country attaches great importance to quality education, but as long as there is a middle school examination, the status of the subject will be higher than that of the small subject. Therefore, in the process of the professional title assessment of primary and secondary school teachers, the teachers of small subjects are bound to be unable to be compared with the teachers of main subjects. Fourth, the number of primary and secondary school teachers professional title assessment is limited. In view of the current professional title management system of primary and secondary school teachers in China, most of the primary and secondary schools adopt the proportion of teacher structure and the method of controlling the highest level in the post setting. The allocation of the number of teachers’ professional titles in primary and secondary schools is determined macroscopically according to a certain proportion of the posts actually approved by each school, which directly leads to the fact that a large part of schools do not have the number of teachers’ professional titles promoted. In fact, the number of senior teachers’ professional title assessment is usually concentrated in high schools, the number of junior high schools and primary schools will be very small, even those who are recommended by the school declaration of excellent junior high schools and primary school teachers, because of a variety of reasons will be unsuccessful. In this case, more and more primary and secondary school teachers will meet the standard requirements, and the problem will be bigger and bigger. The coordination of various departments operating mechanisms and systems. According to the objective law of the teacher’s professional and technical position system, the coordination system and mechanism between government departments should be straightened out, and the responsibility of the social and social administrative departments in determining the post ratio and participating in the establishment of the evaluation and employment standards and procedures for professional and technical positions should be clarified. To authorize the administrative departments of education to formulate standards and procedures for evaluation and employment, and to supervise the evaluation and employment. People club department is the government public sector human resources management of the legal department as a

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whole, its responsibility lies in accordance with the requirements of the public interests and national macro policy formulation jobs proportion determined structure, approval number, participate in professional technical position appraisal standards, procedures, security jobs proportion structure and evaluation standards, procedures in accordance with the public sector personnel management specification. The educational administrative departments have a better understanding of the evaluation standards and procedures for teachers’ professional and technical positions; At the same time, the position allocation should be determined according to the school’s planning, development prospects, the region it belongs to, the changing trend of the number of students, and other factors, which are more suitable for the education administrative department to be responsible for. The administrative department of education should be authorized to make overall plans for the allocation of posts within the total number of posts approved, formulate the evaluation and employment rules, and supervise the evaluation and employment process. Ensure the fairness of appraisal and employment, accept reports and complaints, and conduct timely investigation and handling of violations of rules and regulations. The proportion of senior professional titles of rural teachers. It is suggested that in the allocation of senior professional titles in the county, the proportion of teachers in rural schools should be set up and dedicated to the special track. According to the comprehensive factors such as the traffic distance from the county and the central town, the schools in the county region are divided into three categories. The second category is the town center school and the village school with convenient transportation and good comprehensive conditions. The three areas are remote villages and teaching sites. Integrated balance the needs of the tilt to rural schools and urban and rural teachers’ overall level of specialization, in the allocation of senior titles, three types of teachers in title number of eligible for review the region number should be allocated according to different standards, the proportion of the second region according to the county average distribution, type and three kinds of areas respectively on the basis of the appropriate cut and buoyancy (Cai and Zia 2016; Hu et al. 2016). The professional title setting and professional title standard standardization. Since the comprehensive reform has gradually transferred to a unified five-level professional title system. The evaluation criteria reflect the attention to the differences in educational development level and specific teacher groups in different regions. In the subsequent reform process, the five-level professional title sequence will gradually become stable. On the basis of the original evaluation standards, each province further enriched and refined the specific evaluation contents corresponding to each part, adjusted timely in combination with the changes of the educational development situation in the region, and gradually formed a practical and operational evaluation index system. In line with the framework of national macro-education policy-oriented adjustment of evaluation standards, specific evaluation standards are formulated and perfected to clearly reflect the support and help for specific teacher groups. To a certain extent, specific groups of teachers, such as rural and remote areas, are guaranteed to participate in the assessment of senior professional titles and obtain opportunities for career development.

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The professional title appraisal way diversification and the procedure simplification. The evaluation method of professional title has gradually developed from static material review to dynamic interview, which further simplifies the procedure of administrative management while delegating the evaluation power. In the future reform process, the multiple evaluation methods will help the reviewers to understand the professional level of the teachers involved in the evaluation more comprehensively. The simplification of the procedure from the side reflects the decentralization of the review power, the appropriate streamlining of the review process, is conducive to avoid repetitive, trivial work, and thus improve the efficiency of the review work. Combining with the evaluation index system, considering the evaluation participants and the procedural requirements of the evaluation, try to design and match the specific evaluation methods for each part of the evaluation content. In the process of professional title evaluation, in order to meet the needs of improving the evaluation efficiency, some inefficient and formal steps will be deleted and redesigned to promote the gradual simplification of the evaluation process. The previous system is to separate the evaluation and employment, now the implementation of the post and job employment and the unified system, conducive to the effective connection with the post-employment system of primary and secondary school teachers. This professional title system reform broke the original evaluation and employment combination and evaluation and employment separate system. From the functional point of view, evaluation and employment are separated, but in the use of the method, the emphasis is on the evaluation and employment together. In the reform of teachers’ professional title system, teachers’ professional title evaluation in primary and secondary schools adopts the method of combining evaluation and employment, and the situation of “high evaluation and low employment” will also disappear. After the comprehensive implementation of the “combination of evaluation and employment” system, the school will determine the number of teachers according to the corresponding post. Therefore, we should adhere to the principle of post evaluation and employment, establish an employment mechanism with matching system and management, realize the unification of posts and positions of primary and secondary school teachers, and continuously promote the rational and optimized allocation of teachers between urban and rural areas, so as to reduce the contradiction of post evaluation and employment (Cai and Zia 2016; Hu et al. 2016; Fan and Fu 2011; Li et al. 2008, 2019, 2020).

References Cai, Q. Q., & Zia, H. Y. (2016). Research on the reform of the professional title system of primary and secondary school teachers. Education Exploration, 16(5), 122–124. Fan, X. Z., & Fu, W. D. (2011). Reform of teachers’ performance pay in compulsory education: Background, effect, problems and countermeasures—Based on investigation of 32 counties (cities) in 4 provinces in central China. Journal of East China Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciences Edition), 11(6), 129–137.

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Hu, A. Z., Zhou, S. J., & Ren, H. (2016). Supply-side structural reform—Adapting to and leading the new normal of Chinese economy. Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 31(2), 172–195. Li, J., Shi, Z., & Xue, E. (2020). The problems, needs and strategies of rural teacher development at deep poverty areas in China: Rural schooling stakeholder perspectives. International Journal of Educational Research, 99, 101496. Li, J., Yongzhi, Z., Eryong, X., & Zhou, N. (2019). Faculty ethics in China: From a historical perspective. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(2), 126–136. Li, T. Z., Jin, C., & Jin, Z. F. (2008). What is the effect of primary and secondary school teachers’ professional title reform?—Research on policy evaluation based on the theory of multivariate assessment. Research on Educational Development, 38(18), 17–23.

Chapter 7

Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of the Distribution of Schools

This chapter concentrates on examining the distribution of schools for the development of compulsory education. As an important measure for the state to optimize the allocation of educational resources and improve the fairness and efficiency of education, the layout of compulsory education schools has a far-reaching impact on the development of compulsory education in China. Since the reform and opening up, China’s compulsory education school layout policy has gone through a process of changes from “reform” and “construction” to “withdrawal” and “integration”, and then to gradually adjust and improve. In the process of policy change, economic, political, social and cultural factors promote the adjustment of the distribution of compulsory education schools to different degrees. Furthermore, the paper analyzes and discusses the prominent problems and improvement directions in the layout adjustment from the aspects of funds, management system and relationship coordination. School layout, as an important educational policy in the stage of compulsory education, reflects how the party and the country answer the question of running schools under the construction of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, a number of policies and measures have been implemented in the stage of compulsory education, such as supporting the funds for primary schools and conditions for running schools and encouraging various forms of running schools. Although the scale of compulsory education schools and the number of students were damaged to some extent and the development was slow, but the overall form of “primary school not out of the village, not out of the middle school team, high school not out of the community,” a low center of gravity, scattered layout. Along with our country before the reform and opening up the actual situation of low level of urbanization, the rural areas is a major hub of China’s population, corresponding, new primary and secondary schools in rural areas has become the focus of China’s compulsory education school layout adjustment,

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li and E. Xue, Compulsory Education Policy in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6358-8_7

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which constitute the after the reform and open policy, our country compulsory education school layout adjustment series of policies to guide and practice the important basis in reality.

7.1 The Policy Changes of the Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools In December 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was held, marking that China had entered the period of reform and opening up with economic development as the main focus. In the nearly forty years since the reform and opening up, Chinese compulsory education school layout changes mainly experienced three adjustment, respectively in 1986. The Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, in 2001, is proposed by the State Council on the decision of the elementary education reform and development “, in 2012 the state council to explore the opinions on the rural compulsory education school layout adjustment policy for the time of release stage. It reflects the change process of the layout of compulsory education schools from the early stage of preparation, to the middle stage of formal implementation, and then to the later stage of adjustment and improvement. It fully reflects the guiding role of the policy in the layout of compulsory education schools, as well as the profound impact on the school scale and students.

7.1.1 Early Preparation: “Reform” and “Construction” With the deepening of reform and opening up in the field and degree, in April 1986, the Fourth Session of the Sixth National People’s Congress adopted the Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China and began to implement in July of that year. It stipulates that the compulsory education undertakings shall be under the leadership of the state council with local responsibility and graded administration. It also requires that local people’s governments at all levels should set up primary and junior secondary schools in a reasonable manner so that children and adolescents can enroll in schools nearby. Therefore, the local government needs to set up schools under the leadership of the state and fully guarantee the smooth access of schoolage children to compulsory education, which constitutes the source of legitimacy for the adjustment of the distribution of compulsory education after the reform and opening up, and lays a foundation for the adjustment of the distribution of compulsory education schools throughout the country. Since then, China’s compulsory education school layout around the construction of key schools, a variety of forms of schooling, promoting the renovation of dilapidated houses, weak schools and other content carried out major work. It is found that this is closely related to the times when

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the retention rate of compulsory education remains to be improved, the problem of students dropping out is obvious, and the consolidation and popularization of nineyear compulsory education is still the focus of national education development(Lei and Wang 2009; Zhao and Liu 2019; Shi 2014; Yang 2013; Wu and Shi 2011; Pang 2006).

7.1.2 Formal Implementation: “Withdrawal” and “Merger” By the late 1990s, China began to involve some compulsory education school layout adjustment, such as in the 1998, Opinions about the Acceptance of the Two Basics Earnestly Strengthen Improving Work. It has pointed out that we should make full use of education resources, improve the scale of higher education, reasonable adjust the distribution of primary and secondary schools, but it is only as the mass in the early period of the” removal “junior high ground. In 2001, the State Council on the Decision of the Elementary Education Reform and Development pointed out that the “two basics” (basic nine-year compulsory education and basically eliminating illiteracy among young and middle-aged adults) has already realized preliminary. But basic education overall level is not high, unbalanced development, insufficient recognition of some areas of basic education, in order to promote the reform of basic education and healthy development. Improving the management system is to ensure the investment of funds for promoting the sustainable and healthy development of rural compulsory education. It clearly stipulates that it is necessary to adjust the layout of rural compulsory education schools according to local conditions and adjust the layout of schools by means of merger and reservation. Since then, rural school layout adjustment officially began. The adjustment of the distribution of compulsory education schools promoted the reasonable allocation of educational resources and the balanced development of regional education.

7.1.3 Later Adjustment: Balance and Improvement In September 2012, the State Council General Office on the Standard Rural Compulsory Education School Layout Adjustment Opinion is issued to make it clear to develop rural compulsory education school layout planning. We strive to solve the outstanding problems, which caused by the school removal, completes the specific inspection. Therefore, since the reform and opening up, the layout adjustment of compulsory education schools has entered the later stage of adjustment, starting to pay attention to the balanced development of compulsory education, so that students can enjoy a fair and quality education. In 2018, the number of primary schools for compulsory education was 161,800 and the number of secondary schools was 52,000. The number of primary school students was 103 million, and the number of secondary school students was 46,525,900. Although the number of schools for compulsory

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education and the number of secondary school students were still decreasing, the range was not as dramatic as that of the phase of “relocation and school integration”. At the same time, The State Council on Further Perfecting the Urban and Rural Compulsory Education Funds Safeguard Mechanism of Notification (2015) was proposed by the State Council. Series of policies with the release of the document, the high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education and the integrated development of urban and rural areas have become the important development goals of compulsory education, and the layout of compulsory education schools has been adjusted to develop in a reasonable and orderly direction (Lei and Wang 2009; Zhao and Liu 2019; Shi 2014; Yang 2013; Wu and Shi 2011; Pang 2006).

7.2 The Compulsory Education School Layout Policy Motivation From the reform and construction, in the early stage of reform and opening up, we try to the “withdrawal” and “merger” to the balanced quality of compulsory education. In terms of the rational development of school layout, China’s compulsory education stage of school is formed from decentralized to centralized, and then formed the current overall planning and diverse management. Such a long and wide school layout adjustment is not only driven by policy, but also closely related to the operation of economic, political, social and cultural factors corresponding to the compulsory education stage.

7.2.1 Economic Factors Affecting the Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools From the economic perspective, the adjustment of the distribution of compulsory education schools is obviously based on the change of the concept of economies of scale. After the reform and opening up, faced with important development task of popularizing nine-year compulsory education, actively carried out in China, including open ChongDianJiao, encourage more forms of running a school, dangerous house renovation, such as weak school reconstruction work, to meet the needs of the people to accept education and desire, and effectively raise the quality of compulsory education and cultivate good talent for the country and social development. Under the condition of relatively limited resources, large proportion of small-scale dispersed running schools undoubtedly formed higher cost. Therefore, State Council on the Decision of the Elementary Education Reform and Development clearly illustrates the compulsory education school layout adjustment. It is to achieve the optimal allocation of education resources, through the way of merger

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of rural primary school or school, reduce the cost of running. Although compulsory education school layout adjustment, however, we considered the school scale to reduce the cost of education. We neglected the education cost burden to spend more time or money to receive compulsory education expenditure learning. The Decision of the State Council on the Reform and Development of Basic Education has stressed the need for rational planning and adjustment to prevent students from dropping out of school due to the adjustment of the layout. It still brings students in remote areas to go to school or even drop out of school and other serious problems. Therefore, in 2012, the state issued the Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Regulating the Layout Adjustment of Rural Compulsory Education Schools, which timely adjusted and guided the guiding ideology of giving priority to efficiency to the direction of giving consideration to school equity (Lei and Wang 2009; Zhao and Liu 2019; Shi 2014). At the same time, the change of the concept of economies of scale is to optimize the allocation of compulsory education resources. The expansion of school scale is to reduce the running cost, which is also closely related to the change of the investment in compulsory education. After the reform and opening up, the reason why the state should change from the previous decentralized school to centralized school is largely due to the limited resources and tight funding for compulsory education. Under the situation of “poor countries to conduct large education”, China’s compulsory education gradually forms a mechanism of hierarchical education and multi-channel education financing, and townships need to maintain their investment in compulsory education through education surcharge, education fund raising or county and township financial allocation in the process of running primary and secondary schools. However, in 1994, China carried out the reform of rural taxes and fees, abolished the agricultural surtax and raised funds in rural areas, which greatly reduced the fiscal revenue of counties and townships, and made the reality of insufficient funds for compulsory education more severe. Therefore, after the Decision of the State Council on the Reform and Development of Basic Education was issued in 2001, local governments carried out “relocation and merging of schools” one after another, and the number of rural schools decreased sharply. In 2012, as the proportion of financial education expenditure in GDP exceeded 4% for the first time, Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Regulating the Layout Adjustment of Rural Compulsory Education were also formally released, which promoted the layout of China’s compulsory education schools to enter the later stage of adjustment and improvement, and to develop toward high-quality and balanced development. From this point of view, the change of funding for compulsory education also has a profound impact on the pace and direction of school layout adjustment.

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7.2.2 Political Factors Affecting the Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools At the political level, under the overall background of the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the readjustment of the school layout of compulsory education is mainly caused by the dual functions of China’s education management system and national development strategy. In 1986, China issued the Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China for the first time, which stipulates that “compulsory education undertakings shall be under the leadership of the state council and be subject to local responsibility and graded administration”, which stipulates the main position and management role of local governments in running schools of compulsory education from the perspective of national system. Financially, we required the operating expense and capital construction investment, the implementation of compulsory education by the State Council and local people’s governments at various levels. However, after the implementation of rural tax and fee reform, the State Council in 2001 began a major adjustment, practice under the leadership of the State Council. The county-based compulsory education management system gives the county-level government the right to adjust the distribution of compulsory education schools. In response to the Decision of the State Council on the Reform and Development of Basic Education, the government carries out “relocation and school integration” while reducing its own financial burden and pressure. It can be said that the countybased compulsory education management system provides a good institutional basis for the adjustment of school layout. In addition, in 1998, most of the provinces carried out the reform of township institutions and implemented the “merging of townships, villages and schools” and “reducing the number of people, reducing the number of services and reducing the expenditure”, which resulted in the overall reduction of the rural primary and secondary schools arranged by administrative divisions due to the change of administrative divisions (Lei and Wang 2009; Zhao and Liu 2019; Shi 2014; Yang 2013; Wu and Shi 2011; Pang 2006). The transformation of national development strategy also has a critical impact on the layout of compulsory education schools. After the reform and opening up, the popularization of compulsory education is to organize a group of key primary and secondary schools. After the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China put forward the modernization strategic direction of “fairness and quality” in the development of education, and the layout adjustment of compulsory education schools also changed to a reasonable and diversified direction. The changing process of the distribution of compulsory education schools indirectly reflects the major strategic transformation of the country from the solution of pressing problems to the active pursuit of modernization.

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7.2.3 Social Factors Affecting the Distribution of Schools for Compulsory Education From the perspective of society, the change of school layout of compulsory education reflects the invisible shaping of education by social population and structure. On the one hand, the readjustment of the distribution of compulsory education is a response to the trend of population change in China. In the 1970s, in order to adapt China’s population size to economic and social development, China firmly implemented the “family planning” policy, which was written into the constitution and the marriage law. Under the effect of the implementation of the “family planning” policy, the number of students in primary schools, middle schools and high schools in rural areas has been on the decline since the reform and opening up. Reduction in the number of compulsory education students directly affects the school layout. On November 15, 2013, China made adjustments to the family planning and proposed the policy of couples have two children if one of them is an only child, that is, two children alone. With the release of the birth policy, there are new changes in the number of students in compulsory education. When the size of primary school students reaches a peak in 2025, the layout of compulsory education schools will form a new adaptive state (Lei and Wang 2009; Zhao and Liu 2019; Shi 2014; Yang 2013; Wu and Shi 2011; Pang 2006). At the same time, the liberalization of the household registration system and the acceleration of the urbanization process make the population flow more and more frequent, which also increases the challenge of the social population size and the changes between urban and rural areas to the distribution of compulsory education schools. In the 1980s, the State Council’s Circular on Farmers’ Right to Settle Down in Market Towns was issued, and the reform of the household registration system was implemented. After the reform and opening up, China’s social economy has developed rapidly, the urbanization process has been accelerated, and the rural population has been gradually transformed into the urban population. This has also promoted the reduction of students receiving compulsory education in rural areas, which has indirectly promoted the implementation of “removing points and merging schools”. For this century, the rural school-age population is constantly gathering in cities and towns, which not only causes great pressure on the scale of urban schools and teachers and equipment in the stage of compulsory education, but also makes the scale of rural schools gradually shrink, making it more and more difficult for schools to continue. More importantly, the “rural-to-urban” migration of the population brought about by urbanization has also resulted in social problems such as the difficulty for children of migrant workers and left-behind children to receive compulsory education in the stage of compulsory education. The layout of compulsory education schools should not only consider the size, but also take into account the population changes between urban and rural areas. While solving the problem of large schools and large class sizes, we should also better balance the types and quality levels of different schools. The complicated social reality is affecting the rational distribution of compulsory education schools.

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7.2.4 Cultural Elements Affecting the Layout of Compulsory Education Schools The cultural level has a relatively weak influence on the layout of compulsory education schools, with the gradual deepening of the content of the layout adjustment stage of compulsory education schools. Its effect is clearly reflected, which is embodied in the value orientation and the revitalization of rural culture in the process of layout adjustment. After the reform and opening up, the policy value of educational equity guides the readjustment of the distribution of compulsory education schools. At the early stages of the school layout adjustment, China has gradually narrowing the gap between key schools and key schools request. It also showed in compulsory education schools in the early period of the adjustment. The nine-year compulsory education is to the pursuit of education fairness. It also pointed out that the overall level is not high, unbalanced development. The distribution of compulsory education schools has entered the later stage of adjustment. The State Council is to promote the county within the reform and development of the integration of urban and rural compulsory education. The compulsory education in the school layout adjustment after the formation of the dual structure is between urban and rural areas, rural education resources allocation in cities and towns of the shortage of high-quality education resources. China education modernization concentrates on, in the next fifteen years, realizing the equal basic public education services, promoting urban and rural compulsory education balanced development. The modernization of Chinese education 2035 also focuses on the treatment of the trailing their children to school, the children of the floating population studies and other vulnerable groups work action request. Making the education fair has become a policy guiding and implementation of basic values (Lei and Wang 2009; Zhao and Liu 2019; Shi 2014; Yang 2013). The layout adjustment of compulsory education schools also reflects the revitalization trend of rural culture. In the early period of reform and opening up, the countryside was the main gathering place of the population in China. People worked and lived in the rural environment for a long time, and gradually formed and created cultural contents including language, customs, ideology, morality, emotion and psychology. The layout of the village school and village culture embodies and contact each other, but as a result of village culture is just at the time as the residents of production and life practice or thought, under the strong propulsion of urbanization, rural culture exerts a role to the people, the influence of the layout of rural schools and school appears extremely weak, and hence accelerate the weak in the compulsory education school layout adjustment. Rural schools have been removed and merged, teachers have left their homes, school buildings have been abandoned, and the development of rural culture and the construction of rural civilization have also been hindered. However, in the Report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping put forward the rural revitalization strategy in combination with the actual situation of China. Since then, the revitalization of rural culture has increasingly become an important part of China’s modernization.

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The Central China under the State Council about the Opinions of the Implementation the Strategy of Rejuvenating the Country (2018) pointed out that, the rural culture and new atmosphere with local custom civilization foster civilized local custom, good family trait, honest folkway, strategy of rejuvenating the country planning. It is proposed to build a new pattern of rural revitalization, especially to improve the layout between urban and rural structure, optimize the layout of rural development, classification advance rural development. Further play the role of rural culture, build a new pattern of rural vitalization, indirectly promote the distribution of compulsory education schools to urban and rural integration trend.

7.3 Policy Discussion on the Readjustment of the Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools In the past 42 years, the readjustment of the distribution of compulsory education schools has realized the popularization of nine-year compulsory education, and a great achievement has been achieved in transforming primary and secondary school students from “having access to learning” to “having access to learning”. Although with compulsory education school came to the last stage of adjustment layout, layout in school in China has accumulated a good experience, able to form a more rational and prudent attitude towards school adjustment, to meet the late compulsory education school layout in the new situation and challenges, but since reform and opening up the compulsory education school layout of the entire process of change, there are still many points worthy of further discussion and improvement.

7.3.1 Analysis of the Problem of Readjustment of the Layout of Compulsory Education Schools 1. As the basic pillar to promote the adjustment of school layout, the investment of funds for compulsory education is insufficient in the early stage and unbalanced in the later stage. From the mechanism of multi-level schooling and multi-channel education fund raising formed after the reform and opening up, the shortage of compulsory education fund in the early stage forced the local government to carry out urgent adjustment of “removing the points and merging schools” after the education management system reform. It is for students to reduce and streamline the rationality of the rural primary and secondary schools and school. The state issued the Ministry of Education about Seeking Truth from Facts to do a Good Job of Rural Primary and Secondary School Layout Adjustment Notice. The local government in rural primary and secondary schools and even the remote area school students are faced with difficult problems, such as local government behavior to adjust. The layout of the compulsory education

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school is still not the right track. The State Council General Office on the Specification’s Opinions on Rural Compulsory Education School Layout Adjustment is proposed to make the compulsory education school layout adjustment back to the prudent attitude. The reason is that the local government is unable to undertake the normal operation of compulsory education schools, especially in the context of the tax reform in rural areas and the reduction of local government revenue. Therefore, it is forced to remove and merge primary and secondary schools to reduce the pressure on the funding of compulsory education. However, in the later period, with the State Council Promulgation of the Circular on Deepening the Reform of Rural Compulsory Education Funding Guarantee Mechanism (2005) concentrates on the responsibility of funding input for compulsory education. The contradiction between fund supply and demand was alleviated to a certain extent. However, the compulsory education is not only impacted by urbanization in terms of school layout, but also in terms of its funding. The data of education investment from 2005 to 2014 shows that in this short decade, the gap of compulsory education investment between urban and rural areas is getting larger and larger. Meanwhile, this gap is gradually spreading to provinces and cities (east and west) (Lei and Wang 2009; Zhao and Liu 2019; Shi 2014; Yang 2013; Wu and Shi 2011; Pang 2006).

7.3.2 The Procedures and Systems for Adjusting the Layout of Compulsory Education Schools Are not Perfect In the middle and late 1990s, China has begun to explore the consolidation of rural primary and secondary schools in some areas. In 2001, the layout adjustment of compulsory education schools was formally implemented. According to the arrangement in the state council’s decision on the reform and development of basic education, the layout of rural compulsory education schools should be adjusted according to local conditions, “to prevent students from dropping out of school due to the layout adjustment”, and “the adjusted school buildings and other assets should be guaranteed to be used for the development of education”. However, it was after the adjustment of the layout of compulsory education schools that schools in remote areas dropped out of school due to the difficulty in attending school. The expected policy launched to reflect the overall effect of the compulsory education. The General Office of the State Council about Specification’s Opinions on Rural Compulsory Education School Layout Adjustment points out that, the school layout adjustment planning scheme is not perfect, and the operation procedure is not standard. The safeguard measures do not reach the designated position, and a specific inspection was carried out. Due to the county-based compulsory education management system, local counties have a great deal of management power over the layout adjustment of schools. Without supervision and full adoption of multiple opinions, it is difficult to avoid unscientific,

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inflexible and non-standard problems, which has laid hidden dangers for the later layout adjustment of compulsory education schools.

7.3.3 The Standard of Distribution of Compulsory Education Schools Is Not Perfect and the Prospective Needs to Be Improved After the reform and opening up, the layout of compulsory education schools has been adjusted for more than 40 years, which mainly includes three stages: preliminary planning, formal implementation and later adjustment. Based on the experience of adjusting the layout of compulsory education schools from 2001 to 2012, the current school layout adopts a more prudent and proper strategy and pays more attention to science and standardization. In the face of the gap between the development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas, the school layout should be reasonably adjusted by the integration of urban and rural development. The Decision of the State Council on the Reform and Development of Basic Education is to start the compulsory education school layout adjustment. This document has clearly pointed out that the local conditions need to adjust. But there are no specific recommendations on how to adjust the school’s layout to suit local conditions. Under the management system dominated by counties, it is difficult for local governments to make full research with their own resources and give the best adjustment plan. Based on the situation of school-age population, both the school location and the size of the region are associated with the quality of the compulsory education development. School should bring problems and carry out special supervision work. From this point of view, the prospective of distribution adjustment of compulsory education schools needs to be improved (Yang 2013; Wu and Shi 2011; Pang 2006).

7.4 Policy Suggestions on the Readjustment of the Distribution of Compulsory Schools Under the general development trend of firmly pursuing equality and efficiency in education and promoting the balanced development of quality and quality of compulsory education, we should also pay attention to:

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7.4.1 Raise Education Funds in a Diversified Way and Establish and Improve the Guarantee Mechanism of Compulsory Education Funds Between Urban and Rural Areas The stable investment of compulsory education funds is an important guarantee for the normal operation of compulsory education in China. In addition to the stable fiscal revenue to bear the compulsory education funds, we can also absorb social organizations, individual donations and other important forces to increase the sources of compulsory education funds, so as to improve the risk response ability of compulsory education. The responsibility subjects and ways for the financial burden of education funds must be clear, and the enthusiasm and coordination between the central and local governments in running schools for compulsory education should be fully mobilized. In terms of the distribution and use of funds for compulsory education, we should especially establish an open and transparent system to ensure the use of funds for compulsory education, reasonably arrange the proportion of funds for primary and secondary schools in the school’s various undertakings, and timely disclose to the society and schools, and actively accept public supervision and special supervision. As the distribution of compulsory education schools enters the later stage of adjustment and improvement, the gap in funding for compulsory education between urban and rural areas, between provinces and cities, and between regions is gradually attached importance to. An efficient, open and perfect financial transfer payment system is established to promote balanced development of urban and rural education.

7.4.2 Improve the Management System of Compulsory Education and Strictly Regulate the Adjustment Procedures of School Layout The management system of compulsory education is the key to the adjustment of school layout. Although predominantly county compulsory education management system has greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of the local compulsory education schools, but as a result of the county (district) education imbalance between serious, and along with the urbanization trailing children, migrant children education problem makes the education funds flow between across the county (district), power and responsibility unified become reality needs, thus it can be mainly explore provincial compulsory education management system, as a whole and the coordinated development of the compulsory education between, on this basis, the good play with the central government to the compulsory education between the respective responsibilities and obligations of, promoting regional compulsory education schools rational layout optimization. At the same time, it is necessary to carry out the layout adjustment of local primary and secondary schools in accordance with the relevant

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regulations of the state on school layout adjustment, accept special supervision and inspection, and even actively adopt the demands or Suggestions of local primary and secondary school teachers, administrators, parents and other stakeholders to flexibly coordinate the layout of local schools. Finally, the requirements of program compliance can be written into the relevant national laws and regulations of education to provide guarantee for the reasonable adjustment of the layout of compulsory education schools in legal form.

7.4.3 Overall Planning of the Layout of Compulsory Education Schools, Clear Standards, Scientific Planning As a systematic work, the layout adjustment of compulsory education schools is related to the location of schools, the number of school-age population and the development differences between urban and rural areas. We should consider both economic benefits and social benefits, not to mention educational benefits. Therefore, to do a good job in the layout adjustment of compulsory education schools, it is necessary to make an overall plan for many relationships in the layout adjustment, so that students can easily receive high-quality education and obtain fair and quality education. Secondly, we should insist on the importance, legitimacy and legality of “nearby enrollment” in the layout of compulsory education schools and make reasonable adjustments according to the law of education and the actual situation. For rural primary and middle school students in remote mountainous area school, insist on do a good job in the school at the same time, should actively provide them with more school condition, reduce the burden of education, multi-sectoral cooperation collaboration, real good is run by the local compulsory education, at the same time, also want to focus on the form with the urbanization development of trailing children, migrant children in enrollment, admission to schools of a higher level, coordinate urban school scale and the relationship between the students scale, reasonable layout adjustments, optimizing the resources distribution of urban and rural compulsory education. Finally, the establishment of standard of compulsory education school layout adjustment by many means, or law and written to the national education development planning, such as actively encourage social organizations or scientific research team of compulsory education in the school to do full investigation, system considering school layout elements, make scientific planning and forecasting, make the compulsory education school layout adjustment has a clear direction and standards, strengthen layout adjustment system is optimized (Lei and Wang 2009; Zhao and Liu 2019; Shi 2014; Yang 2013; Wu and Shi 2011; Pang 2006).

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References Lei, W. P., & Wang, H. W. (2009). Review and reflection on the layout adjustment of compulsory education schools in the past 70 years. Journal of Central China Normal University (humanities and social sciences edition), 58(06), 12–24. Pang, L. J. (2006). Problems, causes and countermeasures of the current layout adjustment of rural primary and secondary schools in China. Education Development Research, 6(04), 1–6. Shi, N. Z. (2014). Research on adjustment of rural education layout in new rural construction and urbanization. Beijing: Economic Science Press. Wu, Z. H., & Shi, N. Z. (2011). 10-year trend and policy issues of rural school layout adjustment. Education Research, 32(07), 22–30. Yang, T. P. (2013). Reasons, process, problems and countermeasures for the layout adjustment of rural primary and secondary schools in China. Education Theory and Practice, 33(16), 17–22. Zhao, Y. K., & Liu, S. H. (2019). The evolution logic of the policy of adjusting the layout of basic education schools in 70 years of new China—An analysis based on the text of the national policy from 1949 to 2019. Education and Economy, 19(04), 3–11.

Chapter 8

Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of the Rural Compulsory Education

This chapter involves exploring the rural compulsory education policy in China. The compulsory education is an important part of China’s education from the perspective of geographical and population composition. The development of rural compulsory education is an important part of China’s education modernization. Since the reform and opening up, the rural compulsory education policy reflects distinct stages, including: the recovery and adjustment stage (1978–1984), focusing on adjusting the chaotic state and establishing order during the cultural revolution; In the stage of development and reform (1985–2000), the compulsory education policy had the priority orientation of cities, and the compulsory education in rural areas was gradually popularized, but the gap between urban and rural areas was significantly enlarged. In the initial equalization stage (2001–2005), the focus was on the restructuring of the rural compulsory education system and the effective implementation of the policy of urban-rural equality. In the in-depth stage of equalization (from 2006 to now), priority is given to the countryside from the equality between urban and rural areas, highlighting the compensation for compulsory education in rural areas. The development of rural compulsory education policy has profound objective logic: at the political level, including the scientific and democratic decision-making of the government, the adjustment of the relationship between the central and local powers and responsibilities; At the economic level, financial input and market logic are important factors; At the social level, it involves the governance of social groups with the concept of balance and the construction of new rural construction system. Finally, the concept of justice in culture is an important value guide. Finally, on some problems of the current policy, this paper puts forward some countermeasures and Suggestions to maintain the quality of education and give priority to rural areas. To improve the quality of rural education, focus on the construction of teachers; To strengthen the implementation effect, increase the supervision, guide the participation of farmers. The compulsory education is unified, compulsory and public welfare, and its essence is the compulsory education system for school-age children and teenagers within a certain number of years according to the provisions of the law. From the © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li and E. Xue, Compulsory Education Policy in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6358-8_8

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perspective of learning, China’s compulsory education mainly includes both the primary education and secondary education. From the perspective of region, the rural compulsory education is an important part of China’s compulsory education system. The development of compulsory education in rural areas directly affects the process of compulsory education and even the whole national education system. The term “rural compulsory education policy” used in this paper refers to “the behavior or code of conduct adopted to achieve or serve a certain educational goal in a specific period of time, which is a series of laws, regulations, plans, programs, measures, methods and regulations related to rural basic education”. Rural compulsory education is an important part of China’s education system, which is closely related to rural education and basic education. The development of rural compulsory education policy has its own stages and peculiarities. It is influenced by political, economic, social and cultural development while shaping the form of rural compulsory education.

8.1 Policy Changes of Rural Compulsory Education Development Different scholars have different opinions on the stage division of rural compulsory education policy since the reform and opening up. In the aspect of macro education policy, some researchers divide it into three stages: the preparatory stage of education reform (1976–1984), the progressive stage of education reform (1985– 2002), and the deepening stage of education reform (2003–present). Specifically, some researchers divided the changes of rural compulsory education in China into four periods according to different periods or important events: the adjustment and recovery stage (1978–1984), the reform stage (1985–2000), and the innovation and development stage (2001–2005). Strategic development stage (2006–present). According to previous studies, this paper divides the development of rural compulsory education policy since the reform and opening up into four stages, which are as follows: first, the recovery and adjustment stage (1978–1984), which is mainly to adjust the chaotic state during the cultural revolution and re-establish the order of rural compulsory education; Second, the stage of steady development and reform (1985–2000), which was divided into two periods according to the standard of tax sharing reform in 1994. Third, the initial equalization stage (2001–2005), which focuses on the restructuring of the rural compulsory education system and the effective implementation of the equalization of urban and rural education. Fourth, the in-depth equalization stage (from 2006 to now), this period of equalization in-depth, from urban and rural equality to rural priority (Fan and Wang 2008; Wang 2017; Wu and Chen 2008; Wu 2006; Yang 2011; Zhang 2008, 2012; Zhu and Li 2018).

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8.1.1 Recovery and Adjustment Stage (1978–1984) The focus of Chinese rural compulsory education policy at this stage is to adjust the education policy during the cultural revolution, so that Chinese rural compulsory education back to the normal track of development. Specifically speaking, the policy of compulsory education in rural areas at this stage is manifested in three aspects: Restore the order of rural compulsory education and make rural basic education on the right track; Improve the construction of rural teachers; Universal primary education in rural areas. Among them, the formulation of the outline of the 1978– 1985 national education program and the promulgation and implementation of a number of rural education programs clearly defined the dominant position of rural compulsory education in the national education system. 1. Restore the order of rural compulsory education In order to normalize and standardize the teaching order of primary and secondary schools, the Ministry of Education issued the important policy documents of Interim Work Regulations on Full-time Middle Schools (trial draft) and Interim Work Regulations on Full-Time Primary Schools (trial draft) in a timely manner, and made necessary modifications in combination with the new situation while adopting the policies. It standardizes the work of moral education, intellectual education, physical education and teachers in primary and secondary schools, emphasizes the guarantee of normal teaching time, the guarantee of reasonable curriculum, and the guarantee of basic knowledge teaching and basic skills training in basic education. The National Conference on Education held in April 1978, which summarized the educational policy, policy and thought in the early stage, and realized the reversal of the chaos in the field of education. The Outline of the 1978–1985 National Education Program has made a clear plan for the educational route and policy of China. In November of the following year, the central government approved the Report on the Development of Rural Education, which issued by the Taojiang county party committee of Hunan province, which indicated that it hoped that the party and government leading organs at all levels could put the cause of education in an important position and make the popularization of primary education a major issue. In order to deal with the insufficient funds for rural school and the teachers’ pay low, in December 1984, the State Council issued Notice on Raising Funds of Rural School to improve the education fee, education additional expense, social, and personal investment, such as a variety of channels to raise rural school funds, with particular emphasis on the responsibility of the township government in financing compulsory education funds. 2. Universal primary education in rural areas As early as 1977, Deng Xiaoping put forward that, considering the college students come from middle schools and middle school students from primary schools, we must pay attention to primary education. It shows that China has a relatively clear understanding of the importance of basic education. In December 1980, the Central Committee of the CCP and the State Council point out that, the founding of the elementary education in our country has a great development, but due to the errors

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on the work, especially the destruction of the cultural revolution. China’s current five-year primary education has not yet universal to churn out new illiteracy. This situation does not meet the requirements of economic development for talent training, and it does not meet the requirements of building a modern, highly democratic and highly civilized socialist country. In December 1982, the Fifth Session of the Fifth National People’s Congress adopted the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. In May 1983, the Central Committee and the State Council enacted the several problems on strengthening education and reform of the rural school notice, request embarks from the actual local conditions around the development of rural basic education, various forms of running a school. In 1990, the basic realization of the goal of universal primary education focused on the formation of rural education system with Chinese characteristics. In August of the same year, the Ministry of Education issued the Interim Provisions on the Basic Requirements for Universal Primary Education, which for the first time clearly stipulated the basic indicators of universal primary education. In particular, the enrollment rate of school-age children reached over 95%. The annual retention rate of students is over 97%. The graduation rate of graduating students is over 95% in urban areas, about 90% in rural areas with better conditions, and about 80% in other areas. The penetration rate of primary education for children aged 12–15 is over 95%. For the first time, it defined the basic indicators of universal primary education, such as the enrollment rate of school-age children, the retention rate of students in school and the graduation rate of graduating students, which marked the beginning of scientific and regular education in China, and also provided the premise and foundation for the introduction of compulsory education policy (Fan and Wang 2008; Wang 2017; Wu and Chen 2008; Wu 2006; Yang 2011; Zhang 2008; 2012, Zhu and Li 2018). 3. Strengthening the ranks of rural primary and secondary school teachers Teacher education was severely damaged and destroyed in the “cultural revolution”, so the supply of teachers in the national basic education is extremely difficult. In the “cultural revolution”, the unconventional development of rural primary and secondary education is supported by a large number of private teachers, but private teachers are generally not qualified teachers. With the deepening of education cause, teachers gradually concentrate on higher education and “key” primary and secondary schools, and the “inverted triangle” pattern of resource investment is the main factor restricting the recovery and development of rural basic education. In view of the problem of teachers in rural compulsory education, the central government has issued a series of documents and instructions. In January 1978, the State Education Commission issued the Opinions on Strengthening Management of Primary and Secondary School Teachers. The teachers team construction is an important part of China’s national education career. It is directly related to the development of the education of all types and at all levels in China, related to the education quality. It put forward that the teachers of primary and secondary schools are all over the country by the education administrative department at or above the county level. It is responsible for China to begin to pay attention to the primary and secondary school teachers team construction. Accordingly, in 1979, rural teachers entered the

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professional title evaluation process, and a number of excellent rural teachers were transferred from the private sector to the public sector. At this stage, China’s rural compulsory education policy focuses on the restoration of educational order and the initial popularization of compulsory education, which reflects the transformation of educational function from political function to economic function. After entering a new historical period, the economic construction has become the focus of our work. Reform and opening up are essentially based on the market economy. Therefore, the function of universal education has shifted from “serving the class struggle” to “serving the economic construction”, to serving the realization of the “four modernizations” and the construction of a strong socialist country, so as to make universal education gain new vigor and vitality (Fan and Wang 2008; Wang 2017; Wu and Chen 2008; Wu 2006; Yang 2011).

8.1.2 Development and Reform: Urban Priority Orientation (1985–2000) In the early days of reform and opening up, one of the problems we faced was how to turn the heavy population burden into human resources, and the best way to realize this process was education. Rural compulsory education is an important part of rural education in China. How to promote the start and advance of rural compulsory education is an important issue to realize the potential of human resources in China. According to the literature on rural compulsory education policy at this stage, it can be found that it mainly contains two themes: Popularize nine-year compulsory education; Establish an education system with hierarchical management and local responsibility. The latter can be divided into two periods based on the 1994 tax distribution reform. 1. Universal nine-year compulsory education. In 1985, Decision on Reform of the Education System of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly put forward to step by step of nine-year compulsory education in China. It points out that the school-age children and adolescents have to accept the provisions of the law. The state, society and families must guarantee the national education and it is necessary for the development of modern production and modern social life, which is a symbol of modern civilization. In 1986, China’s Compulsory Education Law formally established the implementation of the nine-year compulsory education system in the form of national legislation. In 1993, the Program of China’s Education Reform and Development and the Opinions of the State Council on the Implementation of the Program of China’s Education Reform and Development proposed that “two bases” as the top priority in the development of education in the next period. The goal of classifying and popularizing compulsory education in regions has different levels of economic development. Since then, in order to achieve this goal, the nine-year compulsory education assessment is for

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eliminating illiteracy among young and middle-aged adults’ unit at the county level examination evaluation method (Fan and Wang 2008). 2. Hierarchical management, local responsibility The decade from 1985 to 1994 was a decade of far-reaching significance in the history of the development of rural areas in China. The decentralization of the administrative authority of education to the grass-roots level government was in line with the financial system of having separate responsibilities, and the farmers were also encouraged by the development situation of rural areas at that time and motivated by their good wishes and enthusiasm for reform. 1. Establishment of the system of “running schools at different levels” (1985– 1994). In 1985, the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on the Reform of the Education System first proposed to delegate the responsibility and administrative authority for the development of basic education to local governments. It is to implement a management system of local responsibility and hierarchical management. After clarifying the responsibilities of governments at all levels, China’s basic education has basically formed the pattern of “county run high school, township run junior high school and village run primary school”. In April 1986, the Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China clarified the responsibilities of the central, provincial, prefectural (municipal) and county governments and villages in compulsory education. It concentrates on strengthening the mode of “running schools at different levels” in basic education at the legal level. These two documents aroused the initiative of the grass-roots government in running schools and effectively promoted and guaranteed the development of rural basic education. However, in the late 1980s, the growth of fiscal revenue at the county and township levels slowed down. The state council issued the interim provisions on the collection of additional education fees in 1986, thus expanding the source of funds for local education funds, and then adjusted the additional rate again in 1990 and 1994. As one of the sub-policies of the rural basic education policy system, the education surcharge policy played an important role in broadening the sources of rural education funds and standardizing farmers’ input. 2. School-running system after the reform of “tax sharing system” (1995– 2000). In 1994, the reform of tax distribution system was launched, which led to a decrease in the financial revenue of township governments. At the same time, in March 1995, the Education Law of the People’s Republic of China made clear provisions on the “three increases” of educational expenditure in legal form. The Decision on Deepening Education Reform and Comprehensively Promoting Quality-oriented Education promulgated in June 1999. It emphasized the “three increases” and proposed to gradually increase the proportion of national financial expenditure on education in the gross national product. However, the corresponding financial system and management system construction is not perfect, rural compulsory education is the responsibility of the main body of the final fall to the farmers, education fees and other ways to increase the burden of farmers.

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By the end of the 1990s, the lack of financial input had led to the low quality of education and the heavy burden on farmers’ education. By the end of the twentieth century, from the macro background, China’s rural economic system reform in the depth of development. At the same time, in order to effectively reduce the burden of farmers and protect their interests, the reform of rural taxes and fees was piloted and started to be implemented nationwide in 2000. In practice, there is a stronger demand for further deepening the reform of the management system and input system of rural basic education. From 1980s to 2000, the popularization of compulsory education in rural areas in China experienced the gradual deepening and steady development from “universal compulsory education” to “universal education”. However, in this stage, “the way of basic universal education is mainly ‘the people educate the people to do’, that is, to raise funds from the people to host education, which later leads to the inertial thinking of ‘the township management in junior middle school and the village management in primary school’, which does not conform to the characteristics of education as a public product”. From the perspective of policy effect, the education policy in this stage widened the gap between urban and rural areas. According to the national statistical data, in 1985, China’s urban areas have basically universal secondary and primary education, while the rural children enrollment rate is less than 95%, the primary enrollment rate is only 65%. In essence, China’s education modernization strategy is a kind of gradient development strategy, which implies the development concept of “efficiency first, giving consideration to fairness”, is the inevitable choice of “shortage society”, and negates “poor socialism” with unbalanced development (Fan and Wang 2008; Wang 2017; Wu and Chen 2008; Wu 2006; Yang 2011; Zhang 2008, 2012; Zhu and Li 2018).

8.1.3 Preliminary Equalization: Urban-Rural Equality (2001–2005) In 2003, the scientific concept of development established a new guiding ideology for China’s social development, and the fundamental guideline was to build a well-off society in an all-round way and realize modernization. In 2004, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee put forward the strategic goal of building a socialist harmonious society. In the following October, the Outline of the Eleventh five-year Plan proposed the historical task of building a new socialist countryside. In December of the same year, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued Several Opinions on Promoting the Construction of A New Socialist Countryside. All these clearly reflect the great reform and innovation of China’s macro policy in the new century, and also construct a new policy environment for China’s social development in the new century. 1. Establish the “county-oriented” education management system. For the knockout stages of the rural compulsory education management system defects,

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in May 2001, the State Council on the Decision of the Elementary Education Reform and Development put forward rural compulsory education under the leadership of the State Council. It shall be the responsibility of the local government, classification management, and the management system. It gives priority to with the villages and towns to compulsory education tuition. In April 2002, the Circular of the General Office of the State Council on Improving the Management System of Compulsory Education in Rural Areas was issued, which defined the “county-oriented” management system and emphasized and defined the responsibilities of governments at all levels under the system. In addition, the circular also proposed to strengthen the construction of rural primary and secondary school teachers, to ensure the healthy development of rural compulsory education requirements. In September of the following year, the state council issued the “decision on further strengthening rural education work”, which proposed to adhere to and improve the “county-oriented” management system, and clearly required county-level governments to earnestly assume the main responsibility for the development of local rural compulsory education. In a word, in this stage, the management of rural compulsory education in China realized the transformation from “local responsibility and hierarchical management” in 1985 to “county-oriented” management system, which is the institutional guarantee for the development of rural compulsory education. 2. Establish a mechanism for ensuring funding for rural compulsory education. As early as 2000, the state began to carry out a pilot reform of rural taxes and fees, requiring the phasing out of administrative fees specifically levied on farmers, such as education fund raising. Faced with the serious funding gap in rural primary and secondary schools, the central government increased the investment in rural basic education through wage transfer payments, rural tax and fee reform and transfer payments, as well as a variety of key projects and measures, and financial input gradually became the main channel of rural basic education input. In May 2001, the Decision on the Reform and Development of Basic Education was issued, which put forward the “county-oriented” management system. At the same time, it divided the responsibility of the financial system of rural compulsory education, and defined the responsibility of the central, provincial, prefecture-level, county-level and rural governments in the input of rural compulsory education. In December 2005, the State Council issued the Notification on Deepening the Reform of Rural Compulsory Education Funds Safeguard Mechanism, which put forward to fully improve the public finance rural compulsory education. It aims to establish the central and local projects, pro rata shares of the mechanism for ensuring adequate funding for rural compulsory education. The funds management mainly concentrates on the rural compulsory education stage student tuition and fees. This is to carry on the adjustment to the county gives priority to compulsory education finance system. The rural compulsory education funds are based on the national finance comprehensively. During this period, the rural compulsory education policy began to pay attention to the balance of the development of urban and rural education. The “countyoriented” management mode of rural compulsory education clarifies the rights

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and responsibilities of governments at all levels, enhances the importance of rural compulsory education by party and government leaders and improves the efficiency of running schools. Through the reform of the financial system, China’s input in rural compulsory education has increased substantially. From 2000 to 2005, the national investment in fiscal education in rural junior high schools increased from 23.67 billion yuan to 57.49 billion yuan, and the national investment in fiscal education in rural primary schools increased from 49.67 billion yuan to 107.94 billion yuan. However, under the condition of relatively sufficient funds for running schools, the problem of educational differentiation has not been fundamentally solved. The county-dominated model “widens the education gap between regions and between urban and rural areas and may also lead to educational corruption and lack of management” (Fan and Wang 2008; Wang 2017; Wu and Chen 2008; Wu 2006; Yang 2011; Zhang 2008, 2012; Zhu and Li 2018).

8.1.4 In-Depth Equalization: Giving Priority to Rural Areas (Since 2006) In order to ensure the stable and orderly development of society, in this stage, the policy of compulsory education began to consciously incline to backward areas, weak schools and vulnerable groups, and balanced development became the main theme of the policy of compulsory education. The development of compulsory education in rural areas becomes the top priority, and the policy is inclined to the development of rural compulsory education. In May 2005, the opinions of the ministry of education on further promoting the balanced development of compulsory education clearly stated that the balanced development of compulsory education should be placed in an important position in the development of compulsory education, the tasks of governments at all levels were clarified, and the funds for rural compulsory education should be given priority. In 2006, the General Office of the Ministry of Education issued the Notice on Solving the Problem of Primary and Secondary School Students’ Distance from School in Rural Remote Mountainous Areas with Inconvenient Transportation, which focused on the specific aspects of rural compulsory education. After this, in accordance with the “people-oriented” requirements, the Ministry of Education on Doing a Good Job of Rural Primary and Secondary School Layout Adjustment Notice proposed to adhere to the principle of “seeking truth from facts, steady progress, convenient to study” implementation of rural primary and secondary school layout adjustment. In September 2006, Article 6 of the Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China stipulates that the State Council and the local people’s governments at or above the county level shall rationally allocate educational resources, promote the balanced development of compulsory education, improve the conditions of running schools in poor areas, and stipulate that tuition and miscellaneous fees shall not be charged for the implementation of compulsory education. In May 2007, the Outline of the Eleventh Five-year Plan for the Development of National Education put forward the main goal of coordinating education

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between urban and rural areas and regions and making compulsory education more balanced. In July 2010, the Outline of the National Program for Medium and Longterm Education Reform and Development (2010–2020) made an overall plan for China’s education in the next decade, again emphasizing the balanced development of compulsory education. In 2012, the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Regulating the Layout Adjustment of Rural Compulsory Education schools, which proposed to strengthen the construction and management of rural boarding schools, make good use of necessary village primary schools and teaching sites, and regulate the layout adjustment. Released in December 2013, Opinions on Improving Basic Conditions for Offering Education of Compulsory Education in Poverty-stricken Areas Weak School put forward the governments at all levels must fully recognize improve the weakness of poor region compulsory education schools. The importance of basic educational condition, and demand from the safeguard the basic teaching condition is to improve the school facilities, organize the necessary to teach, promote the rural school education informatization, and improve the condition of poor region compulsory education school. In 2014, the General Office of the Ministry of Education required local governments to formulate an implementation plan of “comprehensive reform” of compulsory education in poor areas, and to explain the standards of basic school conditions. In June 2015, the State Council issued the Support Plan for Rural Teachers (2015–2020) to develop rural education, pointing out that teachers are the key and the construction of rural teachers. It must be given priority in the strategic position of development. The plan points out that by 2020, efforts should be made to create a well-qualified, dedicated and rooted team of teachers in rural areas, so as to provide a strong guarantee for the basic realization of education modernization (Fan and Wang 2008; Wang 2017; Wu and Chen 2008; Wu 2006; Yang 2011). In November 2015, the State Council on Further Perfecting the Urban and Rural Compulsory Education Funds Safeguard Mechanism was issued according to clear responsibility at all levels. It aims to increase financial investment, improve the level of security, step-by-step implementation of the basic principles for perfecting the integration mechanism. The proportional share the guarantee mechanism of urban and rural compulsory education emphasized on the implementation of compulsory education two without a filling, student public funds guarantee mechanism, building security, teachers’ salaries. In 2016, the State Council issued the Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the Integrated Reform and Development of Compulsory Education in Urban and Rural Areas at the County Level, which pointed out that compulsory education is a public welfare undertaking. It is guaranteed by the state, a basic public utility that must be developed on a priority basis, and a basic undertaking for poverty alleviation. The National 13th Five-year Plan for the Development of Education in 2017 calls for promoting the integrated reform and development of compulsory education in both urban and rural areas at the county level and promoting the balanced and high-quality development of compulsory education. In April 2018, issued by the General Office of the State Council, Opinions on strengthening Rural Small Schools and the Construction of Rural Boarding School Guidance were issued to further the revitalization of rural education. In February 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of

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China and the State Council issued China’s Education Modernization 2035, stating that equal access to basic public education services should be achieved. We aim to raise the level of equal access to compulsory education, establish a long-term mechanism for school standardization, and promote balanced development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas.

8.2 The Current Policy Rationality Analysis Since the reform and opening up, the rural compulsory education policy has experienced a unique development stage. The policy of compulsory education in rural areas has been developed so far, and its changing process has profound objective logic. The rationality of the current policy of compulsory education in rural areas is analyzed from the perspective of politics, economy, culture and society.

8.2.1 Political Perspective The political factor is the important influence of the reform of the education policy. In the development and reform of the rural compulsory education policy, the way of the government’s decision-making, the relationship of power and responsibility between the central government and the local government and the national strategic planning all have important influences on it. The policy and system design of rural compulsory education is the allocation of limited resources, and the discussion of this issue from the political perspective is to pay attention to how different political subjects are reflected in the policy design and reform. 1. Scientific and democratic government decision-making. Since the reform and opening up, the great progress has been made in the reform of the political decision-making system and operating mechanism in China, which indirectly promotes the change and reform of the rural compulsory education policy. On the whole, the government’s decision-making mechanism reform is gradually democratized and scientific. “a good political environment provides the basic direction for the policy making and decision-making mechanism reform of rural basic education in China and makes it possible for the equal dialogue between political logic and educational logic”. “Several provisions on the implementation of education administrative licensing” shows that the systems of hearing, information disclosure and decision-making accountability are also embodied in the process of rural basic education policy making, so as to maximize the scientific and democracy of decision-making. 2. Adjusting the relationship of power and responsibility between the central and local governments. Since the reform and opening up, the management system of compulsory education has a distinct local character, which is related

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to the relationship between the central and local powers and responsibilities in compulsory education. On the whole, the subject of rights and responsibilities in rural basic education has experienced a process of migration from low to high, and the responsibility of the grass-roots government has gradually moved up to the high-level government. This is a timely adjustment made in accordance with the development of The Times, especially the rural economic and social development. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the compulsory education management system had redefined the educational rights and responsibilities of governments at all levels, and by increasing the proportion of the powers and responsibilities of central and provincial governments in the management of rural basic education, it had overcome the problem that the education system simply imitated the devolution of powers in the reform of the economic system and ignored the publicity of education.

8.2.2 Economic Perspective The formation of the current rural compulsory education policy is closely related to the economy. Firstly, economic factors are the material basis for the design and implementation of educational policies. In view of the particularity of educational undertakings, the development of rural compulsory education depends largely on financial input. Therefore, the structure and mode of financial input have important influence on the formation of rural compulsory education. Secondly, from the perspective of the logic behind the economy, the market logic after the reform and opening up gradually permeates into the policy design of rural compulsory education. 1. Fiscal input focuses on balanced development. Financial policy is an important part of education policy, and financial input is an important material basis for the development of education. Education service is an important part of the public service provided by the government, and equal education service is the basic function of public finance, an important manifestation of the “publicity” of public finance, and one of the basic goals of the reform and development of public finance. The rural population is still an important part of China’s population structure, so the equalization of compulsory education in rural areas is of self-evident importance to China, where the urban-rural dual structure is obvious. From 1998 to 2000, the average budgetary educational expenditure for rural primary school students increased from 310.58 yuan to 417.44 yuan, and the average budgetary educational expenditure for junior middle school students increased from 485.82 yuan to 539.87 yuan. In the new century, under the background of the “county-oriented” education management system and the new fund guarantee mechanism, the average budgetary education funds for rural primary schools and middle school students in 2005 were 1204.88 yuan and 1,717.22 yuan, respectively. Compulsory education is the largest public service in rural areas. Only by ensuring the equal supply of educational public products can we ensure the fairness and justice of the survival and development of farmers.

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2. Market logic and talent cultivation. Since the reform and opening up, the economic construction has become the center of the socialist cause, and the educational cause reform is also closely related to this. With the establishment of the market economy system, the market logic also affects the reform and development of the rural compulsory education system. With the continuous development of China’s national economy, the problem of financial shortage has been solved, and the country has a certain material basis to reform the investment system of compulsory education and support the disadvantaged groups. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the state has implemented the policies of “industry supports agriculture”, “cities support rural areas” and “compensation for the disadvantaged” and changed the investment and management system of compulsory education from “running schools at different levels” to “countyoriented”.

8.2.3 Social Perspective The social perspective mentioned in this chapter is not a broad social concept, but mainly refers to the concept of social groups and social institutions in sociology. When we talk about social groups and social systems, we also talk about social governance. The relationship among the three is that the system is the basis for governing social groups, while the masses are the object of social system governance. Therefore, the reform and construction of rural compulsory education policy are closely related to the above two concepts and one link. 1. Governance under the guidance of social groups and equilibrium. In the design of rural compulsory education policy, it is necessary to consider the game between rural students and parents, teachers and different social groups. From the perspective of urban and rural areas, urban students, parents and teachers are in a better position than rural students, parents and teachers, which leads to the gradual evolution of different education investment systems in urban and rural areas. However, over time, this game will lead to the serious imbalance of compulsory education between regions, between urban and rural areas and between schools, resulting in the low quality and efficiency of education, which deviates from the original intention of the compulsory education system. Therefore, the gap in economic development and distribution among regions, urban and rural areas and social groups restricts the rapid growth and structural optimization of China’s national economy, which forces the central government to make adjustments to the compulsory education policy. 2. Construction of strategy and social system. In the new century, the socialist new rural construction as one of the strategic measures to be put forward. Since the 18th national congress of the communist party of China, the construction of beautiful countryside has been deepened. Education is an important part of rural development. In line with the principle of “production development, comfortable life, rural civilization, clean and tidy village, democratic management”, in

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accordance with the requirements of the new era, the rural economic, political, cultural and social construction. The new strategy and system construction are aimed at reducing the burden of farmers’ education, balancing the gap between urban and rural education, improving the situation of rural education, improving the quality of rural education, promoting rural education to serve agricultural development, and ensuring the healthy development of rural basic education.

8.2.4 Cultural Perspective The development of education and education policy needs the support and guidance of culture, which can be divided into cultural concept, cultural value and cultural system. In the change of rural compulsory education policy, efficiency and justice are two important cultural values. Education development, including rural education development, has a development goal or orientation, and the leading role of education policy is that it is a kind of guidance of the goal and direction. Since the beginning of the new century, with the development of The Times, the current rural compulsory education policy has returned to the orientation of fairness, which reflects the distinct concept of fairness value. In the new century, the central government began to try to reform the system of education process and resource allocation, trying to seek the balanced development of national education. In order to change the long-term serious differentiation of education, the government began to design a variety of policies, trying to establish a relatively equal and fair balanced education between urban and rural areas. In this context, policies to promote social equity have been introduced. As the foundation and an important part of social equity, educational equity has attracted attention. From the perspective of cultural value, both fairness and efficiency belong to the goal guidance of the policy, and under the current concept of fairness, the policy in the future focuses on the grasp of “equal emphasis on fairness and efficiency” and “fairness with priority”. The realization of fairness and justice in education is not only a matter of education itself, but also a reflection of the degree of social fairness and justice in the field of education. As long as the gap between the rich and the poor, ethnic differences and cultural differences still exist in a country, educational equity will always be an important goal of the country’s education.

8.3 Questions and Suggestions 8.3.1 Existing Problems The Report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that China’s socialism has entered a new era, and the principal contradiction in society has turned into the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate

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development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life. In the new era, there are still some problems in rural compulsory education. 1. There is still a gap in the allocation of educational resources between urban and rural areas. There is still a gap in the allocation of educational resources between urban and rural areas, and the basic balance of compulsory education in county areas has not been fully realized. From the urban and rural per capita compulsory education funding situation, the gap between the two is large. Compared with the national average, the per capita budgetary expenditure for education in rural primary and secondary schools is lower than the national average. In 2018, the per capita expenditure for primary school students nationwide is 11,328.05 yuan, and the per capita expenditure for rural primary school students is 10,548.62 yuan. The average cost of junior middle school students nationwide is 16,494.37 yuan, and the average cost of junior middle school students in rural areas is 14,634.76 yuan. Visible, compulsory education stage urban and rural per capita education expenditure still has gap. Although since the new century, the state has issued a series of guarantee policies for rural basic education in an effort to guide and promote the development of rural education with fair value. However, the problems caused by the unbalanced development of economy, politics and culture in urban and rural areas have accumulated too deeply for a long time. Meanwhile, education itself is a long-term activity, so the positive effects of relevant education policies cannot be realized quickly. In addition, in the actual implementation, the implementation capacity of local governments and educational administrative departments also has an impact on the policy effect. Therefore, on the whole, the imbalance between urban and rural basic education in China still exists, and the lack of investment in rural basic education is still serious. 2. The quality of rural education needs to be improved. Specifically, there are many factors restricting the improvement of rural education quality, such as teachers’ ability, educational concept, and the quality of students. It can be said that the constraints of improving the quality of rural education are difficult to eliminate completely in a short term. In terms of teachers, the gap between urban and rural compulsory education schoolteachers is large. In 2017, the proportion of teachers with a college degree or above in primary schools nationwide was 95.26%, including 93.8% in rural areas, and the urban-rural gap was 4.6 percentage points. The proportion of teachers with a bachelor’s degree or above in junior high schools was 84.63%, 81.1% in rural areas, and the urban-rural gap was 10.3 percentage points. The rural teachers are unstable, the aging of age and knowledge is common, and the ability and enthusiasm of rural teachers to teach and educate people is out of the question. Secondly, the concept of rural education needs to be changed. Some rural areas do not pay enough attention to the growth of children, and parents’ educational ideas affect the growth of children. Some teachers have backward ideas and teach children to be the students who do not like to learn before they are old.

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3. The democratization of rural compulsory education policy still needs to be strengthened. At present, the main body of the policy making of compulsory education in China is still the government organization, and the supervision mechanism also depends on the functional departments of the government. In the process of policy making, administrative departments carry out rural compulsory education policy from the top down rather than form a political environment in which farmers can participate, which brings a hidden danger to the policy implementation. In addition, the overall cultural quality of Chinese farmers is relatively low, objectively speaking, the ability to participate in policy making is insufficient. From the perspective of the formulation, implementation and effect of compulsory education policies in rural areas of China, there are many deficiencies such as inadequate prediction, improper implementation, weak supervision and unclear relief. From the perspective of policy implementation and evaluation, supervision, to a large extent, is the supervision of policy implementation and results. Effective supervision can timely find the incompleteness of policy formulation and implementation, and good supervision plays an important role in the conformity of policy results with policy objectives. Therefore, the level of farmers’ participation in the operation of rural compulsory education policy needs to be improved.

8.3.2 Suggestions In the Report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Xi Jinping made it clear that education must be given top priority to promote the integrated development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas, attach great importance to compulsory education in rural areas, strive to ensure that every child can enjoy fair and quality education, and ensure that the people are satisfied with education. In view of the above-mentioned problems, in order to promote the development of rural compulsory education, we should pay attention to the following points in policy. 1. Maintain equity in education and give priority to rural areas. Educational equity is the starting point of social equity, an important part and embodiment of social equity, and also a regulating link of social equity. The Report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China reiterated efforts to promote equality in education and stressed the need to attach great importance to rural compulsory education. Therefore, in the efforts to narrow the gap between urban and rural basic education, we should not only increase the absolute investment in rural basic education, but also focus on adjusting the thinking of the past unbalanced development between urban and rural areas, and pay attention to the priority of rural areas in the allocation of educational resources. Rural basic education is an important part of the whole national education system. The quality of rural basic education is related to the cultivation of talents at all levels and the improvement of the quality of the whole nation. Therefore, we should give

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priority to rural areas in the policy level and highlight the priority of rural areas in the allocation of resources. We will strengthen the construction of school infrastructure in rural areas at the stage of basic education and ensure hardware facilities for rural compulsory education. Among them, we should vigorously promote the reconstruction of weak schools, improve school conditions, and promote the standardization of primary and secondary schools. Efforts should also be made to reduce the economic burden of rural students attending school; We can also develop rural distance education, establish a nationwide network of education information covering rural areas, and promote the renewal of rural education resources. 2. Improve the quality of rural education, focusing on the construction of teachers. We should give priority to the construction of teachers in rural compulsory education. First of all, we should improve the treatment of rural primary and secondary school teachers, formulate and implement preferential policies to rural teachers, in order to improve the treatment of rural teachers as the core, according to the principle of “the more grassroots, the more difficult, the more remote, the higher the pay”, and effectively improve the salary of rural teachers in remote and remote areas. Secondly, we should strengthen the construction of the rural teacher training system and build a support system for the professional development of rural teachers. Include teacher training into the scope of education supervision and inspection and strengthen the supervision and management of local rural teacher training; We should organize and carry out various forms of training for rural teachers. In addition to effectively promoting the system of rural teachers’ study and study in urban schools, we should establish and improve the school-based training system of local schools and encourage and support local colleges and universities and teachers. In addition, to broaden the quality of teachers’ supplementary channels policy. We will improve the teacher management system and related policies and balance the relationship between “quantity + structure + quality” in the construction of urban and rural teachers. On the one hand, to achieve the precise allocation of rural teachers, on the other hand, to promote the “county management and employment” management reform, mining the resources of urban and rural teachers in the region (Wu 2006; Yang 2011; Zhang 2008; Zhang 2012; Zhu and Li 2018). 3. Strengthen the implementation effect, strengthen the supervision and guide the participation of farmers. Local governments at all levels and relevant departments should earnestly implement and implement various policies to improve the mechanism for guaranteeing funds for compulsory education, and carry out to the letter the standards, quotas, procedures and deadlines stipulated by the state. Education and other relevant departments should coordinate with the government to promote the implementation of policies and legal principles. The implementation and implementation of rural basic education policies should be linked to the government performance, and some punishments should be given for the weak implementation and lax implementation. At the same time, the implementation of the government to impose effective supervision. The first is to carry out supervision through people’s congresses at all levels, but also to carry out

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social supervision outside the system. In addition, increase the participation of farmers themselves. Rural basic education is to serve farmers, to increase the degree of participation of farmers in decision-making, to increase the opportunity for farmers to express their interests and aspirations. It is necessary to establish a policy information disclosure system, which is the basis for farmers to obtain policy information and the condition for farmers to participate in the supervision. It is necessary to enhance the active awareness of farmers’ participation in the process of basic education policy operation and establish a system to guarantee farmers’ participation, so as to enable farmers to express their vital interests in basic education. The development of rural compulsory education is an important prerequisite for rural revitalization. To revitalize rural education, we must make overall planning, implement the strategy of integrating urban and rural education, give priority to the development of compulsory education in rural areas, and make public education resources more favorable to rural areas. Adhering to the policy concept of fairness and highlighting the priority policy orientation of rural areas, it can provide rural education with modern educational resources, excellent teachers and advanced educational concepts, so as to achieve the integration and balanced development of urban and rural education (Fan and Wang 2008; Wang 2017; Wu and Chen 2008; Wu 2006; Yang 2011; Zhang 2008; Zhang 2012; Zhu and Li 2018).

References Fan, W. Y., & Wang, J. (2008). Laying the foundation for the future with priority development. Education Research, 18(8), 23–28. Wang, X. (2017). Policy changes in the development of compulsory education. System analysis and policy innovation. Journal of Henan University (social science edition), 57(2), 29–31. Wu, Z. M. (Ed.). (2006). Basic education decision theory. Shanghai: East China Normal University Press. Wu, J. Q., & Chen, J. H. (2008). Characteristics of policy innovation and development of rural basic education in China since the reform and opening up. Journal of Social Science of Hunan Normal University, 8(4), 112–118. Yang, R. Y. (2011). Research on policy adjustment of China’s education management system under the new background. Education Research, 11(3), 28–36. Zhang, L. T. (2008). Evolution and changes of rural education policy in China in the past 30 years. Journal of Nanjing Normal University (social science edition), 8 (6), 39–45. Zhang, L. T. (2012). Policy experience and policy issues of rural education development in new China. Education Policy Observation, 12 (10), 22–29. Zhu, X., & Li, J. (2018). Conceptualizing the ontology of higher education with Chinese characteristics. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 50(12), 1144–1156.

Chapter 9

Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of the Supervision Policy

This chapter involves analyzing the supervision policy of the compulsory education development in China. The changes of the supervision policy of compulsory education in China have been divided into three stages: The first stage (1980–2001): The supervision policy for the popularization of nine-year compulsory education; The second stage (2002–2011): the policy of supervision of compulsory education that changes from popularization to equilibrium; The stage 3 (2012–2019): establishing evaluation criteria to promote the supervision policy of compulsory education for balanced and high-quality development. In addition, the multidisciplinary basis of the policy of compulsory education supervision includes political foundation, economic basis, Cultural foundation, and social foundation. Problems and suggestions on the supervision of compulsory education have been offered.

9.1 Changes of the Supervision Policy of Compulsory Education in China The regulations on supervision of education in 2012 stipulates that supervision of education shall include the following contents: supervision by people’s governments at or above the county level over the implementation of educational laws, regulations, rules and state educational guidelines and policies by people’s governments at lower levels; The local people’s governments at or above the county level shall exercise supervision over the educational and teaching work of schools and other institutions of education (hereinafter referred to as schools) within their respective administrative areas. On this basis, the supervision policy of compulsory education stipulates the supervision content of the government’s responsibility and the school’s teaching

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li and E. Xue, Compulsory Education Policy in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6358-8_9

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quality in the stage of compulsory education. With the change of the phased development goal of compulsory education, the policy change of compulsory education supervision can be divided into the following three stages.

9.1.1 The First Stage (1980–2001): The Supervision Policy for the Popularization of Nine-Year Compulsory Education From 1980 to 2001, China issued nine policy documents concerning the popularization of nine-year compulsory education supervision, including one legal document, the law of the People’s Republic of China on compulsory education (1986). 4 of the central committee of the communist party of China or the State Council documents, namely, the central committee of the CCP, the State Council on some issues of universal primary education decision. For example, in 1980, the CPC Central Committee Decision on Reform of the Education System was issued; In 1985, the National Education Committee, the State Planning Commission, Ministry of Finance, Labor Personnel about the Implementation Opinions on Some Issues of Compulsory Education Law have been issued; In 1986, the State Council on the Decision of the Elementary Education Reform and Development also have been issued. All those documents are represented by the implementation rules of the compulsory education law of the People’s Republic of China and the guidelines for the supervision and evaluation of ordinary primary and secondary schools. On the basis of supervising the performance of educational responsibilities by the government, nine-year compulsory education shall be popularized, and quality-oriented education shall be promoted in primary and secondary schools (Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012; Zhang 2008; Zhu and Li 2018). In the stage of universal compulsory education, the relevant policy text sets out the responsibilities of the government from the aspects of system, institution and work content. First, stipulate compulsory education is the state council leadership, the people’s government of province, autonomous region, municipality directly under the central government plans to implement, the people’s government at the county level gives priority to the management of the system, the establishment of the implementation of the work of compulsory education supervision, guidance, inspection system to determine the responsibility of the people’s government at the county level. Secondly, the people’s government education supervision institutions shall supervise the implementation of laws and regulations, the quality of education and teaching, and the balanced development of compulsory education, and publish the supervision report to the public. Thirdly, the financing of compulsory education and the setting up of compulsory education schools are the main educational work of the government. The central and local people’s governments are responsible for raising funds for compulsory education. In order to rapidly popularize compulsory education, the financial allocation for compulsory education shall be higher than the

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growth of regular revenue, and the average cost of education shall gradually increase according to the number of students in school. In order to ease the economic pressure on students to go to school, the people’s government raises funds for education according to the scale of students in the compulsory education stage and by referring to the standards of expenditure and other special expenditure provisions. The establishment of primary schools shall be conducive to the nearby enrollment of school-age children and adolescents. The establishment of ordinary junior middle schools and junior secondary vocational and technical schools shall be relatively concentrated according to the population distribution and geographical conditions. The relevant policy text also requires primary and secondary schools to carry out quality-oriented education while consolidating and popularizing the achievement of nine-year compulsory education, and makes requirements from the aspects of student level, education quality and teacher team. First of all, we should raise the enrollment rate and graduation rate of school-age children and adolescents, reduce the dropout rate of students, especially junior high school students, and eliminate children under the age of 7. Secondly, the quality of school education is stipulated to include moral education, intellectual education, physical education and health, aesthetic education, labor education and labor technology education, students’ interests and specialties, society, employers and higher schools’ evaluation of graduates. It is not only based on the graduation rate or the score. Thirdly, the effective mechanism of optimizing the teaching team should be established to improve the overall quality of the teaching team. The comprehensive implementation of the teacher qualification system and the recognition of teachers’ qualifications to the society not only standardize the requirements of teachers’ profession, but also broaden the source channels of teachers, and promote teachers to improve their quality through the competition mechanism (Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012; Zhang 2008; Zhu and Li 2018).

9.1.2 The Second Stage (2002–2011): The Policy of Supervision of Compulsory Education that Changes from Popularization to Equilibrium By the end of last century, China had achieved the ambitious goal of basically popularizing nine-year compulsory education, which fundamentally guaranteed the rights and interests of children and adolescents to receive compulsory education. In 2002, the Ministry of Education issued a Notice on Several Issues Concerning Strengthening the Management of Running Schools in Basic Education. Since then, China’s compulsory education is from the period of popularization to the period of balanced development. In 2002 and 2012, China promulgated the six pieces of policy documents related to the compulsory education stage supervision content, including 2 of the central committee of the communist party of China or the documents of the State Council, The General Office of the State Council notice about perfecting rural compulsory education administration system (2002), the national medium and

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long-term education reform and development plan outline (2010–2020); 4 ministries documents, namely, the Ministry of Education on strengthening basic education school notice some problems on the management of (2002). All these documents are represented by several opinions on further promoting the balanced development of compulsory education and opinions on further promoting the balanced development of compulsory education. It supervises the government to take active measures to narrow the gap in school conditions and establish an effective mechanism to promote the balanced development of compulsory education. In the stage of balanced development of compulsory education, while promoting the overall development of compulsory education, it is more important to improve the quality of rural school education and reform the weak schools in cities and towns. Relevant policy documents outline measures are to improve the quality of education in rural schools and weak schools in cities and towns are from the aspects of school reform, education funding and teacher resources. First of all, we should give full play to the radiating and driving role of public schools with high-quality educational resources and adjust and cancel a number of weak schools with insufficient students, poor educational conditions and low educational quality through integration, restructuring and sharing. Second, we effectively implement the requirements of “three increases” in education funding and the increase in education funding mainly for rural areas. We adopt a preferential policy for the renovation of weak schools in terms of funding input and give priority to the renovation of weak schools in urban areas. We increase special transfer payments for education to economically disadvantaged areas. Third, the county-level education administrative departments should perform the management functions of qualification recognition, recruitment and employment, job evaluation and employment, training and training, deployment and exchange, and assessment of rural primary and secondary school teachers in accordance with the law. When determining the staffing of teachers, they should give priority to rural schools, and the new teachers should give priority to meet the needs of rural schools and weak schools in cities and towns. We establish a system of itinerant teaching by key teachers in the region, mobile teaching by teachers in short supply, and service periods for urban teachers to teach in rural schools, and actively guide surplus teachers from overstaffed schools to move to schools in short supply. Efforts be made to improve the treatment of teachers working in rural areas, and to increase the proportion of rural primary and secondary school teachers in senior professional posts and awards. Relevant policy documents also call for the establishment of effective mechanisms to ensure the quality of education and teaching for the balanced development of compulsory education, including supervision and evaluation system, commendation and reward mechanism and teaching quality monitoring and evaluation system. First, establishing a supervision and evaluation system for the balanced development of compulsory education is to evaluate the balanced development of compulsory education in various regions. It aims to supervise and inspect the work of local people’s governments at various levels to promote the balanced development of compulsory education. It takes the evaluation and inspection results as an important indicator for evaluating the work of local education. Secondly, establishing and

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improving the supervision, evaluation, commendation and reward mechanism is for the balanced development of compulsory education in county-level administrative areas. The education administrative departments at various levels shall gradually establish a standardized, scientific, institutionalized compulsory education teaching quality monitoring and evaluation system and teaching system, and organize the superintendent and the concerned expert supervision over the quality of school education teaching on a regular basis to check and organize teaching and research personnel and excellent teachers to some of the education teaching quality lower school business guidance (Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012; Zhang 2008; Zhu and Li 2018).

9.1.3 Stage 3 (2012–2019): Establish Evaluation Criteria to Promote the Supervision Policy of Compulsory Education for Balanced and High-Quality Development In 2011, all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) passed the national “universal education” inspection, and free compulsory education in urban and rural areas has been comprehensively popularized in China. In 2012, the Opinions on Further Promoting the Balanced Development of Compulsory Education is proposed to comprehensively improve the quality of compulsory education. During 2012–2019, the State Council has issued a total 9 compulsory education supervising content related policy documents, including 4 of the central committee of the communist party of China or the state council documents. For example, in 2012, Opinion on Deepening the Views of Balanced Development of Compulsory Education was issued; In 2014, Opinion on Deepening the Reform of Education Supervision Transformation of the Mode of Education Management Advice was issued. The interim measures for supervision and evaluation of balanced development of compulsory education, the national monitoring program for the quality of compulsory education and the management standards for schools of compulsory education are adopted to establish standards for supervision and evaluation of education and promote the development of balanced and high-quality compulsory education. We further promote the balanced development of compulsory education. Relevant policy documents establish an evaluation system for the government, schools, teachers and students, and supervise the balance and quality of compulsory education through a standardized evaluation system. Firstly, the comprehensive evaluation system of primary and secondary school education quality should be established and improved, and students’ moral development level, academic development level, physical and mental development level, cultivation of interests and specialties, and academic burden status should be regarded as the main contents of the evaluation of school education quality. Second, the establishment of national compulsory education quality monitoring scheme, monitoring of the compulsory education stage in fourth and eighth grade students in Chinese, Math,

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science, sports, art, moral education subject areas such as performance at the same time, the level of investigation and the related factors influencing the academic level, for the transformation of the mode of education management and provide reference to improve the school education teaching, promote the quality of compulsory education and improve the health level of students. Third, the establishment of compulsory education school management standards, including the protection of the equal rights and interests of students, is to promote the overall development of students. It also aims to guide the professional progress of teachers to improve the level of education and teaching for creating a harmonious and beautiful environment and the construction of modern school system and other six major management responsibilities. Then, the supervision and evaluation system for the balanced development of compulsory education in county areas was established, and the supervision, inspection, evaluation and identification of the balanced development of compulsory education in county areas were carried out. The evaluation includes the interschool equilibrium of compulsory education in the county and the indicators of promoting the balanced development of compulsory education by the people’s government at the county level (enrollment opportunity, guarantee mechanism, teachers, quality and management) (Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012; Zhang 2008; Zhu and Li 2018).

9.2 The Multidisciplinary Basis of the Policy of Compulsory Education Supervision 9.2.1 Political Foundation 1. Educational policy of the party and the state. One of the party’s educational policies is to train builders and successors of socialism who are well developed morally, intellectually, physically and aesthetically. In addition, students are also required to improve their learning ability, maintain physical and mental health, improve their aesthetic quality and have the ability to live, and become talents conducive to the overall development of the socialist cause. The educational policy of the state is the general guideline for the educational work put forward by the state in a certain historical period in order to realize the basic line and basic tasks of the period. In the compulsory education law of the People’s Republic of China, it is clearly stipulated that compulsory education shall be under the leadership of the state council, under the overall planning of the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, and under the management of the people’s governments at the county level. Therefore, the education supervision department of the people’s government last time should supervise the education and teaching situation of the people’s government at a lower level and the schools under its jurisdiction, so as to promote the balanced development of compulsory education by pooling resources.

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2. The goal of building a modern national system. China will basically realize the socialist modernization drive by 2035, and the rule of law is one of the characteristics of a modern country. A country under the rule of law is to achieve law-based governance in all areas of national construction. Therefore, law-based governance of education is an important requirement of educational modernization. The premise of governing according to law is the perfection of the legal system, including the corresponding policy supplement. With the increasingly high requirements of administering education according to law, the number of compulsory education supervision policies is constantly increasing, the content is constantly expanding and the requirements are constantly refined, which provides more and more clear basis for the supervision of compulsory education and plays an increasingly effective role in promoting the balanced development of compulsory education. Modernization is also reflected in the protection of social equity and basic rights and interests of individuals. The right to education is a basic right of individuals and ensuring that everyone can enjoy fair and quality education is one of the standards of social equity. Therefore, the supervision policy of compulsory education includes urging the government to popularize compulsory education and coordinating education resources in urban and rural areas and at the school level. Currently, the work of universal popularization of compulsory education has been realized. How to realize balanced and high-quality compulsory education is related to everyone’s basic right to development, so it is the key content of the supervision policy of compulsory education in the future.

9.2.2 Economic Basis 1. An increasing level of economic development. Forty years of reform and opening up, China’s economic construction has made great achievements, and all walks of life have achieved considerable development, so that the government has sufficient fiscal revenue to support the construction of the national cause, including providing various resources for the development of education. Compulsory education geared to the needs of the most educated, the compulsory education is asking the country to various areas all school-age children receive nine years from junior high school education, a higher level of economic development makes the country can exempt from tuition and fees ways quickly implement compulsory education universal, following the requirements of the compulsory education in the steady high quality good economic situation can also be implemented steadily. 2. Ensuring financial support for priority development of education. The strategy of strengthening the country with talents clearly defines the priority position of education development, and at the same time, financial policies are also implemented. General Office of the State Council issued the Further Adjusting and Optimizing the Opinions of the Structure to Improve the Efficient Use of Education Funds. It pointed out that China establish overall funding system to guarantee the state financial education spending generally not less than 4% of gross domestic product. It aims to ensure that the general public education expenditure budget only

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increased year by year for making sure that under the general public of the average number of students in school education budget spending only increased year by year. The education financial appropriation also carries on the targeted inclination, solves the education funds to put into use the structural contradiction in the management. Education funds are skewed towards rural areas, remote towns and townships, and towards weak schools, so that the quality of compulsory education can be improved in weak schools in weak areas, and education resources between urban and rural areas and schools can be reduced to achieve balanced and universal compulsory education. At the same time, education investment is also skewed to teachers, and the proportion of teachers’ salary and welfare expenditure in the financial education funds has exceeded 50% for many years.

9.2.3 Cultural Foundation 1. Advanced socialist culture. Advanced socialist culture is guided by MarxismLeninism, Mao Zedong thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of three represents and guided by the scientific outlook on development. It has the scientific guiding ideology, the advanced nature of practice origin, the inherent nature of originality, the leading of its own function, in all aspects of social construction to play a spiritual power to support the role. Education is the future of the society. Advanced socialist culture requires everyone to receive high-quality education, and then to build a better society through talent training. In the current situation of universal compulsory education, it is necessary to balance educational resources and improve the quality of education. 2. Core socialist values. Socialist core values in the national level of prosperity and social level of equality require compulsory education to achieve a balanced and quality education. To be rich and powerful means that the country is rich, and the people are strong. To be rich and the people are strong, it is necessary to develop educational undertakings to improve the quality of labor force. Equality refers to the equality of status in all fields of social life and is the natural state of socialist society. It is the requirement of social equality that school-age children receive balanced and high-quality compulsory education. 3. Chinese cultural traditions. Cultural tradition is the foundation of a nation, which not only influences the value choice of the whole nation in the social reform, but also infiltrates the behavior pattern of every citizen’s daily life. In the long history of development, the Chinese nation has developed a cultural tradition characterized by openness and inclusiveness and indoctrination. Among them, the dominant Confucian culture advocated the worship of culture and courtesy, and the way of ancient Chinese literati to cultivate one’s morality and study was to “cultivate one’s morality, cultivate one’s mind, cultivate one’s morality, cultivate one’s family, govern the country and make the world peaceful”. “Learning to be an excellent official” is the social consensus from the civil society to the official, and the selection system of officials in the “imperial examination to be an official” encouraged the social

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ethos of good reading. Attaching importance to education is one of the characteristics of Chinese cultural tradition. Contemporary people still believe in the power of education and the country still attaches importance to the role of education in national construction. Therefore, balanced and quality compulsory education should be developed.

9.2.4 Social Foundation 1. Major social contradictions in the field of education. The Report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized that as socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, the principal contradiction in Chinese society has been transformed into one between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life. Contradiction is the fundamental driving force for the development of things. The unity of contradiction and conflict combine to promote the development of things. The main contradiction in the field of education is the contradiction between the people’s demand for education and the unfair and unbalanced reality in the field of education. The major social contradictions in the field of education put forward the requirements of balanced development for the following education development and meeting the requirements of balanced education of the masses is helpful to solve the problems of education and promote the development of education. This is especially critical in compulsory education, so the supervision of compulsory education mainly focuses on coordinating educational resources of different schools in different regions to achieve balanced education. 2. Third-party educational evaluation institutions. Social institutions provide professional services for social undertakings to promote social development. In the field of education, the rise and development of third-party educational evaluation institutions provide relatively professional and accurate evaluation services for the supervision of education, make the supervision of education more scientific and efficient, and gradually improve its functions. In 2014, the office of the education supervision committee of the state council issued the opinions on deepening the reform of education supervision and transforming the mode of education management, clearly stating that education quality monitoring is an important task and function of education supervision. Third party education evaluation institutions usually develop professional models and conduct education quality evaluation on this basis, which can obtain relatively scientific evaluation results, so that the supervision can have a more comprehensive and detailed understanding of the development status of the supervision object. In addition, as a social service institution supervising the cooperation between departments, the third-party education evaluation agency has a relatively independent social status, which is conducive to the fair and fair evaluation work and provides strong support for the balanced development of education.

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9.3 Problems and Suggestions on the Supervision of Compulsory Education 9.3.1 Questions 1. The supervision system is not perfect, and the distribution of educational resources is unbalanced. Compulsory education is a model of provincial-level planning and county-level management. The provincial government’s planning of relevant work in the field of education is the premise to achieve a balanced and high-quality compulsory education. At present, the education management work of governments at all levels has not formed a modern supervision system with interlocking powers and responsibilities, resulting in unbalanced education level and affecting the overall education level. In addition, the supervision of government and the supervision of school system are also relatively separated, which has not played the role of supervision in promoting the implementation of the supervision of school and the supervision of school on the supervision of the reform. At present, the goal of compulsory education is to achieve balanced and quality education. The government, as the main body of compulsory education resources in the region, needs to balance the levels of all parties involved in education and teaching activities, including teachers, students and funds. The imbalance of teachers’ level is the most serious challenge at present. Compulsory education teachers’ demand is bigger, normal graduates can’t satisfy all parts of all school teachers supply needs, under the mode of two-way choice of employment, hiring teachers in school geographical advantages and school quality sorting, lead to weak schools and rural schools teachers’ quality is not high, some even cannot get added. Some schools can recruit separately before the education bureau’s uniform recruitment, and some local education bureau matches the corresponding quality schools according to the teacher level, which to some extent aggravates the imbalance of teacher level. 2. Insufficient inter-school cooperation and imperfect curriculum system. The imbalanced resource of compulsory education school is the key reason that has not realized the equity of compulsory education. Education is a part of the whole social cause, shouldering the responsibility of training people to adapt to social development; The resources of each school are also part of the whole educational cause and should contribute to the fair and quality development of the whole educational cause. At present, there are some cooperation between schools in the compulsory education stage, such as joint examination and campus visit, etc., but in essence, most of them are resource exchange of the same level schools, which makes the echelon distribution of school quality cannot be effectively solved. The concept of inter-school cooperation needs to be updated. It should not only be a way to improve the education quality of the school, but also a means to realize the balanced development of the whole education cause. Curriculum is the carrier of carrying out educational and teaching activities and realizing educational and teaching objectives. The quality of compulsory education is closely related to the construction of curriculum system. The current curriculum

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system has three levels: national curriculum, local curriculum and school-based curriculum. To a certain extent, it can not only fulfill the unified requirements of the country for talent cultivation, but also develop students’ personalities according to local conditions. However, the curriculum system still needs to be improved, which is mainly reflected in the unreasonable distribution of the functions of the three-level curriculum structure and the weak connection between the courses. The national curriculum still undertakes the main teaching activities, which cannot meet the educational needs of different students in the diversified social ecology of our country. School-based curriculum development is still in the rich curriculum resources, cannot play the most effective education with the most suitable curriculum resources for students. 3. The effect of teacher ethics construction is not good, and the professional development of teachers is insufficient. The teacher’s professional ethics is an important part of the teacher’s professional quality. However, the construction of teacher’s ethics is more at the level of concept and lacks specific rules at the level of action, which makes the construction of teacher’s ethics less effective and causes some problems for teachers and even the relevant subjects in the field of education. Only the idea does not have the action teacher moral construction effect, depends on the teacher’s individual moral cultivation fundamentally, but cannot bring into play the education supervision system function. On the basis of advocating the correct concept, the supervision of teacher’s ethics should formulate the specific code of conduct of teacher’s ethics, especially the nature of controversial situations and behaviors. Teachers’ level of education and teaching is the guarantee of the quality of education activities. In the rapidly developing society, teachers need to continuously improve their professional quality in order to keep up with The Times. At present, the supervision at the teacher level is mainly about the qualification assessment for new teachers and the promotion of professional titles for teachers who have already joined. The latter runs through the career of teachers and promotes the development of teachers in a certain sense through the reward mechanism. However, the current professional title assessment is limited in content and methods, and it focuses too much on students’ academic performance and teachers’ teaching skills and ignores teachers’ summary of students’ potential development and personal education philosophy in education work, resulting in insufficient professional development of teachers. 4. The student evaluation system is single, and the student growth space is limited. The current student evaluation system is too simple, in most cases, the way to measure the level of students’ development is to test the degree of knowledge mastery through written exams, and even rank the growth results of students on this basis. This evaluation method, which defines people by cultural achievements, ignores the growth of other aspects of students, making them unable to be consciously guided by science and thus affecting the overall development of students. In addition, the evaluation method of quantification of scores also has great limitations. Although many schools include the examination of moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic aspects in the student assessment, scores are still used to define the performance of students. This single evaluation method cannot play a role in the growth of individuals

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in addition to ranking the student groups. The physical and mental development of students in compulsory education is not mature, and they need the guidance of teachers and parents in life and study. The current curriculum system and teaching system all clearly define the dominant role of teachers in education and teaching activities in an outline way, and teachers control the growth direction of students in and out of the classroom. With the development of modernization, people’s spiritual independence has been paid more attention to, and students’ subject status has been recognized, but it is mainly limited to learning enthusiasm, more comprehensive enthusiasm for growth is still ignored, which directly leads to limited growth space for students. As a carrier to promote the growth of students, the education and teaching activities are still designed and implemented by teachers, and students grow up under the activities provided by teachers by default (Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012; Zhang 2008; Zhu and Li 2018).

9.3.2 Suggestions 1. Improve the supervision work of county-level governments by combining with schools under their jurisdiction. Supervision is the evaluation of the government’s educational responsibility, which focuses on the government’s behavior of coordinating educational activities. However, the evaluation of the performance of the education responsibility of the county government should not be separated from the supervision of the schools. The school inspector focuses on the evaluation of the school’s internal management, school-running behavior and educational and teaching quality. Therefore, to improve the evaluation of the education performance of the county government, it is necessary to combine with the evaluation results of the district inspector on the school. To run the education that the people are satisfied with, we should finally implement the connotation and high-quality development at the school level. Only by ensuring teachers’ words and deeds and students’ healthy growth and learning can we achieve the balanced and high-quality development of compulsory education. 2. Coordinate the level of teachers and optimize the team of teachers. At present, the biggest obstacle to the balanced development of compulsory education is the problem of teachers. Therefore, the government has taken overall consideration of the teacher level and taken active measures to make the teachers among the schools relatively balanced, such as the job rotation program to import high-quality teachers to rural schools and weak schools. In addition, the government should optimize the teaching staff, strictly implement the teacher qualification system and teacher training system, improve the professional development level of teachers, and provide teachers for quality education. We should adjust the structure of teachers and ensure the reasonable teacher-student ratio of teachers in such subjects as sound, body and beauty, so as to provide teachers premise and quality assurance for students to realize all-round development of quality-oriented education.

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3. Strengthen inter-school cooperation and share quality resources. To achieve balanced and high-quality compulsory education, not only requires the government to coordinate educational resources at the overall level, but also through the strengthening of cooperation between schools. The resources of different schools are different, some are the difference of the advantages and disadvantages of resources, some are the difference of the advantages and disadvantages of resources. Schools should have a broad vision, place themselves in the whole compulsory education system, establish the awareness of resource sharing, actively carry out interschool cooperation, and build an online and offline sharing platform for educational resources. The contribution of high-quality schools can not only improve the teaching level of weak schools, but also enrich their own teaching resources. The sharing of resources between schools can not only strengthen inter-school relations, but also improve the overall level of compulsory education. 4. Keep pace with The Times and improve the curriculum system according to local conditions. As the main place of education and teaching activities, schools need to implement the national curriculum system to achieve curriculum objectives. However, the updating speed of the national curriculum system is far behind the development speed of The Times. In addition, China’s vast differences between different regions, countries cannot fully contains course system, compulsory education stage student’s body and mind development characteristic from the representational change to abstract cognitive level of development, so the state curriculum system as an example, the only place to actively summarize course spirit and target development course system based on local student life experience. On the basis of national curriculum and local curriculum, the school should develop school-based curriculum according to the conditions of the school, so that students can have the opportunity to learn the curriculum in campus practice. Schools should also actively pay attention to social changes, update the curriculum system with The Times, so that students’ growth and social development keep pace. 5. Strengthen the construction of teachers’ ethics and implement ideas with actions. The teacher’s morality is the premise of the teacher’s profession to play the educational function. The construction of teacher’s ethics has always been an important part of the training of teachers, but the relevant supervision policies that provide the basis for the construction of teacher’s ethics still remain at the conceptual level and lack of specific action guidelines. The construction of teachers’ ethics, which is advocated by concepts without specific actions, only pays tribute to the distant dream of “the dignity of teachers”. The construction of teacher ethics needs to take into account the actual educational situation and multiple relationship needs of teachers and transform the ideal and general personification concept into action requirements in specific problems. 6. Promote professional development and track growth evaluation. Education and teaching level is another important content of teacher supervision, including the implementation of the curriculum, the deduction of teaching materials, the realization of the goal, the understanding of the situation of learning and so on. As an intermediate link of teaching activities, the supervision of teachers’ teaching level is helpful to improve the actual teaching effect. However, teachers should be regarded as

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educational resources with growth potential while giving full play to their educational functions. Developmental evaluation plays an important role in the development of teachers. Teachers’ education and teaching level should be evaluated gradually in the process of professional development. Tracking teachers’ professional development is helpful for teachers to accumulate professional development experience, explore suitable education professional development path and form unique teaching style based on the foundation of early development. 7. Enrich the evaluation system and improve the growth files. At present, the purpose and manner of student evaluation are inconsistent. The purpose of compulsory education is to cultivate students’ moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic development in an all-round way. However, in reality, it mainly monitors students’ intellectual education level through examinations and serves as the main content of students’ evaluation through ranking and promotion. Such a single evaluation system is not conducive to the healthy development of students, but also to the effective realization of educational objectives. Therefore, the evaluation system of students should be reformed in a diversified and comprehensive way, and students’ performance should be included in the evaluation. At the same time, we should improve the students’ growth files, insist on evaluating students with the principle of development, guide students to correctly understand themselves by reviewing the growth process, summarize experience and look forward to the future. 8. Expand the growth space and give play to students’ subjectivity. In a series of supervision items about students, most of them make detailed requirements in all aspects according to the training objectives. Students can complete their academic tasks by participating in education and teaching activities as required, but it is difficult to achieve the training objectives, because the key to a well-rounded person is to integrate and internalize the external education. The evaluation criteria listed only are not the supervision regulations that can achieve the educational objectives, but also the growth space of students’ free play should be guaranteed. Students are the main body in education and teaching activities. Only by giving full play to students’ subjectivity can curriculum and teaching materials become educational resources, and educational functions can be brought into play to achieve educational goals. Creative activities can give full play to the subjectivity. Educators can provide students with a completely free time and space, so that students can learn to control themselves. The self-confidence cultivated in this process can enable students to play the subjectivity in teacher-led education and teaching activities (Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012; Zhang 2008; Zhu and Li 2018).

References Fu, C. H., & Du, S. Z. (2016). On the dilemma and transcendence of current teacher ethics education—Reflection on the phased characteristics of teachers’ moral learning. Teacher Education Research, 28(3), 34–39.

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Tan, S. H., & Huang, X. T. (2012). Current situation and improvement suggestions of China’s education evaluation. China Education Journal., 12(7), 11–18. Zhang, L. T. (2008). Evolution and changes of rural education policy in China in the past 30 years. Journal of Nanjing Normal University (social science edition), 8(6), 39–45. Zhang, L. T. (2012). Policy experience and policy issues of rural education development in new China. Education Policy Observation, 12(10), 22–29. Zhu, X., & Li, J. (2018). Conceptualizing the ontology of higher education with Chinese characteristics. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 50(12), 1144–1156.

Chapter 10

Compulsory Education Policy in China: From the Perspective of the Quality and Balanced Development Policy

This chapter focuses on exploring the quality and balanced development policy of the compulsory education policy development in China. The policy change of balanced development of compulsory education from basic balance to quality balance are divided into four stages: The literacy education and the goal of achieving universal education (1978–2000); The transition from the stage of universal compulsory education to the stage of balanced development (2000–2010); Balanced development stage (2010–2017); Quality and balanced development stage (2017–present). In addition, political reasons, economic reasons, social reasons, and cultural reasons have been discussed in this chapter. Questions and suggestions are also offered.

10.1 Policy Change of Balanced Development of Compulsory Education—From Basic Balance to Quality Balance Since the reform and opening up, China’s compulsory education has not only made brilliant achievements in the historical task of scale expansion and comprehensive popularization, but also made continuous innovation and breakthroughs in the connotation development and quality improvement. Urban and rural free compulsory education universal, fundamentally solves the problem of school-age children or adolescents “a study on”, after our country between regions, between urban and rural areas, school running level and education quality of gap gradually appear, the people’s growing high quality education needs and the contradiction of supply continuously emerging, promote the compulsory education balanced development become inevitable choice. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China has made great efforts to improve the quality of rural schools and poorly run schools, comprehensively improve the quality of compulsory education, © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li and E. Xue, Compulsory Education Policy in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6358-8_10

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and strive to ensure that all school-age children and adolescents can go to school, thus making solid progress in promoting the balanced development of compulsory education. It can be roughly divided into the following three stages: the stage of universal popularization of compulsory education, the stage of balanced development, and the stage of high-quality and balanced development.

10.1.1 The Literacy Education and the Goal of Achieving Universal Education (1978–2000) Since the reform and opening up, the work of basic education has returned to order and stability. The state has issued a series of educational policy documents, aiming to improve the basic knowledge and basic ability of the whole people. From 1978 to 1992, China issued seven policy documents on equity in education, including two legal documents, namely the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Compulsory Education (1986) and the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Minors (1991). The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China or the State Council documents issued the Notice on Some Issues of Rural School Education Reform (1983). We aim to promote literacy education and gradually popularize primary and secondary education on the basis of universal primary education. A series of policies and regulations have promoted basic education towards the policy goal of eliminating illiteracy, basically eliminating illiteracy among young and middleaged people. The report to the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that education must be given a strategic priority in development and efforts should be made to raise the ideological, moral, scientific and cultural levels of the whole nation. Educational equity mainly starts from the basic popularization of compulsory education, which is embodied in a series of educational policy documents. From 1993 to 2002, China issued nine policy documents on equity in education, including one legal document, the education law of the People’s Republic of China (1995). We make compulsory education basically universal and promote equity in education (Jia and Liu 2017; Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012; Zhang 2008; Zhang 2012; Zhu and Li 2018). In order to ensure the realization of the goal, the Central Government allocated 3.9 billion yuan and local governments 8.7 billion yuan. Through the efforts of all parties, major progress has been made in compulsory education. The popularization of compulsory education has been greatly improved, and the conditions for running schools have been greatly improved. But there were still many problems to be solved. First of all, the popularization degree of compulsory education, especially the degree of consolidation, needs to be further improved. For example, the graduation rate from the fourth grade to the middle school was only 76.64% in 1999, which means that 23.36% of this group of students lost most of them halfway except for a small number of flunks. Secondly, the school center of gravity is too low, leading to the government’s investment in compulsory education is insufficient, the burden of the public is too heavy, compulsory education debt, a

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large area of long-term arrears in teacher wages. Third, the management system is not perfect, resulting in the abuse of power for personal gain, cronyism, improper employment, delinquency, skimping and misappropriation of education funds and other phenomena occur from time to time. In addition, the development gap between local schools is huge, and it is difficult for students to enjoy fair compulsory education. The existence of the above problems hinders the further development of compulsory education in China.

10.1.2 The Transition from the Stage of Universal Compulsory Education to the Stage of Balanced Development (2000–2010) By the end of the last century, that is, in 2000, the penetration rate of nine-year compulsory education in China reached 85%, and the set goal of “basic popularization” was achieved on schedule. But 15% of the country’s 410 counties, including 309 ethnic minority counties and 51 border counties, all in the western region, failed to meet the target. In 2003, the Central Committee of the Communist party of China and the State Council decided to implement the “two bases” plan for tackling the key problems in the western region of China. In September of the same year, the State Council promulgated the Decision on Further Strengthening Rural Education. By the end of 2010, the coverage of the “two basic education systems” had reached 100% and the illiteracy rate among young and middle-aged people had dropped to 1.08%. The net enrollment rate of primary school-age children had reached 99.7%, and the retention rate was 89.9%. In 2002, the Ministry of Education About Strengthening Basic Education School Notice Some Problems on the Management was proposed to promote balanced development of compulsory education school. This obligation education began to shift in the direction of balanced development, and from the initial equilibrium to fundamental equilibrium to quality balanced. The Durther Advance the Several Opinions of Balanced Development of Compulsory Education (2005) pointed out that the education administrative departments at all levels is from the practice of the three represents “important thought and implement the scientific concept of development. It aims to fully understand to promote balanced development of the compulsory education in an important role in building a harmonious socialist society, as the job after the realization of” two basics in the development of compulsory education is an important task, to study and put forward the region to promote the goal of balanced development of compulsory education tasks, implementation steps and the policies and measures, and into the local education reform and development of the overall plan. The Compulsory Education Law promulgated in 2006 and further stipulates from the main responsibilities of local governments. The State Council and local people’s governments at or above the county level shall rationally allocate educational resources to promote the balanced

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development of compulsory education. The Compulsory Education Law is the fundamental law of compulsory education in China. We should be rational allocation of education resources to promote the compulsory education balanced development for improving the conditions of weak school and taking measures to guarantee rural areas. The implementation of compulsory education in ethnic minority areas is to protect family economic difficulties and disabled school-age children. The education supervision institutions of the people’s governments shall exercise supervision over the implementation of laws and regulations in the work of compulsory education. The quality of education and teaching is for the balanced development of compulsory education. The people’s governments at or above the county level and their administrative departments of education shall promote the balanced development of schools, narrow the gap in conditions for running schools, and may not divide schools into key schools and non-key schools. Schools shall not set up key and non-key classes. The above laws stipulate several aspects of compulsory education: first, the central state council and local governments at or above the county level are the main bodies of the departments that promote the balance of compulsory education, which makes clear the responsibility bodies for promoting the development of compulsory trade. At the same time, it also stipulates the supervision power of the government to the balanced development of educational affairs. Furthermore, on the implementation level, it is the concrete measures to promote and guarantee the balanced development of compulsory education to prohibit the branches of key schools and classes and to develop teacher education (Jia and Liu 2017; Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012; Zhang 2008; Zhang 2012; Zhu and Li 2018).

10.1.3 Balanced Development Stage (2010–2017) Local education administrative departments at all levels should be under the leadership of the government at the same level from the implementation of the scientific concept of development. It aims to build a harmonious socialist society and promote education fairness. The compulsory education as the key of the education reform and development is to balance the development of compulsory education as top priority. In accordance with the legal requirements, it is to promote the development of compulsory education balanced to school-age children or adolescents receive more fair and higher quality of compulsory education as the goal. The rational allocation of education resources is to constantly improve the level of security for promoting the quality education.In July 2010, the Fourth National Conference on Education Work issued the Outline of the National Plan for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010–2020). We establish a sound mechanism to ensure the balanced development of compulsory education. It aims to promote the standardization of compulsory education schools and allocate resources such as teachers, equipment, books and school buildings in a balanced way. On the basis of taking the balance of compulsory education as the “top priority”, the state has taken another step forward, taking the balance as a “strategic task” to guide the development of

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compulsory education and making efforts to implement it into actions. Then the balance of compulsory education was strongly promoted (Jia and Liu 2017; Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012; Zhang 2008; Zhang 2012; Zhu and Li 2018). At the beginning of 2012, the Opinions of the State Council on Further Promoting the Balanced Development of Compulsory Education was published, which further proposed that promoting the balanced development of compulsory education is an important measure to implement the scientific outlook. It aims to promote educational equity as an important task after the popularization of compulsory education. In July of that year, the Ministry of Education promulgated the interim measures for the supervision and evaluation of the balanced development of compulsory education in counties and started the acceptance work for the balanced development of compulsory education in counties (districts) in the next year. By the end of 2017, the national 2379 counties (city, area) through the basic supervision evaluation concluded that the balanced development of compulsory education by more than 80% of the county (city, area) to achieve the balance of basic compulsory education, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other 11 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) the overall maintained through the supervision of Ministry of Education evaluation, completed the overall basic equilibrium. In September of that year, the state council issued the opinions on further promoting the balanced development of compulsory education, which pointed out that it was necessary to further clarify the responsibilities of local governments at all levels and put forward the basic goal of promoting the balanced development of compulsory education. Educational resources are to meet the needs of school education and teaching and the development of national curriculum. Teacher allocation is more reasonable, improve the overall quality of teachers. In November of that year, in the Report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), it clearly put “making efforts to provide education that the people are satisfied with” as the top priority for improving people’s livelihood, and proposed balanced development of nine-year compulsory education, rational allocation of educational resources, and vigorous promotion of educational equity, so that every child can become a useful person. Second, with the provinces to sign a balanced memorandum of compulsory education (Jia and Liu 2017; Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012; Zhang 2008). In terms of guiding ideology and working policy, it is more and more important to promote educational equity and improve educational quality. In the field of compulsory education, in addition to consolidating the existing achievements of compulsory education, the emphasis is to put on improving the quality of compulsory education and establishing the basic standards and testing system for the quality of compulsory education, which has become an important basis for the subsequent documents. The balanced development of compulsory education is an important strategic task of compulsory education. State Council on Deepening the Views of Balanced Development of Compulsory Education is for the National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan Outline (2010–2020). The purpose is to strengthen to raise the level of nine-year compulsory education and promote the compulsory education balanced development. For four years, the national compulsory education balanced development of education steering system is always as a

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strategic task as the pinnacle of education supervision work. The basis of education program requirements is for the compulsory education balanced development memorandum planning. It supervises and urges the local governments at all levels to make solid progress, reform and innovation, constantly to narrow the gap in intercollegiate, improving the quality of education, effectively promote the education fair. By the end of 2016, 1,824 counties (cities and districts) in China had passed the national assessment on supervision and evaluation of basically balanced development of compulsory education. Around 500 more counties (cities and districts) are expected to receive the national assessment and evaluation on supervision and evaluation of basically balanced development of compulsory education, bringing the total number to about 2,300, accounting for nearly 80% of the national total. To consolidate the achievements of basic and balanced development and achieve highquality and balanced development has become a new and urgent task for compulsory education in these areas (Jia and Liu 2017; Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012). From the perspective of future development, the launch of quality and balanced development assessment set a new benchmark for promoting the balanced development of national compulsory education in the next stage and point out the development direction. “Much starker choices-and graver consequences-in” period and a period in the future, education reform and development must firmly grasp the “fairness” and “quality” two key, on the one hand, to further consolidate the achievements of balanced development of basic, constantly improve the level of compulsory education standardization construction, and constantly expand the coverage of high quality education resources, the buildings, equipment, such as teachers, the basic configuration with more high quality education resources, improve to a higher standard, and the intercollegiate gap narrowed. On the other hand, we should focus on improving the quality of compulsory education in an all-round way, pay more attention to the development and construction of compulsory education schools, pay more attention to the reform of school management and curriculum teaching, and finally achieve the goal of promoting the all-round development of students, and realize the fundamental requirement of “educating people” in the outline of education planning.

10.1.4 Quality and Balanced Development Stage (2017–Present) After all the compulsory education schools in the county reach the basic standards and the basic balance between schools, the compulsory education enters the stage of promoting the balanced development of high quality. On the basis of consolidating the basic balance, it concentrates on promoting the balanced development of compulsory education for improving the quality of compulsory education. In September 2017, the Ministry of Education formulated and issued the Supervision and Evaluation Method for the Balanced Development of Compulsory Education at the county level, and decided to establish the supervision and evaluation system for

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the balanced development of compulsory education at the county level, and carry out the supervision and evaluation work for the balanced development of compulsory education at the county level. In the same year, the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Education System and Mechanism, which emphasizing the improvement of the system and mechanism for the balanced and high-quality development of compulsory education. The Report to the 19th CPC National Congress in 2018 further pointed out that we should promote the integrated development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas and attach great importance to compulsory education in rural areas. In June 2019, the State Council of the CPC Central Committee issued the Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Education and Teaching to Comprehensively Improve the Quality of Compulsory Education, requiring the implementation of the project to improve the quality of compulsory education and promote the balanced development of compulsory education in counties from basic balance to high quality. So far, all those policy documents concentrate on comprehensively improving the quality of education to achieve quality balance. They have become the main task of the development of compulsory education. The Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Deepening the Reform of Education and Teaching and Comprehensively Improving the Quality of Compulsory Education pointed out that, the direction for further deepening the reform and promoting the development of compulsory education. The guidelines focus on strengthening the role of the classroom to improve the quality of classroom teaching. In accordance with the “four good teachers” standard, the construction of high-quality professional teachers is to deepen the reform of key areas, to improve the quality of education to create conditions (Jia and Liu 2017; Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012; Zhang 2008; Zhang 2012; Zhu and Li 2018).

10.2 Why the Current Policy? The cause of the policy change of the balanced development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas is investigated in the tide of social development. The introduction of a series of systems and regulations is a specific provision for the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The growth of society’s material wealth is its economic foundation; The appeal of educational equity is the value and social pursuit; The difference of national culture of different area is important influence.

10.2.1 Political Reasons It is the essence of socialism to promote quality and balanced development. The essential requirements of socialism are to eradicate exploitation, poverty, polarization and common prosperity. The ideal of balanced development of education is to pursue equality in education, achieve the goal of all-round development of human beings,

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and enable every region, every school and every student to achieve excellent results in high-quality schools. Therefore, the development of compulsory education, the persistence of people-oriented, the realization of educational equity, the elimination of regional, inter-school and group gaps in education, is the embodiment of the essential requirements of socialism. It is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics for the people to share in the fruits of development. The goal of education balance is to promote social equity, and the quality balance should not only pay attention to inter-school differences but also pay attention to the differences of the population. To promote the quality and balanced development of education is an inevitable choice for the people-centered development of education. Firstly, it embodies the concept of scientific government service. In particular, people’s governments at all levels are required to rationally allocate the spatial distribution and hierarchical structure of education, highlight the dominant role of schools in running schools, and promote the integrated development of regional education. Second, it responds to people’s yearning for a better life. The government should not only attach importance to the balanced allocation of high-quality education resources, but also protect the equal right to education of children of migrant workers and left-behind children and other special groups, and establish an education guarantee mechanism and personalized support mechanism for special groups to better respond to people’s needs for a better life. Finally, it is to promote the all-round development of human beings. To promote the quality and balanced development of education, we should not only integrate moral education into all aspects of education on the basis of respecting the laws of body and mind of students, but also fully respect the cognitive level and individual needs of students, so as to promote the realization of students’ self-value and overall quality through quality-oriented education. In 2012, the 18th CPC proposed to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects. To achieve social equity and build a harmonious society by coordinating urban and rural development. The integration of urban and rural education is an important part of the integration of urban and rural areas. To balance urban and rural education development, during this period, the party and the government introduced a series of policies to promote education balanced development, gradually reach the long-term form of urban and rural dual structure system kernel, satisfy people’s demands of education fairness, to promote the integration of urban and rural compulsory education, and promote the urbanization, is the important impetus to economic and social development in China, the compulsory education in improving the rural population cultural quality and promote urbanization construction of an important responsibility, promote rural residents nearby in situ urbanization and new industrialization of agriculture. At the same time, improving the quality of education in rural schools and weak schools will also help ensure the fairness of citizens’ development opportunities, so that students studying in these schools will not lose the opportunity for further development due to their residence, thus promoting social integration. Xi Jinping pointed out: “to finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, the most arduous task is in the poor areas, we must make up for this shortcoming. Poverty alleviation is bound to wisdom.” Providing children in poor areas with a good education is an important task for poverty alleviation and an

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important way to stop the transmission of poverty between generations. There are still some old, young, border, poor and island areas in China, especially contiguous poor areas. In the process of promoting the popularization of nine-year compulsory education over the years, it is necessary for us to pay attention to the majority and make efforts to expand the coverage of compulsory education. However, in the process of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, we must adopt a holistic approach and give preference to the minority. However, the weak education in a few poor areas lies in the low quality of education, which is caused by a number of factors. Therefore, all efforts to improve education in poor areas should be firmly based on the improvement of the quality of education, otherwise our investment in poverty alleviation and charitable donations are difficult to achieve real results, targeted education poverty alleviation is difficult to achieve (Jia and Liu 2017; Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012; Zhang 2008; Zhang 2012).

10.2.2 Economic Reasons 1. The development of the overall national economy and the continuous growth of the national investment in education. Economic development is the material foundation of educational development. The implementation of the policy of the integration of urban and rural compulsory education is closely related to the level of China’s economic development. After the reform and opening up, the focus of our country’s work shifted to economic construction. In March 1979, Deng Xiaoping pointed out that, “adherence to the four cardinal principles” that this year the focus of our work should be shifted to the socialist modernization drive. Over the past four decades, with the rapid development of China’s economy, social wealth has increased rapidly. Before 2000, China’s GDP was less than 1 trillion us dollars, and the proportion of fiscal expenditure on education in GDP was much lower than 3%, and the educational expenditure was seriously insufficient. At this stage, under the influence of factors such as the level of economic development, China is unable to take into account the integrated development of urban and rural compulsory education, and can only concentrate on the development of a number of key schools, mainly supporting the development of schools in developed regions and cities, and cultivating talents needed for economic and social development. In 2000, China’s GDP exceeded $1 trillion for the first time, more than 89 trillion yuan. This shows that China’s comprehensive national strength has greatly improved, and the level of economic development has reached a new level. The growth of social wealth provides material basis for the integration of urban and rural compulsory education. At this stage, China increased its investment in education, and the proportion of national financial expenditure on education in GDP exceeded 3%. In particular, since 2012, China’s fiscal expenditure on education has exceeded 4% of GDP for five consecutive years. In 2016, it exceeded 3 quadrillion, exceeding the GDP in 1992. In a word, after entering the twenty-first century, China began to implement the policy of balanced development of compulsory education in

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urban and rural areas. After the comprehensive popularization of free compulsory education, China promoted the integrated development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas. By 2016, government spending on education had reached 3.1396 trillion-yuan, accounting for 4.22% of China’s GDP and 80.7% of the country’s total spending on education. On the other hand, according to official statistics, non-fiscal education spending in 2016 was 749.2 billion-yuan, accounting for 1% of GDP. At present, there is a problem that the education expenditure statistics in our country focuses on the financial education expenditure and lacks the statistics on the private education investment. Taking the composition of non-fiscal education funds in 2016 as an example, the enterprise income accounted for 83.8%, the private school organizers’ investment accounted for 2.7%, the donation income accounted for 1.1%, and the others accounted for 12.4%. With the continuous development of China’s social economy, the growth of people’s demand for education and the development of market forces, the proportion of private education investment in the total education funds keeps rising. At the same time, with the widening income gap between the population and the personalized and diversified educational needs of families, the educational opportunities and resources that students from different family backgrounds enjoy in and outside the school begin to diverge, which may lead to new educational inequity. 2. Influenced by the investment in family education, students with different family backgrounds enjoy a large gap in education quality. It is found that the participation rate and expenditure of after-school education of families are not completely affected by the family characteristics. In particular, the high proportion of junior or senior teachers in schools promote families to increase the participation rate and expenditure of after-school classes. The influence of public expenditure on the off-campus learning and remedial behavior of the family is not a simple substitution or complementarity. With the increase of public expenditure per student, families tend to reduce the participation rate of off-campus classes and education expenditure. Families are encouraged to increase participation in after-school classes and cram schools, and to spend more on after-school education. In other words, when the average public expenditure per student is approaching to the average level from the low and high ends, the participation rate and expenditure of the after-school classes and remedial classes of the family all decline. Therefore, the equalization of investment in compulsory education in China is conducive to promoting the equity of educational results (Jia and Liu 2017; Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012; Zhang 2008; Zhang 2012; Zhu and Li 2018).

10.2.3 Social Reasons The theory of social reproduction reveals the relationship between education and social structure. The function of education to promote social mobility is increasingly valued. Quality and balanced development of education can better stimulate

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the vitality of the society. Social mobility can be understood as any change in an individual or social object or value. It reflects the change of individual social status and the change process between social class and stratum structure. There are several types of social mobility: vertical and horizontal, intergenerational flow and intergenerational flow and natural, unnatural flows, structural and free flows, and competitive and supportive flows. Education stratification mechanism is at the beginning the school stratification by type, professional level, and knowledge level. With the improvement of living standard, people pay more and more attention to the issue of education equity, from the focus on opportunity equity to the starting point, process and outcome equity. Social equity should be reflected in all aspects of the society. In the field of education, “equity” mainly includes equality of educational rights and equal educational opportunities. In other words, educational equity is an education that provides equal opportunities and equal quality services to the majority. Ensuring people’s access to good education, enjoying good quality of compulsory education and promoting fairness in compulsory education are both important goals for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and basic policies for China’s educational development. And reality is different from area to area, economic and social development level of different factors such as education resources and education level of development is more and more obvious uneven phenomenon, caused the wide attention of the society, the growing differences between urban and rural areas, regional differences, group differences and the difference between school education fair phenomenon serious challenges. The unbalanced development of compulsory education means that the disadvantaged groups in the society have lost the equal opportunity to receive education.

10.2.4 Cultural Reasons China is a multi-ethnic country with different ethnic groups, which have a unique traditional culture. National traditional culture is the spiritual foundation of a nation, an important part of its national identity, and an important symbol for a nation to distinguish itself from another nation. Inheriting the culture of each nationality is one of the important functions of education, and culture has an important effect on the development of education. Culture has an important influence on education, and even affects the degree to which a cultural group attaches importance to education, thus affecting the realization of balanced development of education. Although the country has been through various preferential policies and financial transfers, continue to improve the level of education in ethnic areas. This leads to the gradual narrowing of the level difference between ethnic minority areas and non-ethnic areas in terms of school conditions. But the quality of education and non-ethnic areas have not improved significantly. It can be seen that the economic factor is not the only factor, the cultural aspect is also very prominent and important. Through the comparison of the same nationality in different areas and the comparison of different nationalities in the same area.

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10.3 Questions and Suggestions There is a big gap in the quality of teachers, and the mechanism of teacher training is not sound. Teacher training is an important way to improve the overall quality of teachers in compulsory education. Taking H province as an example, in response to the national policy, H province actively organized and implemented the National Education Plan Project. Since the implementation of “national education plan”, the overall quality of primary and secondary school teachers in H province has been greatly improved, but problems still exist. First, the training content lacks pertinence. The main manifestation is that the training of teachers is often limited to the training on the theoretical level, and different training contents are not formulated according to the teachers’ discipline background, professional quality and professional level, which makes the training contents lack pertinence. Secondly, the lack of training funds. At present, H province has not established a sound mechanism for the investment of in-service teacher training funds, and the training funds of many local teachers are not guaranteed. Due to the lack of training funds, it is not possible to ensure that every primary and secondary school teacher in H province can receive on-the-job training. Finally, the lack of training evaluation mechanism. At present, there is no evaluation mechanism for in-service teacher training in H province, which not only can’t effectively restrain teachers’ behavior, but also can’t timely understand the effect of in-service teacher training. The imbalance of education can be divided into the imbalance of software and hardware. As long as the hardware imbalance refers to teaching facilities, teaching sites, etc., in the past few decades, the state has established a series of financial subsidies, preferential policies to make up for it. On the software side, there are big problems. The core and key issue is people, in education, that is, teachers. In the stage of “basic balanced development”, the strategic focus of the development of compulsory education is the balanced allocation of resources. It aims to lay a foundation for the balanced development of compulsory education and the balanced allocation of teachers through policy means such as infrastructure construction and fund preference. In the stage of “high-quality and balanced development”, the strategic emphasis of compulsory education changes from the balanced allocation of resources to the balanced development of education quality. Compared with the basic balance, the high-quality balanced development pays more attention to the connotation development and the software construction. The balanced development of compulsory education in county areas should pay more attention to the construction of teachers, improve the quality of teachers, have better salary guarantee and perfect management system. We should strengthen the construction of county-level teacher development institutions and promote the localization and school-based development of teachers’ teaching research and professional development. Before the 1990s, the county-level teacher development agencies played an important role in the career development of primary and secondary school teachers, especially rural teachers. Due to the imperfect system, mechanism, fuzzy nature of institutions, lack of funds and other reasons, most county-level teacher development institutions are gradually

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weakened, the quality of training is reduced, and it is more and more difficult to effectively promote the professional development of local teachers. China has about 15 million elementary education teachers, nearly 60% of whom are concentrated in schools at or below the county level. The inadequate functioning of county-level teacher development agencies means that the professional development of county-level teachers has lost important support. The Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on comprehensively Deepening the Construction and Reform of the Teacher Contingent in the New Period puts forward: relying on existing resources, establishing and improving local teacher development institutions and professional trainers in light of local conditions, and gradually promoting the construction and reform of countylevel teacher development institutions. All localities should seize the policy opportunities, actively promote the reform of systems and mechanisms and the integration of resources, strengthen the construction of county-level teacher development institutions, and provide support for the professional development and capacity building of county-level teachers. At the same time, teachers’ positions in rural schools and disadvantaged schools, especially those of young teachers, should be made more attractive so as to make them a stage for young teachers to grow and contribute. To create a good working and living environment for young teachers, it is necessary to set up a wide range of talent projects at all levels and establish a professional development support system. There is a large gap in the quality and level of inter-school education. The lack of overall planning of school layout and the overall development plan of county area is the main reason for the current layout problem. The equalization of urban and rural basic public services is an important foundation and key link for the integrated development of urban and rural areas and the steady promotion of the rural revitalization strategy. Compulsory education is public product, compulsory education school is a public product service platform, the school layout adjustment is essentially based on economic and social development, population change, population flow space, and the trend of the development of education itself, the service platform of location, quantity, structure, scale and resources to the layout of process. The scientific rationality of school layout directly determines the equalization of urban and rural basic public services. In order to make the school layout play the function of promoting the equalization of public services, it is necessary to make the school layout correspond to the overall development plan of county economy and society. However, in reality, many local governments often ignore the basic function of schools as public services and fail to incorporate the adjustment of school layout into the overall planning of the whole county. The school layout is out of step with the economic and social development planning of the whole county, which leads to a series of layout problems. School district and group education is an effective means to promote the balanced development of urban and rural compulsory education, which is conducive to the development and radiation of high-quality education resources from central urban areas and high-quality schools to rural areas and surrounding areas, and to the sharing of high-quality resources such as educational concept, management, teachers and

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equipment. Collectivization of running a school is the administrative instruction is given priority to famous university and several (group) schools and school community. School management, education, scientific research, information technology, education evaluation, school management and unified management, management, teachers, equipment and high-quality education resources are interdepended. The principal of each famous university group is the leader of the principal of each famous university group. The decision-making body composed of expert consultants and principals of each campus is responsible for the overall planning of the school community, and the corresponding implementation system and supervision feedback system are formed. There is unified coordination and management between the famous schools and each school to ensure the same educational quality, and each school is relatively independent to pursue its own characteristics, so as to achieve mutual benefit and common growth. In July 2016, the Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the Reform and Development of the Integration of Compulsory Education between Urban and Rural areas aimed for the expansion of the coverage of quality education resources through the implementation of school district management, the establishment of school alliances, and the exploration of collectivized schools. The Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Education System and Mechanism proposed that the management mode should be improved, the district management should be tried out, the collectivization of school running should be explored, and flexible forms of school running should be adopted, such as entrustment management, strong schools with weak schools, school alliance and nine-year system. In order to better implement this collectivized mode of running schools, promote the advantages and disadvantages, promote the common development of schools in the region, and promote the quality of school education towards balance and quality, we should follow the principle of independence of running schools. The nature and administrative subordination of each institution, the management system, the channel of appropriation of funds, and the personnel relationship and identity of the faculty and staff should be kept unchanged between the branch schools of the famous university and the alliance, so as to ensure their relative independence and stability. Principle of resource sharing. A famous university through years of effort, the educational ideas, educational goal, the education idea, the school management and so on various aspects, has its leading and unique feature, should be a number of ways to the quality of education, custody, and other campus school, school resources sharing, to excavate and revitalize the schools of the existing resources, realize the resource sharing, promoting education resource equilibrium configuration. Will guide principle, whole construction machinery demonstration play to the advantages of running schools and demonstration leading role, through the new management team, the exchange of communication teaching, common task area recruitment of students, unified teaching research, integration of teaching resources and management resources, promoting related alliance school in school-running idea, training target, educational pattern, education management, teaching and research aspects of common development, narrowing the gap between each other to a new level. Formulate work implementation plan scientifically. Local administrative departments of

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education, education groups and schools should organize forces, carry out investigation and research, conduct repeated discussions and argumentation, and formulate implementation plans scientifically. In terms of guiding ideology, objectives and tasks, principles and requirements, main contents, policies and measures, incentive mechanism and discipline requirements, long-term plans and annual plans should be formulated scientifically to ensure their implementation as planned. The current situation of financial transfer payment for compulsory education is obvious, and the means of financial transfer payment shall be further improved. At present, the financial transfer payment of compulsory education in China is relatively complicated, so there are many problems in the financial transfer payment of compulsory education in urban and rural areas. There is an imbalance between urban and rural areas and insufficient funds for transfer payments for compulsory education. Although the public expenditure in the public financial budget of primary and secondary schools increases year by year, the level of expenditure in the public financial budget of rural primary and secondary schools is lower than that of the national average primary and secondary schools every year, and the gap is also increasing year by year. The government’s input of public funds to rural primary and secondary school students is significantly lower than that of ordinary urban primary and secondary schools. The huge difference in public funds directly increases the gap in the level of compulsory education, the strength of teachers and the quality of teaching and school conditions. The amount of transfer funds from county-level compulsory education finance is very limited, but it has undertaken the provision of major compulsory education, which has seriously troubled countylevel rural compulsory education finance. According to official data, the amount of transfer payment is generally higher than that of education transfer payment such as compulsory education, but the increase of transfer payment is generally higher than the increase of government transfer payment such as compulsory education. The division of responsibilities between governments is not clear. In the current financial system, county-level governments are first given responsibility, and special subsidies are given to poor areas such as the central and western regions through the central and provincial governments. This method does not make a rational division of responsibility for the initial allocation of rural compulsory education funds to governments at all levels. The game between the government and the government has always existed, resulting in financial investment lagging behind the development of compulsory education. Financial subsidies and transfer payments from the central government and governments at all levels are important means to bridge the gap between regions and between urban and rural areas. In 1978, China’s education expenditure only accounted for 2.09% of GDP, and the expenditure input was severely deficient. In 1993, the program of China’s education reform and development proposed that “the proportion of national financial expenditure on education in GDP should be gradually increased, and the target should be 4% by the end of the 20th century”. However, the growth rate was very slow due to the influence of tax system reform and other factors. In 1998, China’s education expenditure accounted for 2.55% of GDP, 0.46 percentage points higher than that of 1978. Among them, “the average total educational expenditure in the east and west is 15.74 billion yuan and

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5.076 billion yuan respectively, three times as much in the east as in the west”. The gap between regional educational expenditure is even more shocking in the context of the overall insufficient educational expenditure. The Outline of the National Plan for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010–2020) sets the goal of basically achieving balanced development in the region. By 2020, the state has launched the project of “comprehensively improving the profitability” (2014–2018). It can be seen that some local governments do not fully understand the contradiction between the people’s growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development, and there are deviations in decision-making and implementation. Many scholars have made in-depth research and analysis on the causes of the weak schools, which include historical reasons, regional differences, economic and cultural differences, etc., and the bottom line is that the local government owes too much to the education resources of the weak schools. The Report on the Supervision and Evaluation of the Balanced Development of Compulsory Education in China in 2017 pointed out the major problems is in the balanced development of compulsory education. It pointed out that some local governments did not take weak schools as the key investment direction, which is also the fundamental reason for the lack of real improvement in the running level and teaching quality of weak schools. At present, the implementation of the integration of urban and rural compulsory education in China, the compulsory education balanced development has entered a stage of strong forces, weak school reform area must be the center of the local governments to promote the compulsory education balanced development work, requires local governments to the weak school education resources into debt, lack of the compulsory education in the allocation of resources, to distinguish weak schools with high quality for weak school compensation configuration principle; We need to continue to promote a balanced orientation of compulsory education in the region, and focus on upgrading weak schools to make up for their weak links in development. We should regularly evaluate the effectiveness of education resources allocation in weak schools and implement the objectives and responsibilities. We will continue to see that the government plays a leading role in allocating educational resources and establish a system of regular allocation of educational resources in weak schools. It is always on the way to strengthen the allocation of educational resources in weak schools in the region and promote the balanced development of compulsory education (Jia and Liu 2017; Fu and Du 2016; Tan and Huang 2012; Zhang 2008; Zhang 2012; Zhu and Li 2018).

References Fu, C. H., & Du, S. Z. (2016). On the dilemma and transcendence of current teacher ethics education—reflection on the phased characteristics of teachers’ moral learning. Teacher Education Research, 28(03), 34–39. Jia, N., & Liu, G. (2017). Whether the equalization of compulsory education can effectively reduce the family expenditure on off-campus education. Peking University Education Review, 15(01), 154–172.

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