Introduction  

China's immense size, its billion-plus population, and the ethnic and linguistic diversity of the country have posed significant educational challenges to the Chinese government throughout its recent history. In the last two decades, the Chinese government has achieved considerable progress in improving access to basic education throughout the nation, especially in rural and remote areas and among young girls. Specifically, during the 1990s, the educational system in China underwent a series of reforms aimed at expanding the financial inputs to education; enhancing the welfare of teachers; making key structural changes to eliminate the government monopoly on the provision of education; and decentralizing the management of the education system and vesting responsibilities at lower levels of government (UNESCO, 1998).

Stucture of Schooling  

In China, school attendance is compulsory for a total of nine years, beginning around age 6 and covering the primary and lower-secondary levels. The general structure of the primary and secondary education system is as follows:

• Although it is not part of the compulsory system, preschool education is offered for children beginning at the age of three. In 1996, 41 percent of children between the ages of three and six were enrolled in kindergartens or other forms of pre-school classes in China.
• Primary education comprises the first five or six years of schooling, enrolling children at the age of six or seven.
• Secondary education consists of lower-secondary school and upper-secondary school. Most lower-secondary schools provide the final three years of compulsory education, while a small number of schools provide a four-year education for students who completed five-year (rather than six-year) primary education programs. Upper-secondary education is non-compulsory, and lasts three years-students generally complete secondary education at the age of 18.
• In addition to general academic lower- and upper-secondary schools, there also are more specialized vocational and technical secondary schools. Vocational education at the secondary level may be provided at: (1) specialized secondary schools, (2) vocational secondary schools, and (3) schools for skilled workers. Most of these schools offer three to four-year courses.
• Higher education at the undergraduate level is provided by universities and colleges, specialized colleges and vocational colleges. Vocational colleges and some specialized colleges offer two or three-year diploma programs, while colleges and universities offer four-year undergraduate programs (with exception of medical and some engineering courses, which last five years), as well as graduate programs, which lead to Master's and doctoral degrees.

Since the law making education compulsory for nine years was established in 1986, there have been great efforts to make basic (compulsory) education truly universal in China. This goal has nearly been achieved at the primary level-in 1996, the net enrollment rate for primary school-age children reached 99 percent. Net enrollment in lower-secondary school was 83 percent during the same period. About half of lower-secondary school graduates proceed to various types of upper-secondary education (Ibid.).

Adult education also is an important component of the overall education system in China. The Chinese government provides literacy education; equivalency programs in primary, secondary, higher, and technical education; in-service training; social and cultural enrichment courses; and specialized education certificates to meet the various needs of its society.

School Governance and Finance  

Governance  Although there are many different organizations and governmental levels involved, the Ministry of Education views the South African education system as functioning as a single system, which is mainly organized and managed at the provincial level. The Ministry of Education is responsible for formulating broad policies regarding education and training at the national level, with the assistance of the national Department of Education.

Governance. Education in China is administered at different levels of government, with the central, provincial (including autonomous regions and metropolitan municipalities), prefectural, and county governments each having its own role in national and local educational administration. The role of the central government is to give guidance to and supervise educational administration, while local governments at various levels are responsible for the day-to-day management and administration of primary and secondary education in their respective areas.

At the central level, the Ministry of Education, a professional organization of the State Council (see Footnote 1), takes responsibility for overseeing education throughout the country. The Ministry is in charge of enforcing the laws and decrees enacted by the state and of formulating policies and principles concerning education.

The local governments at all levels have departments of education, which are responsible for providing educational services and implementing national policies concerning education. Presently, the county-level governments are responsible for elementary and secondary education, including personnel management and teacher training, while prefectural-level governments take charge of managing their "key" primary and secondary schools(see Footnote 2). Vocational schools are run by the relevant departments at various levels of the government, by professional organizations, or by local educational authorities.

Also, the central government encourages various organizations to operate kindergartens. Thus, kindergartens and other types of pre-school may be run by local governments, business enterprises, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as by individuals.

Finance. Education is mainly financed by government funds, which include allocations both from the state budget and from local governments. In 1994, 79 percent of total educational expenditures came from government sources. Other sources of funding include business enterprises, tuition, miscellaneous fees imposed by schools, donations, and collections. In 1994, 66 percent of the total public educational expenditure was spent on primary and secondary education, while 14 percent went to higher education. The remaining 20 percent was spent on vocational education programs, adult education programs, and other miscellaneous needs (Ibid.).

Curriculum  

A new, unified curriculum is currently being introduced in South African schools. Curriculum 2005, the new curriculum, was phased in at Grade 1 in 1998, and will be phased in at Grade 7 (or the first year in junior secondary school) in 2000 (Ministry of Education, 1999). In developing the new curriculum, the national government adopted a "fully participatory process," which emphasized the participation of education practitioners, as well as researchers and administrators. Since 1995, various committees have been organized to provide input during various phases of development of the comprehensive curriculum. Participants in these committees included representatives from national and provincial education departments, representatives from different stakeholders' group, and teachers from different areas of the country (Curriculum 2005 Review Committee, 2000).

Curriculum development in China is centralized. The Ministry of Education initiates the curriculum development process by preparing curricular guidelines through consultation with expert groups. It also oversees the preparation of textbooks and teaching materials. However, the Ministry of Education does allow local departments of education, or sometimes the teachers themselves, to choose those materials that suit the socio-economic needs and background of their localities, provided that the basic requirements of the overall curriculum are met.

In order to meet the needs of areas across the country, the state develops several versions of the corresponding teaching materials. For compulsory (or primary and lower-secondary levels of) education, the central government has edited more than eight sets of teaching materials under the guidance of curricular syllabi, including teaching materials for schools with multi-grade classrooms. In some regions, these materials can be (and are) translated into minority languages or can be edited at the local level (NIER, 1999).

The curriculum for primary school students focuses on Chinese language and mathematics. Other subjects taught in primary schools include social studies, natural sciences, physical education, music, painting, and ideology and moral education. Also, there are other activities that are part of the school schedule and that supplement the academic curriculum, such as science, technology, and cultural activities; collaborative activities; and physical exercise. For lower-secondary schools, there are established curricula for 13 subjects, including Chinese, ideology and politics, mathematics, history, geography, physics, chemistry, biology, physical education, music, painting, a foreign language and vocational skills (Ibid.). Upper-secondary schools are required to offer optional (or elective) subjects, according to the needs of the students and the society, and the specific conditions of the schools.

Standards for Student Performance and Gateways to Promotion and Higher Education  

In primary and secondary schools, students take term and school-year examinations as they progress through the system. Students also take standardized completion examinations when moving from one level of schooling to the next (e.g., from primary to lower-secondary school), and upper-secondary schools require prospective students to take entrance examinations, which are selective and used in combination with the lower-secondary completion examination results. In primary schools, the completion examinations are taken only in Chinese and mathematics, which are the foci of the curriculum at that level. These completion examinations, as well as those for lower- and upper-secondary school and the entrance examinations to upper-secondary schools and universities, are standardized either at the local or central level (Husén & Postlethwaite, 1994).

Admission to higher education is highly competitive and selective in China. For instance, in 1997, only about 8 percent of the age cohort 18 to 21 were enrolled in an institution of higher education (NIER, 1998). In order to proceed to an institution of higher education, students are required to take common national entrance examinations, with separate provisions for liberal arts candidates and science candidates.

Teacher Training and Certification  

In China, there are three types of institutions that specialize in teacher preparation-normal schools for elementary school teachers, normal colleges for junior secondary school teachers, and normal universities for senior secondary school teachers. Other universities also offer teacher-training courses.

Generally, primary and preschool teachers in China receive pre-service training offered at Normal or Pre-school Normal Schools, after graduating from lower-secondary school. After this three to four year training is completed, students are deemed to have met the state-approved qualification for teaching in primary schools and kindergartens and are awarded a teaching certificate.

In the same manner, the certificates for lower-secondary school teachers are awarded for students who successfully complete two to three years of pre-service training at a Normal College after graduating from upper-secondary school. Normal Universities are institutions that provide 4 years of training to upper-secondary school graduates, after which students are awarded a bachelor's degree and state-approved qualification for teaching in upper-secondary school. Teaching qualifications also can be obtained by taking teacher-training classes in regular universities and through distance-learning university courses (Department of Teacher Education, 1995).

In-service training is an important component of teacher education in China. Full-time and correspondence in-service training programs are offered at regional and provincial teacher training colleges and teacher training schools at the county level. This provides opportunities for teachers without qualifications to seek additional training and to obtain teaching certificates (Ibid.).

The Chinese education system has achieved important improvements in teaching quality in the past two decades. From 1978 to 1992, the percentage of qualified teachers increased from 43 to 83 percent at the primary level and from 10 to 56 percent at the lower-secondary level (Ibid.).

References  

Department of Teacher Education, State Education Commission, People's Republic of China (1995). "Teacher Training and Professional Development in China" in L. Darling-Hammond & V.L. Cobb (eds.). Teaching Preparation and Professional Development in APEC Members (pp. 57-88). Singapore: Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat.

Husén, T., & Postlethwaite, N. (Eds.) (1994). The International Encyclopedia of Education (Second edition). Oxford: Pergamon Press.

National Institute for Educational Research (NIER) (1998). Recent Reform and Perspectives in Higher Education: Report of the Seminar Including a Range of Countries from Asia-Pacific and Europe. Tokyo: National Institute for Educational Research.

National Institute for Educational Research (NIER) (1999). An International Comparative Study of School Curriculum. Tokyo: National Institute for Educational Research.

UNESCO Principal Regional Office (1998). Education management profile: People's Republic of China. Available at http://unescodoc.unesco.org/images/0011/00145/11453/eo.pdf

Wolden, R.L., Savada, A.M. & Doran R.E. (Eds.) (1987). A Country Study: China. Washington, DC: Library of Congress