Two decades of reform have transformed the social and economic context of schooling in China. The
economic returns to education have increased and higher incomes have made greater investments in
education possible. However, greater decentralization has widened urban-rural and inter-regional disparities
in schooling access and quality. As China’s economic system has become increasingly market-oriented, the
demands upon the educational system itself have changed, both quantitatively and qualitatively. These
changes pose great challenges. China’s response to these challenges has significant implications for the
future welfare of China’s children and for the country’s development prospects in a world of increasing
technological advancement and globalization.
The challenges are particularly great for China’s rural educational system. The system has made enormous
strides since 1949, when the government faced the challenge of educating a population that was 80 percent
illiterate and in which less than 40 percent, some estimate less than 20 percent, of school-aged children
were enrolled in school. The socialist record in increasing the numbers of rural schools and raising
enrollment and literacy rates was truly remarkable and stands as one of the great accomplishments of
Chinese communism. By 1980, adult literacy had reached 69 percent, and nearly all children received a
primary education.
With economic reforms, China saw dramatic reductions in poverty, which increased available private
resources for educational investment. However, China witnessed an initial dramatic drop in school
enrollments in the early 1980s as many rural schools deemed to be of inferior quality were closed and the
opportunity costs of schooling increased when labor could earn income that went directly to the family
following decollectivization. Since then, enrollment rates have recovered and surpassed their initial level.
Yet, as described above, new challenges have emerged.
In the popular movie Not One Less, the famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou dramatizes the financial
plight of schools and families in poor, rural areas. A young and inexperienced substitute teacher works in a
dilapidated one-room rural schoolhouse. Using chalk that must be rationed carefully if it is to last through
the year, she writes lessons on the board each day for the children to copy into their notebooks. Heeding
the words of the absent teacher, the substitute’s main goal is to prevent children from dropping out of
school. The story centers around her journey to bring back a boy who has left school to earn money in the
city to help pay the medical expenses of his sick mother.
In this article, our goal is to describe the system of rural education in China and critically assess current
policy challenges. We divide the discussion into three issue areas, each which resonate with the rural
setting described in Not One Less--lack of funds, high dropout rates among the poor, and teachers with little
training and support. First, we examine the financing of public education in rural areas, which lies at the
heart of growing disparities in the quality of education as well as many specific concerns about rural
education in China. Second, we discuss the challenge of completing the promise of providing a public
education of adequate quality to all, especially for the poor, for young girls, and for minorities. Third, we
discuss priorities for raising the quality of rural education.
At various points in this article, we refer to findings from the Gansu Study of Children and Families
(hereafter, the Gansu project), a major field research project we directed in the year 2000 to investigate the
key issues affecting rural educational outcomes in China, especially those in poor areas. The project was
undertaken by an interdisciplinary team of U.S. and Chinese researchers and featured in-depth interviews
and testing of 2000 9-12 year-old children in rural areas of Gansu, an interior province in Northwest China.
We also interviewed each child’s mother, father, teacher, school principal, and village leader. These
interviews produced a rich set of perspectives on the community, family and school contexts in which
children learn. We plan to follow these children as they grow up in order to study how childhood
experiences, education, and health affect future life outcomes