It’s a school that only has three students and five teachers left. Can this type of schoolpossibly make it?
Mr. Zheng, whose kid is a student of Cai Jiapo School in Hu county, central China’s Xi’an,wondered aloud this question as the school faces closure. There have been rumors sayingthat the school is facing consolidation. Since then, parents began transferring their childrento other schools. Before long, the school went from 50 students down to three.
Hu county officials denied ever releasing any consolidation notifications. And despite thefact that transferring schools is ultimately the parent’s own decision, this rumor hasalready caused a clear impact. Analyzing the consequences of this rumor, though, one cansee a new trend emerging within education and the management of schools in rural China.
The number of schools in China is decreasing while the students are increasing. This stemsfrom the consolidation of schools, particularly in rural areas. Many parents believe sendingtheir children to “central” schools will save them the hassle of having to transfer schoolsdown the road. They believe that local schools lack the quality and resources offered bytheir central counterparts. The problem is psychological, too. As rural schools have beensubjected to consolidation in the past, Chinese parents feel that the remaining schools willeventually follow suit. Rather than dealing with the uncertainty, they prefer sending theirchildren to the urban schools.
We don’t want our rural schools closing, and we certainly don’t want for parents to thinkthat they must send their children to the city in order to obtain a quality education. InJuly, the State Council released an opinion piece outlining the steps necessary forreforming county and rural education. The piece proposed moving forward on makingnationwide education standards, including standardizing teacher training, setting a fixedquota for public funds, fairly allocating equipment, etc. The aim is to harmonize compulsoryeducation and China’s urbanization. Rural schools shouldn’t be eliminated. Instead, wemust work towards establishing equilibrium in how schools are run in the city and townsversus the countryside.