What Efforts has the Chinese Government Made to Reduce Educational Inequality in Poor Areas?

Abstract

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, China’s per capita education level has risen from less than two years to 9.91 years. However, as the province with the lowest per capita education level in China, Tibet has only reached the level of 6.75 years per capita. This illustrates the worrying educational inequality that still exists between China’s poorer and more developed regions. This educational inequality can also be expressed by the Gini coefficient of education. In order to eliminate this educational inequality, the Chinese government has made great efforts. The Chinese government has expanded the demand for education through the right incentive system and the nine-year compulsory education law. On the other hand, the Chinese government directly or indirectly grants subsidies to education suppliers and demanders to achieve the purpose of increasing education output. Based on the positive externality of education itself, the Chinese government attaches great importance to the cultivation of human resources for offspring, and hopes to transform China’s quantity-based demographic dividend into quality-based demographic dividend, and finally realize sustained economic growth. We believe that some education-related policies promulgated by China have indeed reduced educational inequality in poor areas to some extent, but there is still potential for progress in further addressing educational inequality in poor areas by the Chinese government.