China's Rural Education at Risk

The closing rates are higher than the decline in number of rural children, which had originally brought on the increase in dropout students. [China Daily file photo]

Overcrowded township schools

Since the disappearing of the village elementary schools, township or larger rural schools are expanded to meet the need of rural students. Therefore many schools in China are overcrowded, China Youth Daily reported.

In Butuo Country's Ethnic Primary School, the quota of students is set at less than 1,200, yet their current student body counts 1,800. Quality of education and living conditions is yet another new concern for rural students.

Even if township schools are large enough, most of them are located far away from any village and only very few employ the services of a school bus. Since the safety of school buses has become a recent issue, more and more parents prefer for their offspring to attend boarding school or move closer to the towns, China Youth Daily said.

"It's a good thing to gather rural students together to attend middle school in the township, as they will receive better education," said Han. "But for young children, this is not such a good idea since they need to be taken care of."

"In addition, the expenses of rent and transportation will be a large burden for most rural families." He added.

Healing the pain

The government finally realized the tough situation a rural family was faced with and in September of 2012, the State Council published a new document asking for local governments to re-open the closed schools or learning centers if necessary, in keeping with the educational plans and orders for different areas.

An official from the Ministry of Education said they will ensure students from the first to third grades of elementary schools attend a nearby school rather than a boarding one, and use stricter measures to promote compulsory education for rural students, as cited by China Youth Daily.

According to the abovementioned newspaper, so far only the northern area of Jiangsu Province has taken real action, yet the area in which it is doing so is not yet very big.

Liu concluded that it is not merely a matter of rebuilding the schools, but more importantly one of restoring local confidence in rural schooling.