Two Decades of Basic Education in Rural China: Transitions and Challenges for Development(New Frontiers of Educational Research)

This book examines how educational change has progressed in three contrasting areas spread across China since 1990, exploring key issues concerning rural education in poor, rich and minority areas. Of the three areas covered in this book, the first is a rich one near Beijing; the second is in the northwest in Shanxi on the Loess plateau; and the third is in Sichuan on the high plateau leading to Tibet. Central issues include the impact of large-scale demographic change and migration, with increasing numbers of left-behind children in sending areas, and large increases in the numbers of inbound migrants in receiving areas; dramatic increases in the boarding of children in rural areas as a result of rural school merge; changing patterns of teacher deployment; recentralization of responsibilities for school financing; and growing concerns regarding horizontal and vertical inequalities in both access and participation.

Table of Contents:
Setting The Scene.- Compulsory Education in A Rich District Tongzhou in Beijing.- Nine Year Compulsory Education in A Poor District Ansai in Yan’an, Shannxi.- Nine Year Compulsory Education in a National Minority Area Zhaojue County, Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan.- Rural Teacher Issues.- Financing Compulsory Education in Rural Areas: The Development of a Sustainable Fund.- Marginalised Children and Universal Basic Education.- School Mapping and Boarding in The Context of Demographic Change in Rural Areas of China.- Education and Change – Retrospect and Prospect.

About the Author :
Wang Lu is Professor at the School of International and Comparative Education, the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, the People’s Republic of China. She obtained her PhD in Education at Sussex University and subsequently worked as research officer at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK. She has been leading various research projects funded by the British Academy, British Council, Save the Children, as well as key research projects funded by the Chinese national level organizations. She has been working as international and national consultant for the World Bank, UNESCO and DFID on basic education projects in China. She has published widely on equity issues in basic education, access of migrant children, minority children and girls to compulsory education, inspection and evaluation, policy and reform of British education. She has won first class reward on research on school inspection system from national research society. Professor Keith Lewin isthe Director for International Education at the University of Sussex and of CREATE, as well as former president of British Association for Comparative and International Education (BAICE). He is academician of the Academy of the Social Sciences, United Kingdom, Joyce Cain Award of the Comparative and International Education Society of the USA for the best journal article on Africa (2013), Honorary Professor Beijing Normal University. He has extensive experience in China, Africa, South and South East Asia. He has published 18 books and over 100 scholarly articles and chapters. He has worked extensively with the World Bank, DFID, DSE/GTZ, UNICEF　and UNESCO.　He presented at the world educational conference at Jomtien and Dakar, and contributed to development planning in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and South Africa, and in India, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. His research interests include the economics of education, educational financing, educational policy and planning, teacher education, science education policy ,　assessment and aid to education.