Urban-Rural Disparities in Educational Equality: China's Pressing Challenge in a Context of Economic Growth and Political Change

Abstract

Equality has become a major goal of education around the world. The government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)1 also professes its commitment to equality, and has taken a variety of steps to provide at least basic education to its citizens. At the same time, China has its own interpretation of the notion of equality. This, together with its limited ability to fund measures to work towards the goal, has had great impact especially in rural areas. Globalization is affecting China’s policy priorities in education, and has transformed the discursive terrain within which educational policies are developed and enacted. Parallel to the international situation, the effects of globalization on educational and social equality on different groups and communities vary greatly within China, creating enormous disparities among people. Indeed, accompanying China’s robust economic growth is that China has become one of the countries with the largest urban–rural gap in the world.2 The income gap between rural and urban residents has kept growing. The average income per capita of urban residents increased from 2.8 times that of rural populations in 1995 to 3.1 in 2002 (Xinhua News Agency, 2005). Moreover, the income of the urban citizens concerned does not count the welfare they have access to, including medical care, unemployment insurance and minimum living relief. Considering these factors, urban residents’ income should be easily 4–6 times that of their rural counterparts.