Urban Community Development and Private Education Dilemma: Based on a Field Study of a City in East China

Abstract

Urbanization is an issue of universal concern today distinctly affecting the supply, content, and orientation of education. Based on a field study in a city in East China, the article argues that rural-urban migration in the process of urbanization created private sectors in education enterprises that were in sync with the urban community expansion. During the rapid development to escape the curse of underdevelopment, the local government unveiled substantive policies and regulations to welcome private capital to engage in education, and to encourage teachers to mobilize from public schools to private schools. With the excess demand for education, the preferential policies and a large number of teachers gave up tenure at public schools, and local private education developed rapidly in terms of number, size and quality. However, the “non-elite” characteristic of both urban and rural private schools was doomed to face dilemma when the ever-changing rural population composition and the differential treatment to public schools and private schools in public policies caused a decline in the number of rural schools and an increase in teachers’ turnover rate. For a sustainable development of local private education, education quality enhancement and policy adjustment shall be a must