Study On The Geography Of Sichuan Education During The Republican Period

The Republican period is an important transient and transformative phase in modern history of China.It is a period which witnessed enormous reforms and chaos in fields such as politics,economy,ideology,culture etc.thanks to the conflict between the Western and Chinese cultures at the end of Qing Dynasty,while education is the filed that is most vulnerable to change.Education in this period has realized the transformation from the old to the new because of the conflicts between the two,thus has written a glorious chapter in the history of education in China.Education in Sichuan in this period,especially during the period of Anti-Japanese War,has prominent status and unique features,making a huge contribution to the preservation of the lifeline of Chinese culture.Therefore,the study of it boasts high value.Up till now,extensive studies have been made on education in the Republican period,but most of which are conducted from the perspective of pedagogy to study the basic law of its development,lacking an interdisciplinary perspective and approach.What's more,studies done solely on education in Sichuan in this period are relatively rare,as a result,the study conducted in this field can enrich the study of the history of Republican period per se and facilitate the theoretical development of historical geography of education.The thesis discusses the development of education in Sichuan in this period,especially the historical and space-time features of changes happened in distribution of schools based on the insight into the primary,secondary,higher,and some social educational institutes in this period,to analyze the cause for those changes,highlighting its special status in Chinese history.From 1912 to 1937,primary education in Sichuan saw a rapid development,as before the Anti-Japanese War there had already been 24,474 primary schools.But the distribution of these schools were not balanced,with the 2nd district,the 11th district and the 12th district boasting as many as over 2000 schools,far surpassing other districts in the province.Regions including Jingyan,Nanchong,Anyue,Nanbu,and Luxian had more than 200 primary schools,while in Xikang region the number of primary schools was only 25.Before the Anti-Japanese War,there were 197 middle schools,a great increase from the end of Qing Dynasty,with various types and wide distribution.The majority of middle schools at that time were junior school,and the distribution of which was imbalanced,with 61 counties without middle schools.Normal schools in this period were comparatively rare,but with a balanced distribution,by the year of 1936 there were altogether 38 normal schools with normal school,simple normal school,and simple countryside normal schoos as the tree types in existence.These schools were run by different means such as state-owned,province-owned,county-owned,private-funded etc.There were 40 secondary vocational schools before the Anti-Japanese War,with different levels and complete types including combined junior and senior vocational schools,senior vocational schools or junior vocational schools run by the province,county and private owners.Most vocational schools were run by the county-level government,with private ones served as a supplement,and their distribution were imbalanced,with the 3rd district having the most and the 1st district coming as the second,and there were other 130 counties having no vocational schools at all.Finally,there were only 3 registered higher educational institutes,and they were all located in Chengdu or Chongqing.The number of higher educational institutes in Sichuan was below the average level compared with other regions.From 1938 to 1945,thanks to the implementation of the national education system and the migration of people and institutes during the Anti-Japanese War period,the number of primary schools in Sichuan skyrocketed to 54,049,with the 3rd district having the most number of primary schools.Achievements made in the national education by Chongqing and Chengdu attracted nationwide attention,but there were striking discrepancies among different administrative districts.Districts that had more than 2000 central schools and national schools included the 2nd,3rd,10th,11th,and 12th districts while there were only 122 schools of the same types in the 16th district.The distribution of schools in Xikang province was even more imbalanced,with the 2nd and 3rd districts having most schools and that is also the case with Ya'an county and Mianning county.During this period,there were as many as 304 middle schools,with state-owned middle schools standing out and private-owned schools soaring,but the county-level middle schools still held the dominant status.When it comes to the secondary normal schools,there were altogether 52 of them,the majority of which were province-owned and county-owned,and the distribution was relatively balanced.In addition,there were 67 secondary vocational schools,and state-established secondary vocational schools came into being in this period.But the secondary vocational education remained in a weak position and those institutes were mainly located in either Chongqing or Chengdu.Last,higher education in this period witnessed a great-leap-forward development,during which the number of higher education institutions in Sichuan increased to 68,making Sichuan the center of higher education of the country.From 1946 to 1949,the number of primary schools in Sichuan declined to 24,487 because of the Civil War.In 1946,there were 599 secondary schools,most of which were private-owned.County-owned secondary schools were manly junior schools and the distribution was still imbalanced.For example,there were 22 counties in Xikang region without secondary school.The distribution of secondary normal schools was comparatively balanced,with 104 of them in existence and most which were province-owned or county-owned.In this period,there were 96 secondary vocational schools,and great development took place in Xikang.Furthermore,because of demobilization,the number of higher education institutes decreased to 24,and the surrounding areas of Chongqing and Chengdu plus Xikang witnessed a development in higher education.To sum up,on the eve of liberation in 1949,the number and scale of schools in Sichuan declined a lot and education in Sichuan saw a huge depression as a result of fiscal problem and internal affairs,class suspension and even closing of schools sometimes happened.By dividing its development into different periods,education in Sichuan in the Republican experienced three stages including the initial development stage(1912-193),thriving stage(1938-1945),and gradual decline stage(1946-1949).While based on its spatial distribution,education in Sichuan developed a dynamic system of education center,sub center,and peripheral area.The education center moved to the east and kept expanding,while the peripheral area moved towards the west and kept shrinking.When taking the demographic feature into consideration,installation of schools in all these three areas was far from reasonable.Factors including physical-geographical environment,population,transportation,economic development,politics,ethnic structure and educational and cultural foundation influenced the change of the distribution of schools in Sichuan during the Republican period.As a result,plains and hilly areas have more schools,so is the case with regions with bigger population,regions with rivers and advanced transportation system,regions with rosy economy,and regions with sound educational and cultural foundation plus regions near Chongqing and Chengdu,while for those mountainous regions,plateau regions and of course regions of minorities the number of schools is quite lower.Diachronically,the center of education in Sichuan has moved towards the eastern and southern parts of the country since Han and Jin Dynasties;Synchronically,Education in Sichuan in this period boasts a relatively reasonable distribution of schools,and the number of schools also stays at the top position compared with other regions.Education in Sichuan during the Republican period has a significant status in Chinese history,realizing a transformation from the traditional education to modern education through inheritance and innovation,and it has also made an indelible contribution to preserving the lifeline of culture of Chinese education during the Anti-Japanese War period.Educationists,with Tao Xingzhi,Yan Yangchu,and Liang Shuming as representatives,have implemented brand-new educational concepts in Sichuan and explored the course of education in China.The fact that Sichuan as a leader in education in western China has narrowed the discrepancy between the west and the east of the country to some extent.Based on a restoration of the distribution of schools in Sichuan during the Republican period,the study adopts methods such as quantitative analysis,comparative study and draws on theories in history,geography,pedagogy,and area research to analyze the distribution of primary,secondary,and higher education institutes in Sichuan at different stages,and conducts a diachronic comparative study on education in Sichuan and between Sichuan and other provinces.Through the study,it can be seen that although education in Sichuan during the Republican period has an imbalanced development in different regions because of the impact of various geographical factors,the achievements made and the big number of schools all make it a shining star in the history of education in China.