Studies On School Education Policies In The Late Qing Dynasty

In the late Qing Dynasty of China, formulating and pursuing education policies on schools meant the transition from traditional education to modern education as well as the process of building the law system, which was important in the history of modern education and was also theoretically and practically significant as a medium in the change from education system to education practice. As far as its present study is concerned, the results can be called rich, including the studies in theory, background, establishment, and introduction of the policy and so on, which are helpful to further understanding of the evolution of modern education policy and its theoretical connotation. Under the new situation, from the multi-perspective of contemporary education policy and the relevant disciplines, the breakthrough of study methods and content will enhance the further study of education policies on schools.The traditional Chinese education system takes ko-chu chih-tu as its core and Confucianism as its content, with the simultaneous existence of the schools run by the government, schools run by the privates and the academies of classical learning. After the Opium War, the missionaries arrived and the Western learning was introduced, so the fostering of new modern talented persons became the goal of education reform and traditional. During the period of Yang-wu yun-tung, both problems and achievements in education were the conflicts in each class of the society, which required Qing government to standardize the system by the education policy. During the period of Wei-xin reform, due to the change of the world's environment, Qing government expanded its function and increase the impact and momentum of social management. At the same time, the early reformists, people of Wei-xin class, and gentlemen and merchants approached education from both the thoughts and practice. These movements helped to arouse the public awareness so that the problems in schools entered the agenda of Qing government. During the period of the Hsin-cheng reform, people from all over the country set off the high tide of running schools, such as turning academies of classical learning into new schools and running new schools. The problems of the school system and the management in the schools aroused the attention of Qing government. The education problems of schools became the core field of the education policy at last.By following the Japanese way, Qing government established the agenda to plan the education policy swiftly. In 1902, Qing government promulgated Qing-ding School Regulations. However, due to various reasons, the first planned education policy on schools wasn't popularized widely. Later, Qing government promulgated the imperial edict, and Chang Chih-tung and other people were required to discuss and decide school regulations together. Zou-ding School Regulations were promulgated in 1904. Qing government urged and ordered every province to run new schools, so it set off the scene of implementing the education policies in the late Qing Dynasty. As a special body of implementing the education policies, Hsueh-wu-chu planned and prepared to implement them. All Governor-Generals and vice Governor-Generals ran schools actively. They adopted many measures and the quantities and qualities of running schools were promoted in varying degrees, especially in chil-li province and hu-bei province. However, because of the interrelationship between education problems and society and the complexity of some influencing factors, there emerged some problems and difficulties in the process of implementation of the education policies in the late Qing Dynasty. They met with many difficulties. Because the quality of the people of a nation played the decisive role in the reform of constitutional government, Qing government abolished the system of ko-chu chih-tu and set up a Ministry of education (Hsueh-pu). Hsueh-pu was awarded some power of making a policy and implementing a policy. Within the limits permitted by law, Hsueh-pu regarded the implementation of schools education policies as the essential task, planning and implementing them all around. The whole plan made the implementing policies follow the regular pattern so that the whole process could be staged and developed step by step. Flexibly and creatively, the whole process went through smoothly. According to the new condition, Hsueh-pu gave supplementary terms to the education policies in time and adapted the policies in the process of implementation so that the education policies of the late Qing Dynasty could be supplemented. The whole process of the education policies on schools in the late Qing Dynasty followed some standards so that the formulation and implementation of an education policy went on according to regular procedures and steps. The content of the policies was tested in the implementation to make it more scientific and they became the beginning of the history of education policies in Modern China. Because of the implementation in the late Qing Dynasty, large numbers of talented people in political, economical and cultural fields of the society were cultivated, which showed the basic functions of the education policies.School education policies at that time expressed the wills of the ruling class and therefore the courses designed were full of political colors. Because the policy-makers depended in a large degree on the experiences of the Japanese and they were ignorant of its application in China, the goal of the education policies turned wrongly to saving the nation by education. During the implementation process, there existed objective conflicts of benefits in varying degrees and the school education policies in the late Qing Dynasty showed their own limitation. The social and political environment of the late Qing Dynasty was in a perilous position, which made Qing government incapable of regulating the various relations between education and the different levels of social structure. Due to the downfall of Qing Dynasty and the loss of power of Qing government, the school education policies in the late Qing Dynasty became the historical resources and the continuous research subject in Ming-guo and the succeeding eras. Study on school education policies in the late Qing Dynasty is still a research field which requires the further study from some related areas as History of Chinese Education and Education Policies.