A Study On Educational Aid

International educational aid is the assistance by the means of loan, grant or other resources (e.g. teachers, professional expertise, knowledge, equipment, scholarships, etc.) offered by the aid providers (the governments of developed countries, multilateral international organizations, non-governmental angencies s as well as private organizations or individuals) to support the recipient countries to improve education, and finally improve their production, economy, health as well as public welfare. Educational aid includes not only the international transfer of funds, but also the transfer of knowledge, expertise and other educational resources. The purposes for the donors to provide educational aid are three-fold, firstly serve for the political, economic and cultural interests of the providers, secondly help push forward the economic and social development of the recipients, and thirdly find resolutions to problems faced by the international society. Educational aid has helped develop the education in the recipient countries, enhance the worldwide cooperation and exchanges in education as well as education research, and also enhance the role of international organizations for development.The typical and large-scaled educational aid appeared after the Second World War, but some aid activities had happened in colonial period when taking account of its origin. And its history since the end of the Second World War can be divided into four periods coming as:the period for the rise and rapid growth of educational aid (from the end of World Warâ…¡to the end of 1960s); the period for the further development of education aid (1970s); the period for the adjustment of educational aid (1980s); and the period for the all-round development of educational aid (since 1990). The development of educational aid is influenced by the development theories. Since the end of the Second World War, development theories have experienced evolution from economic development theory to social development theory, and then to comprehensive development theory and currently to human centered development theory. With the influence of different development theories, the focus and strategies for educational aid has been changed along. And the development of educational aid has undertaken following improvments:its focus transfers from economic development to the basic human needs; international organizations play more and more significant role in the development of educational aid; its support changes from the hardware building to software building; and more and more aid takes the transition form 'project aid' to 'sector aid' and 'programme aid'.According to the features of aid providers, educational aid includes three types coming as multinational aid, bilateral aid as well as non-governmental agency aid. The main multilateral providers are the aid agencies under the United Nations, e.g. UNESCO, UNDP, UNICEF, and the World Bank under the Bretton Woods system. And the main bilateral aid providers are the member countries of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), such as UK, USA, Japan, Canada, etc. Except for international organizations and the governments of developed countries as well as other bilateral providers, non-governmental agencies also provide educational aid in developing countries. The non-governmental agencies that provide educational assistance include charity foundations, voluntary organizations, businesses, universities and other private agencies. The three types of aid have different comparative advantages and their aid complements one another, to jointly provide funds, knowledge, expertise and other resources to support the educational development in recipient countries.China started to receive aid from western countries, international organizations and non-governmental agencies in 1979. Since then, China has experienced a history of starting to be a recipient and being big recipient later and then'graduating'from the international aid system. The development of educational aid in China is of following characteristics:the international organizations play a significant role in educational aid to China; educational aid in China pays more and more attention to the basic education development; educational aid in China focuses more and more on capacity building and software improvement; educational aid in China is closely in line with the national education development policies and strategies. In general, educational aid in China has made positive contributions to and plays a very important role in the education development in China. It has provided additional funds, enhanced the balanced development of education in different regions, introduced advanced techniques and management experiences, trained professional staff, and led to innovations of education ideas and mechanisms.Educational aid has brought positive impacts on the recipient countries and also some problem, among which the most serious would be the recipients'dependence on the donor countries. In order to avoid the negative impacts of aid and improve its relevance and effectiveness, the international aid society should take joint efforts to scientifically construct effective strategies for the development of educational aid by (1) improving the effectiveness of educational aid through building the recipients' 'political will' and 'ownership', enhancing their capacity of research, planning and management, making the aid closely link to the education development policies and strategies of the developing countries and making aid responsive to the actual needs of target groups, and strengthening the management of assistance; (2) reaching the goal of overall coordination of educational aid by enhancing the coordination within and among the recipient countries, coordination among aid providers, coordination between the recipients and donors as well as the coordination at the international level; (3) improving the professonal expertise of educational aid with support to software building, enhancing the research on related issues of aid and encouraging the consultancy organizations to participate in the educational aid; (4) enhancing the trend of networking in educational aid and take efforts to establish networks of aid policy communication, knowledge and information sharing, research as well as personnel exchange.