Research On The Urbanization Of Rural Education

Urbanization is progressing rapidly in China.The present urbanization is approximately 47%with an annual average growth of 1%,and has become one of the countries with the highest rate of urbanization in the world.The primary chain reaction accompanying urbanization is the flow of large rural population to cities and towns.According to the latest estimate approximately 140 million "farmer workers" have rushed to cities and till the year 2030,the urbanization of China will have reached to 65%,that is,within 20 years,there will be near 400 million rural people move to cities,that is 20 million farmers becoming city dwellers per year.The accelerating urbanization has given rise to the problems of rural educationin in that the rural communities will become "empty-nests" while the schools "empty shells".Rural education is declining together with the overall declining of the rural society.Following this inevitable trend,rural education will accordingly result in disorder to some extent.Though both the central and local governments have enhanced their support on,rural schools by combining and readjusting distribution of rural schools,the overall declining tendency of rural education has not been fundamentally reversed.Rural education is thus facing the unprecedented challenges:to continuously consolidate the rural education by means of improving quality of rural education,or to adapt to the trend of urbanization by enhancing the process of urbanization of rural education?This makes the focus of the present dissertation.The purpose and significance of this research lies in that it outlines the general trends of social changes in China,analyzes the present situation and future tendency of rural education,and provides solutions to the present problems and suggestions for a long-term development of rural education.The feasibilities of "the urbanization of rural education",which is the central subject of the present dissertation,have been analyzed.In January and Febrary of 2010,the author investigated 27 rural and 12 urban middle schools in 8 counties of Yan'an City and Yulin City.The subjects of the investigation include teachers,students,students' parents of the rural schools;and in urban schools the teachers,officials of the county educational department,students and their parents who come from rural areas.Approximately 2000 questionnaires had been distributed.The field study investigated the quality,problems,attitudes toward the urbanization of rural junior middle schools,as well as the situations of urban schools.Based on the first-hand materials and data,the problem and difficulties of rural education,the reality and theoretical bases,and international experience have been analyzed respectively.Then,the directions,pathes,principles,methods and policies for the promotion of rural education have been propsed.The major conclusions of the present study include:urbanization of rural education is the accompaniment of urbanization and the natural process of social changes.The urbanization in China is not thorough in that urbanization of land and laobour forces grows much fater than urbanization of population.The result is that urbanization in China is in fact the "semi-urbaniztion" or "pseudo-urbanization".Millions of the"floating children" in the urban areas,together with their parents who come to cities,have become "marginals".Both the "floating children" in the urban areas and the children stay in the rural areas are the victims of this "semi-urbanization",their learning,body and mind have been greatly influenced.Thus,a timely promotion of urbanization of rural eduction will benefit both groups of children,and provide high-quality eduction to more rural children.This shall comply with the wills of most people and will be significant for a stable development of urbanization in China.In accordance with the accelerating urbanization and declining tendency of rural education in China,rural education shall be conducted in urban areas.The investment and education resources of both basic and senior education shall go to the urban areas which will be hope of rural education.The short-term goal of rural education is to transfer the senior middle schools to counties.The long-term goal of it is the integration of urban and rural education.This is the fundamental approach to eliminate the binary structures of urban and rural education so as to realize a banlanced development of them and to prompt the urban and rural children to share the high-quality education resources in urban areas and to achieve a thorough academic and mind development for all the children.The developed and some developing countries in the world have provided successful experience.However,considering the diversities of regional differences and education levels in China,the implementation of urbanization of rural education in China shall follow the principles of considering local conditions,gradual processing,distinguishing between the East and the West regions,and respecting public views.Any idea of rash advance and "one size fits all" shall be prevented.At present,it is respectfully suggested that the urbanization of rural education in China be initiated in the comparatively poor western region and ecologically vulnerabe areas.