A Study On Farmers' School System In Modern China

Between the years of 1958 and 2001,the heavy burdens of Rural Elementary Education in Modern China had fallen on the shoulders of Chinese Farmer.Only after the Reform of Elementary Education System in 2001,were Chinese Farmers Liberated from the so-called Farmers' School System.The History of Xuancun Village's Elementary School in Dabie Mountain Areas is a mirror of Farmers' School System In Modern China.Xuancun Village is a administrative village in Machen City,Hubei Province.Xuancun Village's Elementary School was founded in 1969,till the education system reform in 2001,when this little village school was terminated.During the years of 1969 and 2001,this little village school was mainly sponsored by the village's farmers,they provided money for the school's basic building,day-to-day expense,and the school teacher's labour.On the 33 years' History of Xuancun Village's Elementary School,there had been 3 Basic Building Projects:the first project lasted from 1968 to 1969,when the main buildings of this little village school was finished,the second project was fulfilled in 1975-1976,according to the superior introductions of founding "Semi-junior Middle School",the third project was undertaken in 1992-1993.The first and second projects were finished during the "Cultural Revolution"period,all the materials,labors,moneys were provided by the farmers living in Xuancun village.In the first project,when the school buildings was first built,owing to the poverty of farmers and the distress of collective economy of Xuancun village,the investment was mainly displayed by the concrete materials and labors forms,very little money was needed.The farmers labors were rewarded by the working grades,the school buildings were built by those farmer-artisans and helpers selected by every working-teams.In the second project of building schoolhouses,there were some changes.The village's administrative body purchased most of the building materials needed,part of these materials were collected and transported by village farmers in the form of voluntary works.This time,the building project was undertaken by professional architecture teams,but not in the form of employer-and-employee contractions.To the professional architecture teams,the building project was an collectivism task allocated by the village's administrative body,no contract and costing accounting was needed.Since 1978,under the Reform and Open up policy,China developed into the market economy Period.When the third project was undertaken,the market played a crucial role.The raising of project budges,the financing and the operation of the project were all cling to the principles of market economy,the cash neux dominated everything.The project not only received donations from the villagers,many go-out businessmen,entrepreneurs and officials also contributed generously.The everyday expenses of Xuancun Village's Elementary School was provided by four fiscal charges:books and tuition fee,commonwealth fund,work-study programs,fill-in financing.Books and tuition fee was the Xuancun villager's direct investmen in the village school system.It was divided into three parts,one part was turned-in to the superior government,one part was used to by teaching books and others was used as day-to-day expenses.During the years of 1969 and 1988,the Books and tuition fee was mainly afford by the village's administrative body,after 1989,the amount of Books and tuition fee became higher and higher,part of the village school teachers'salaries and executive expenses of superior government was derived from the fee,it turned into on item of illegal charges and the heavy burdens of farmers. commonwealth fund was one kind of the village administrative body's investment to village education system,the fund was mainly used to pay teachers'salaries.Work-study programs was used to get added incomes by part-time productive activities in the village-founded workshops started in 1970s.But this kinds of activities disrupted the teaching orders and lowered the teaching quality.After 1977,the scale of work-study programs diminished,after 1990s,it became one item of illegal charges.The Fill-in financing Policy was invented and carried out by Hubei Province,it began in the mid of 1990s and abandoned at the beginning of 21 century.The intention of this policy was to encourage public service units to find new ways of increasing incomes by productive actions.Owing to the specific conditions and environments of Xuancun,this barren mountainous village had no alternative ways but pulling more illegal charges on the farmers'shoulder.One part of this money collected was used to pay village school teachers.Citizen-managed teachers was a crucial part of the teacher teams in rural areas in modern China,no matter scaled in Citizen-managed teachers' numbers or by their meritorious services.They do the same kind and quantity works with their normal colleagues but with much less salaries and remunerations.Under the so-called"Citizen-manage and public support" system,the village administrative bodies collected money and paid salaries to those Citizen-managed teachers,which was very low and irregular.Hundreds and Thousands of Citizen-managed teachers devoted themselves to the elementary education works in rural areas but received no reciprocal rewards,when the Citizen-managed teachers system was abolished,many of them lost the only jobs and fell into poverty.The village school in Xuancun contributed greatly to the economic development and cultural construction in this rural area,it played an important role in the modernization process of this little village and its people.There were three reasons for those illiterate farmers contrived to support and finance their little village school for 30 years:the state government did not pay enough attention to the elementary education in rural areas,the villagers had to take the absent public responsibility and provide this education expenses,the traditional village-community general consciousness and their urgent requirement for knowledge also played very important roles.The Elementary Education Investment and Financing System in operation let the county government collect and finance local elementary education system,the central financial authorities will subsidize these outlays through transfer payments to those provinces,autonomous regions and municipalities,which neglect the different financing ability of County governments of different developing levels.In many underdeveloped areas,the County government do not have enough education budget,and can not solve many problems left by the Citizen-managed school system.Looking forward to the future of China's rural elementary education system,the author suggest that:For the first thing,the central government should be ascertained as the responsible entity of elementary education system,the central government should guarantee and provide enough education investment budges,all levels of local government should take their shares and specific responsibilities.Second,make a reasonable arrangement for and structural adjustment of the rural education system,optimize the allocation of education resources.Thirdly,enlarge the scale and expand the scope of enrollment of normal college student which are free of tuition fee and will go to do services in rural schools,empower and enlarge the rural teacher teams and advance the teachers qualities.At last,if it is to have substantial results,there must be a workable system of rewards and penalties,and a system of subsidies for rural school teachers,only let them have the same remunerations with their urban colleagues can this system inspire their enthusiasms and arouse their initiatives.