Transformation In Dilemma: New Elementary Schools In The Late Ch'ing Period

Education transformation is one of the most important processes of the reform in the Late Ch'ing period. This thesis studies on the reforms of the elementary schools which is the key point of the reform at that time from different perspectives, such as the setting up conditions, the funds and teachers, the contents of the textbooks and the curriculum settings, so as to probe into the disadvantages and short-comings in the beginning of a modern new education in China, to analyze people's reaction to the new schools in the turning period, the efforts made by the Ch'ing government, and the variations and disjoints in the process of drawing out a policy. From above, the real reasons of the differences between the ideal and the reality can be clearly found out.Besides the instruction and conclusion, the main body of this thesis consists of four chapters.The first chapter mainly describes the backgrounds and the measures of the new elementary schools as well as the implementations in the local places. In the author's opinion, the old education organization forms a base for the new school during the establishment of the new schools. However, after the imperial examination system was abolished, the local places have more freedom to set up a school so that the schools have been developed and their positions maintained. On the other hand, for lack of the overall planning, education is not developed harmoniously in each place and the education justice is unbalanced. Especially, owning to insufficiency of the higher elementary school, it is hard for the general scholars to avail themselves of the society, so the fluidity of society has been hampered and the social conformity ability of the Ch'ing government has been influenced.The second chapter comments on the methods to collect funds for the new schools and people's reactions. In my view, "local funds" policy and the option of fund-raising method are the main reasons of causing resistance to the new schools, which not only leads to the slow development of the schools but also the frequent destruction to the new schools.The third chapter focuses on the quality of the teachers and their welfares to discuss their influences on teaching. Because of the expansions of new schools and the accelerating shortage of teachers, the large number of non-professional-teacher graduates flood in the teacher's troops which result in...