Responsibilities Of The Government In The Marketization Process Of Adult Education

Marketization of adult education refers to the practice, in which development of adult education is oriented by that of the social economy, market mechanism is introduced for education administration and the behavior of educational suppliers and receivers in the market is regulated via the market mechanism spontaneously, in order to establish an educational beneficial concept, to achieve effective allotment of educational resources and to make a balance between supply and demand of education. The includes multi-element of school running subjects, flexibility of school running mechanism and practicability of majors and courses provided, etc.Marketization of adult education is characterized by the following points. First of all, adult education being an important integral part of the educational system in China, its marketization is related to the progress of reform in the complete educational system and is an important integral part of the educational reform in China. Secondly, as China's economy is at a transitional stage, the problems left over by the planned economy are still serious in respect of politics, economy and culture, etc, although a market economy structure has been established preliminarily. Consequently, in pushing forward the marketization of adult education in China, it is impossible to get successful by relying only upon the effort of market and the marketization of adult education must be pushed on by joint efforts of the government and the market. Thirdly, as the marketization makes progress gradually, the effort of the market must replace step by step that of the government and become the leading factor in the marketization of adult education.Marketization of adult education is significant in many respects, such as making education meet the demand of development of socialist market economy, building an all-life-education and studying-type society, improving the skill and knowledge level of the social members, increasing the quality and social benefit of adult education, allowing sustainable development of adult education and relieving the country from the burden of educational investment.Marketization of adult education has experienced a slow development process since the issuance of Decision of Adult Education Reform and Development in 1986. There is serious scant supply in the reform system of marketization of adult education as a whole; this has greatly constrained the progress of marketization of adult education.As the marketization of adult education pushes forward, some problems emerges that keep it from healthily developing. As the demand for talents in the market and the evaluation criterion in China vary, deep-seated problems in quality of school running for adult education begin to emerge. Relatively low quality of adult education product results in lack of social recognition.Commercialization and monetization of educational opportunities result in a new differentiation of adult education population. People rather lay stress on the fact that adult education is a commodity and service but they neglect such a fact that a problem of equality of educational opportunity exists behind such a consumption culture; that is to say that weak groups are seriously starved of the opportunities of training and studying and that there is such a trend in which the subjects of training pursue only economic interest but ignore social benefit. They emphasize, in a one-sided manner, that reform and development of adult education should be oriented by the single market standard, which results in market boundedness or market malfunction. These problems represent the leftover from the structure and concept of planned economy, the blindness of market regulation and the insufficiency of government support, etc.To allow marketization of adult education to develop in a healthy manner, responsibilities must be clearly defined between the government and the subjects of school running. In other words, the government must assume the responsibility for healthy development of marketization of adult education. First of all, the government should reinforce legislation in order to provide legal norm for marketization of adult education. This is specifically manifested by providing legal ground and legal restraint mechanism for marketization of adult education. Secondly, institutionalization administration and effective supervision should be executed to normalize the adult education market. This mainly includes examination of qualification of school running subjects, establishment of adult education quality evaluation and supervision system, and assurance of teaching quality. Thirdly, equal rights and fair opportunities for citizens to receive adult education should be ensured in an emphatic manner by means of macro regulation such as policy inclination or nursery finance. Fourthly, a series of coordination shall be carried out well between competent authorities, mainly including coordination between superior and inferior competent educational authorities and that between local competent educational authorities and local government, etc.As decided by the situation in China, marketization of adult education must be implemented in a led-by-government mode and full play should be given to the government for macro administration and regulation in the marketization process. The led-by-government mode for marketization of adult education can facilitate moderating the conflict between efficiency and equity. Healthy development of adult education can be achieved only if the relationship between efficiency and equity is harmonized scientifically and reasonably to make them well balanced and unified under macro regulation of the government.