A Portrait Of Rural Schools In Central China

This thesis attempts to make a tentative study on the survival condition of rural schools in central China, through a case study on a rural primary school. Based on the Qualitative Research method, this thesis collected lots of first-hand data including investigation diary, pictures and interviews with the principal, teachers, students, government officials and so on. Furthermore, this study analyzed the survival condition of the case school under the state and society power, and then depicted a vivid view of the school’s life.The major findings in this research consist of:1. The core element of the rural schools’survival is quality. The interlocking four factors affect this quality, student sources, teacher sources, school conditions and school resources.2. The state investment is still the main resource of the rural schools for maintaining basic unit schools, however it has to be obtained by the intermediary. Moreover, the rural grass-roots have had strong abilities on arranging and managing resources, and played a supported role to the rural schools.3. The state investments only supply the basic operational demand of the rural schools; therefore, the school teaching and living facilities are still rudimentary. The crude and simple rural infrastructure has restricted the development of rural schools, and also has negatively impacted on teachers, especially those who come from urban areas.4. The most serious problem is about teacher resources. The average age of the rural schools teachers is too high to qualify to work and the supplement of young teachers is inadequate. Due to the official staffing recommendations of teacher in public schools nowadays, there is an odd phenomenon that the budget redundancy on one side and teacher inadequate on the other side. With the back home concept of rural university students, the Ad hoc post Scheme hosted by central government has had great help to rural education. However, the stability of these teachers in rural schools remains a challenge. 5. At present, the amount of rural school students impacts the competition between schools. Lack of family education and rural pre-school. rural schools have a lot of pressure on teaching effectiveness and quality of education.6. Representatives of social groups, clan and alumni, become conscious subject of rural schools to survive the rise of the social forces and stimulate awareness of the rural schools of their own social identity, but also to promote self-management and development of the school.