The Study Of The Welfare System Of Compulsory Education Of Peasant Workers' Children In Guangzhou

Providing compulsory education to peasant workers' children in cities should not only be the government's responsibility. Based on the frame work of welfare triangle, any type of welfare service is provided by the government, markets and families. Hence an integrated welfare system of compulsory education of peasant workers' children should consist of the government, markets and families as well as those welfare services supported by them. Generally, these three welfare services providers play different roles in the welfare system of compulsory education for peasant workers' children, providing various types of services and support. In this system, the government is responsible for the distribution of school places, the management of admission qualifications, the way of further study and the funds support; the duty of the market is to provide compulsory education services for peasant workers' children through private schools; it is family's responsibility to offer material support and guidance to education for their own children who are from these peasant workers' family.Guangzhou is one of the largest cities which have a large population of peasant workers. At present, there are some problems in the welfare system of compulsory education of peasant workers' children in Guangzhou. Firstly, for the welfare offered by the government, the regional disparity of school places, the policy of admission qualifications and the lack of funds have reduced these children's opportunities to attend public schools, making them pay more for receiving compulsory education; Secondly, for the welfare provided by the market, the absence of nonmaterial support in private schools, the high tuition, the shortcoming in the teaching environment and the quality of teachers have resulted in the difficulty of those private schools to provide high quality and low-cost education services to peasant workers' children; Thirdly, for the welfare supported by family, the limited ability to afford education expenses, poor educational environment, poor quality of parent- adolescent communication and parents' high expectation of their children's academic performance have negative effects on the development of the children in these peasant workers' family.Many factors would affect the supply of education welfare services from the government, markets and families. For the government, the restriction on the household registration system, unreasonable financial structures and the imbalance of the social interests of all parties result in the governmental absence in its function; for markets, the lack of policy support, funds and also scientific supervision lead to the absence of regulations and assistance which are necessary to private schools; For families, low education level of parents, strong mobility nature of family, the gap between parents' high expectation of their children's academic performance and limited ability to afford education expenses consist of peasants families' inherent deficiency.After clarifying roles which the government, markets and families play in the welfare system of compulsory education of peasant workers' children in guangzhou, the problems existing in the system and the causes of these problems, corresponding measures should be taken in related to the three parties. First of all, the government' s leadership role should be strengthened by the reform of the household registration system, the foundation of a reasonable financial mechanism, defining the duties of various levels of governments and balancing the social interests of all parties, which can provide a better policy support for peasant workers' children to receive compulsory education. After that, the market should be guided and standardized to provide good welfare services, which actually is one of governments' responsibilities, since it is necessary for governments to be involved in the process of the welfare provision. The government should take actions to enhance policy and financial support to private schools and establish an accessing and supervising mechanism, ensuring that these private schools will keep the balance between making profits and insisting on the principle of public welfare. Besides, enterprises should be encouraged to offer educational welfare, which can help explore much more education resources and relieve public schools' pressure in taking students from peasant worker's family and also provide high quality education services with lower prices. Finally, educational atmosphere should be created in peasant workers' family. For one thing, these children's parents can try to promote a family learning plan, which can help them improve themselves with their children; For another, the government and social organizations can take part in these family' educational actions. For example, the government can encourage some social forces to participate in the home education of peasant workers' children's family, helping those children's parents to replace those utilitarian education concepts with scientific home education ideas. Meanwhile, schools should contact those children's parents more frequently, in order to arouse their attention in the development of their children.