The Basic Equal Education Public Service Research In China

Since the reform and opening up,education at all levels of China,especially basic education,has improved a lot.At the end of the last century,nine-year compulsory education was popularized all over China,which made it the first developing country to accomplish the task.In the amended new law on compulsory education that has been issued,there are new goals and requirements as to basic education.It's further identified that basic education is the essential feature of education popularization,compulsory education,and free education.It's noted that the fundamental direction of compulsory education is balanced development.In addition,education is a project of public welfare that the country must support,and a public service that the government at all levels must provide to the public for free.The government of China has been making unremitting efforts in order to achieve equalization of basic education as a public service.As a result,the general condition of national basic education as a public service has been improving continuously,with gradually narrowing gaps between regions and gaps between urban and rural areas.While guaranteeing basic education covering all over China,the government of China has been improving the quality of schools and increasing the proportion of fine educational resources provided for students step by step.However,we see meanwhile that,due to such reasons as geographic positions,natural conditions,resource endowments,as well as social and historical development,various provinces differ greatly in the speed of economic development,and the development level.This difference shows not only in economic condition,but also in the government's ability to provide public services.In terms of basic education,as a public service,economically developed areas show a higher level,which poses an obvious gap between them and economically underdeveloped areas.Besides,there is also a large gap between cities and counties of a province,and a large gap between counties and villages of a province in terms of basic education.How to improve the general level of China's basic education as a public service and how to narrow gaps is a problem that we must face and solve.In this thesis,domestic and foreign research trends on basic education as a public service were first summarized,and differentiation as well as analysis were done onrelated concepts.Then,important meanings,which welfare economics,the public choice theory,the new public service theory,the new public management and governance theory,as well as other related theories have for the understanding of equalization of basic education as a public service,were discussed.Then,data of basic education in 31 provinces(cities or municipalities)of China from 2010 to 2014 were collected,summarized,analyzed,and corrected.In addition,an indicator system,that is suitable for the calculated level of basic education as a public welfare after equalization,was built,with the entropy evaluation method used for calculation.On the basis of calculation,different equalization levels of basic education as a public service of provinces,regions,and cities,towns as well as villages within same region of China,were analyzed.Finally,a research conclusion on equalization levels of China's basic education as a public service was made after the analysis,that is,the general level of China is relatively low,and there are still large gaps between provinces of China,despite that they are gradually narrowing.The level of the economically developed eastern part of China is generally high.There is a big gap between the eastern part and the middle as well as the western part of China,but the development of the middle as well as the western part is faster than that of the eastern part.Therefore,the gap is gradually narrowing.Within a region,there are differences among urban areas,counties,and villages in the level of basic education as a public service.Also,reasons for differences were analyzed,and policy orientation for realization of equalization of basic education as a public service was put forward.