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Comparative Education Volume 22, No. 3, 1986 255

China's Recent Education Reform:the beginning of an overhaulCHENG KAI MING

Introduction

In May 1985 the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a nationaleducation conference and a decision was made on 27 May to reform the educationalstructure. The decision was published as a Central Document in Renmin Ribao on 29 May1985 (hereafter abbreviated as the Document [1]). On 31 May 1985, Renmin Ribao (People'sDaily) also published the speech which Wan Li, the Vice-Premier, made on 17 May 1985before the decision. The two documents are widely recognised among Chinese educators asthe crucial policy documents for structural reforms in education in the coming decade or so.

The following discussion is based on interviews with key-informants in variousplanning and policy-making institutions at both central and provincial levels. Some of theinterviews were given in Hong Kong during the informants' visits, but most of theinterviews took place in Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing during recent months.

The paper will be divided into five sections. After a brief introduction of the moredrastic aspects of the reform in the first section, three sections will be devoted to discussingthe specific issues in basic education, technical/vocational education and higher educationrespectively. In the last section, the writer tries to identify the mode of policy-process asdemonstrated by this structural reform.

Interview sources will be coded when cited.

Important Aspects of the Reform

The reform is intended to be a comprehensive exercise which will bring about an overhaul ofthe education structure. The following is an attempt to highlight some of the most drasticaspects.

Basic Education

The Document sets up a target of instituting nine-year compulsory education in the country.In the Document, the country is divided into areas in three categories; and different

timetables have been set for achieving nine-year compulsory education in each of thecategories:

The first category comprises cities and economically developed areas in the coastalprovinces and some parts of the interior, where one quarter of the country'spopulation resides. Junior middle school education has become universal in manyof these areas, while the rest must step up their efforts to make it universal by1990 in accordance with the required quality and quantity.

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256 Cheng Kai Ming

The second category is composed of economically semi-developed townshipsand villages, where about half of the country's population resides. These areasmust, first of all, make primary school education universal and up to standard and,at the same time, to make preparations to complete the spreading of regular juniormiddle school education or junior middle vocational and technical educationaround 1995.

The third category is made up of economically underdeveloped areas whereone quarter of the country's population resides. These areas must, as economicdevelopment permits, take a variety of measures to spread elementary education invarying degrees. The state will do its best to assist these areas in educationaldevelopment. (Reform, 1985: 6-7)

The term 'elementary education' actually refers to basic education which extends tojunior middle school's grade three.

The Document emphasises very strongly that "the power for the administration ofelementary [basic] education belongs to local authorities" (Ibid.: 9). Even the relevantlegislation is left in the hands of the local people's congresses (Ibid.: 7).

Technical and Vocational Education

The Document calls for streaming after basic education, thus re-structuring the secondaryschool system.

Our young people, beginning at the middle school level, should generally bedivided into two groups, with one group of junior middle school graduates enteringregular [general] senior middle schools and the other receiving senior middlevocational and technical education; one group of senior middle school graduatesentering regular [general] colleges and universities and the other receiving senior[higher] vocational and technical education. Those primary school graduates whohave received junior middle vocational and [or] technical education can either startwork or enter higher-level schools. Those students who are not admitted to regularsenior middle schools, regular colleges or universities, or vocational and technicalschools can get jobs after completing short-term vocational or technical training.(Reform, 1985: 11)

The plan is that in five years' time enrolments in general senior secondary schools andthose in senior secondary vocational/technical schools should be equal in most places (Ibid.).

Higher Education

The major aspect in the reform of higher education is autonomy, or "decision-makingpower" in the translated text. "The key to restructuring higher education lies in eliminatingexcessive government control over the institutions" (Reform, 1985: 13-14).

The increase in autonomy is to be realised both at 'macro' and at institutional levels.Higher education institutions can now be run at three, instead of two, levels. Key cities arefor the first time given the authority to operate universities. Higher institutions are givenmore autonomy in enrolment [admission], finance and decision-making in a number of areas,such as

to accept commissions for training students and enrol self-supporting studentsoutside state plans; to re-define the goals of different specialities, draw up teachingplans and syllabuses, compile and select teaching materials; to accept commissions

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China's Recent Education Reform 257

from, or co-operate with, other units in scientific research and technologicaldevelopment and in forming associations for teaching, scientific research andproduction; to appoint or remove vice-presidents and other cadres at variouslevels; to decide how to use the funds allocated by the state for capital constructionand other purposes; to use the funds collected by themselves for educational andacademic exchanges with other countries; and so on. (Reform, 1985: 15)

Administration

Another noticeable change in the re-structuring is the elimination of the Ministry ofEducation so as to absorb it into a newly established State Education Commission (some-times translated as State Commission of Education, other times State Educational Commis-sion).

The State Education Commission is supposed to be parallel to the State PlanningCommission, the State Economic Commission and the State Commission for Science andTechnology. The latter State Commisions are actually represented in the State EducationCommission which was established in June 1985. It includes as well vice-ministers ofFinance and of Labour and Personnel (Xin, 1985).

Basic Education

The General Situation

The country has just switched from a five-year to a six-year primary education system,although five-year primary schools are still being operated in exceptional cases. Officialstatistics reveal an 'enrolment ratio' of 95% in the six-year primary schools in 1984,compared with 94% in 1983 (Jiaoyu Bu, 1985: 23). This 'enrolment ratio' (ruxue lit)however, is not presented in the usual international sense. It actually reads as 'entranceratio', counting the percentage of children at school age who have ever attended school. TheChinese education authorities often take this together with the survival ratio (those whohave completed primary 6) and the accomplishment ratio (those who have attained aprimary school graduation standard) to represent the whole picture. With that definition, theenrolment ratio is still believed to be high. An estimate of a gross enrolment ratio of 77% (in1983) brings the World Bank to the conclusion that the Chinese situation is close to those ofadvanced countries and compares very favourably with the rest of the developing world(World Bank, 1983: 147; 1985: 6). s

The case with junior secondary education, which is also covered by the compulsoryeducation notion, is somehow different. There is no official figure for the enrolment ratio atjunior secondary level. The only ratio available is that 68% of the primary school graduatescontinued their study in junior middle schools in 1981 (Zhongguo, 1982: 154). The WorldBank figures of 75% (World Bank, 1983: 154) and 46% (World Bank, 1985: 7) are by nomeans enlightening, but it is widely accepted that the enrolment ratio for junior secondaryeducation is significantly lower than that for primary. It is noticeable that there has been adrop in the junior secondary enrolment ratio since 1979. Most educators believe that this fallis a healthy retreat from the unrealistic attendance targets set down during the culturalrevolution; but the drop increases the difficulty of achieving universal attendance.

Regional Disparity

Even the favourable enrolment figures for primary schools should not lead to the conclusion

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258 Cheng Kai Ming

that universal primary education can be readily achieved in the near future. In October 1984,when the national overall attendance ratio was 95%, only 393 counties (out of more than2000) were certified as having 100% attendance, and 1388 with attendance above theaverage of 95% (Jiaoyu Bu, 1985: 23-24). In places such as Shanghai and Jiangsu (a coastalprovince in the neighbourhood of Shanghai) universal attendance for nine years' schooling isreadily achieved. In difficult provinces such as Qinghai, where a large proportion of thepopulation is still nomadic, many children still attend horse-back schools and universalattendance for even three or four years is still doubtful. Educators worry that the regionaldisparity is not easy to overcome. It is an accepted fact that disparity in school attendance isvery much a reflection of disparity in economic growth. If the latter were to remain, littlecould be done to remove the former.

Although the classification into three categories has taken this disparity into considera-tion and allowed for different paces in development, policies are yet to be made as towhether this disparity is to increase or to diminish.

There are worries that the nine-year target could be unrealistic for most of the lessdeveloped regions. If not given any interim target, they might easily end up with a nineyears-or-none situation. After all, there is scepticism about how much can be done to narrowthe gap between regions, and to what extent legislation can help, particularly with theflavour of further decentralisation in the Document—which usually implies greater relianceon local finance.

There seems to be a consensus that no uniform requirement should be imposed upondifferent regions, not only across the country, but also within one province or sub-provincialregion. This is certainly a deliberate breakthrough towards flexibility, which is ever lackingin the Chinese education system (Yang, 1985). The recent announced legislation (Zhonghua,1986) confirms that the details of legal requirements will be left in the hands of localgovernments. It is yet to be seen how the trend of diversification can compromise withlegislation which is primarily a step towards uniformity.

Given all these problems, some research institutions have been commissioned toresearch into the matter of legislation .A number of controversies are open to deliberation.For example, what is the meaning of compulsion—age compulsion (e.g. for the age-range6-15), year compulsion (e.g. any nine years of attendance, allowing for repetition), or levelcompulsion (e.g. everyone is to complete junior secondary education)? Who is to be'compelled' (in Chinese, who is 'obliged')—the government, parents or the students? Whatabout the fees? Should basic education then be free? And so on.

Staffing

The most difficult problem in achieving compulsory education is the problem of staffing.It is a well known fact that more than half of the practising teachers in basic education

are unqualified [2]. The latest official figures, in 1983, showed that 47% of primary teachersand 11% of junior secondary teachers were fully qualified (World Bank, 1983: 149; 154),although the situation is a bit better in senior secondary and much better in technical/voca-tional schools.

The staffing problem is often understood as a problem of numbers. There is therefore anew rule in the Document that

No government departments or any other units shall be allowd to transfer qualifiedteachers from secondary or primary schools to other jobs. (Reform, 1985: 8)

There are calls for teachers 'to make education their lifelong career', to undergo further

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China's Recent Education Reform 259

training; for local authorities to improve 'the social status and material benefits of teachers',and so forth. The target is that in five years or so, the "great majority of teachers will bequalified". There are also calls for the expansion of teacher training institutions and forthese institutions 'to adhere to the principle of serving elementary and primary schools', andthat 'all their graduates must be assigned to schools to take up the job of teaching' (Ibid.).

These calls and the measures taken reflect the determination of the Central Govern-ment as well as the serious problems remaining in this area.

Teaching is simply an unattractive occupation. Normal Universities (teacher-traininguniversities) are more enthusiastic about producing scientists and engineers than teachers.They tend to move towards being comprehensive universities. Students in these universitiesalso aspire to non-teaching jobs. Or else, on a pretext of teaching in higher education, theyremain in universities. Others stay on to do post-graduate studies, unfortunately seldom inthe disciplines of Education.

After years of procrastination, a rise in teachers' salary eventually materialised. InDecember 1985 the 62 RMB for a newly graduated teacher still did not compare favourablywith the salary for his counterpart in the industry. Pessimism about the improvement ofteachers' income comes from the fact that schools are seldom profit-making, whereaselsewhere a bonus often constitutes the largest part of one's income. Central funding doesnot seem to be forthcoming, either. In some of the more prosperous provinces, fears ofinflation have also contributed to the government's hesitation in increasing teachers' salaries.

The problem of teacher shortage has naturally led to the enforcement of teachertraining. Most of the facilities for'training primary and secondary school teachers are in thehands of local governments. As a token, the central government sent some 3250 cadres fromcentral Party and government departments to 'train' grass-roots teachers in 22 provinces('Officials', 1985). This was regarded as an assurance of political attention, rather than asactual 'training'. In fact, most of these cadres had never worked in the field of education, letalone been trained as teachers.

Numbers, however, are only half of the staffing problem. Even in the Document, littleattention is paid to the internal efficiency of schools. The existing teacher-pupil ratios are25:1 in primary and 17-6:1 in junior secondary schools (World Bank, 1985: 9). Although itis justifiable to say that Chinese teachers bear a heavy workload in non-classroom activities,much of their time is used in a non-productive way because of such factors as poor cateringfacilities and poor transportation. Rural teachers are provided with plots of land which, foreconomic reasons, distract them from their proper job. Unless all these problems areattended to, the shortage of teachers will remain an insurmountable problem. Unfortunately,these problems cannot be solved by education per se.

Technical Education and Vocational Training

The case of technical education and vocational training is much less uncertain than that ofcompulsory basic education.

The Recent Trend

Figures may paint a clear picture. Enrolments in all types of technical education andvocational training at secondary level in 1984 are shown in Table I.

The growth rate of technical and vocational schools has been almost three times that ofgeneral secondary schools. The expansion in agricultural/vocational schools is particularlyspectacular.

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8115116391745

3706

6898

7-74-860165

350

650

17-812-421-7430

28-3

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260 Cheng Kai Ming

TABLE I. Number of senior secondary schools by type

1984 %of 83/84 Growth(000s) total (%)

Secondary specialisedSecondary teacher trainingCraft schoolsAgricultural/vocational senior

Subtotal

General senior

Source: Jiaoyu Bu, 1985: 21-22.

Agricultural High Schools

The emergence of agricultural high schools is a very good demonstration of the impact ofeconomic reform on education.

In the first years of rural economic reform (that is, 1978-1982) rural reform remarka-bly changed the income pattern of peasants. Under the policy of 'some should become richfirst', 'ten-thousand dollar families' emerged. Schooling immediately became unpopular. Bysending a child to school the family suffered a loss of manpower. Even if a student from apeasant family was successful in the education system, he/she would most probably leavethe village for good; and in any case, the financial return to education is negative because ofthe low income for intellectuals.

Things began to change in 1983. On the one hand, peasants found that they had tochange from grains to more economic crops if they were to further increase their income. Onthe other hand, the practice of 'contract teams' has become a significant income source forrural villages with excess manpower. 'Contract teams' are teams of workers organised by therural community to enter into contracts with construction projects in the cities. Both theeconomic crops and 'contract teams' faced new competition in the market, and the upgradingof technology is the obvious way to win. There is therefore a new thirst among peasants tohave their younger generation trained.

The traditional schools, however, do not seem to quench the thirst. First, the curricu-lum is irrelevant; second, the centralised recruitment and allocation systems do not provide aroute for students to return to their local village. In these circumstances, the peasants havestarted to operate their own schools—thus agricultural high schools. These are mostly localinitiatives, locally financed, and therefore recruitment and job allocations take place withinthe locality. This provides peasants with the opportunity to manipulate their own manpowersupply.

The Vocational High Schools

The first few vocational high schools emerged only in 1980, but spread rapidly thereafter.Some general secondary schools started vocational classes, at a time of serious youthunemployment but when the Central Government had opened up, for the first time,opportunities for self-employment. These vocational classes soon became popular, becausegraduates immediately got employment. Such classes also immediately attracted employers,who preferred 'tailor-made' manpower to centralised allocations. These started a tide of'joint ventures' (guagou lianban) whereby the school and the employer co-sponsoredvocational classes to undertake commissioned training of manpower for the employer. There

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China's Recent Education Reform 261

are more complicated sponsorships, but the general pattern is a 'triple alliance' between theeducation bureau, the non-education bureaux and the client employer.

In a number of ways, the vocational high schools significantly deviate from thetraditional inflexible system. Individuals who have finished vocational high school havebetter employment opportunities, although they do not normally secure guarantees of joballocation (Jbao fenpei). Many became self-employed, but more of them faced competingemployers. At the same time students may still sit for the Unified Higher EducationEntrance Examination, although few of them were actually admitted into higher educationinstitutions. Therefore, although the vocational high schools do not provide guaranteed joballocation, as the conventional technical/vocational schools do, they are more welcomed bystudents and parents.

Officials and planners in the State Education Commission seem to welcome such abreak away from rigid job planning. Changes have been introduced along the line withrespect to the specialised secondary schools (the zhong-zhuari), which are now also movingaway from guaranteed job allocation. The new system is one of 'appointment on merit'(zeyou luyong). That is, only well qualified graduates will be recommended for employment.Admission policy has accordingly changed. It used to be the case that admission to zhong-zhuan was part of the labour plan and there was an exact match between students and jobs.Nowadays, there tends to be a more open admissions policy to allow a broader base forselection. Meanwhile, graduates of the zhong-zhuan may also apply for higher studies afterthey have gained two years of working experience.

Another Universal Requirement?

What the Document intends, however, is much more than simply endorsing what washappening. The Document actually attempts to expand the technical/vocational trainingnotion so as to make it another universal requirement. It is actually saying that graduates ofthe school system, at any level, should be required to undergo some sort of vocational/tech-nical education (at least short-term training), before they go into jobs. The slogan is'training before employment' (Reform, 1985: 10).

The reasons for this ambitious target are related to the shortage of middle-level skilledmanpower. The engineer-technician ratio is abnormal: 4:1 in Beijing's textile industry; 10:1in Shoudu Iron and Steel Company and 7:1 in Shanghai's metallurgical industry (Wang,1985). According to a survey of 72 enterprises run by the central government, the ratio ofcompetent engineers to competent technicians is 3:2 (Yang, 1985). Some serious casesdemonstrated a ratio of 6:1 or even 9:1 (Interview, IG1). The desired ratio was 1:3 (Ibid.).No matter how ambitious the plan is, the shortage will not be easily overcome and thereshould be no fears of over-provision.

Limits to Expansion

In these circumstances, the target ratio 5:5 between general and technical/vocational seniorsecondary schooling is only modest. It reflects less the demand for manpower than thepossibility of expanding the training facilities.

Let us look at the 1984 situation, for example. The national total of 278,000 graduatesfrom agricultural/vocational schools constituted only about 10% of the total number ofgraduates at senior secondary level or equivalent. The percentage is very much constrainedby the degree of flexibility in the economy. Shanghai, for example, achieved a 47-6:52-4 ratiofor general/technical secondary schooling in 1984, and the ratio is now believed to be 4:6

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262 Cheng Kai Ming

(Interviews 1985-86). This is explainable by the fact that Shanghai is a highly industralisedcity and there is a most serious under-supply of mid-level skilled manpower. Jiangsu isanother typical example where technical/vocational education is prospering very much dueto its decentralisation of industries which provides a significantly large 'market' sector in thelabour structure.

Whether the cases of Shanghai and Jiangsu can be generalised is doubtful. The successof the vocational high schools and the reformed zhong-zhuan lies mainly not in the trainingitself, but in the flexibility of employment after training. In fact, the Vice-Premier Wan Liaddressed this dependence of educational reform on economic reform in his speech:

Reasons for the slow development of vocational and technical education aremultiple. The inappropriateness of the labour employment system is an essentialreason. Unless the relevant system of labour employment is reformed, it will beimpossible to reform the existing secondary education structure, and there will beno room for vocational and technical education to develop. Thus, even if weoperated many vocational and technical schools, there would be no way of placingthe graduates in jobs. It is not that they are not needed. Under the existing system,units which are in need of the graduates are unable to accept them, because theposts are already occupied by people with no training. (Wan, 1985, writer'stranslation)

When the present exercise expands into a larger sector of the economy, where a rigidlyplanned staffing system still prevails, to what extent employment flexibility can survive is abig question mark.

There had been suggestions to reverse the general:technical ratio from 7:3 to 3:7. Thiswas discussed in the central government and was found not realistic. Eventually the 5:5ratio has been adopted. There are obvious limits to the expansion of technical and vocationaleducation.

Higher Education

If the reforms in basic and technical/vocational education are dependent on economicreform, this is even more the case in higher education.

City-level Universities

That universities and colleges may be operated at three levels is an innovation. Universitiesand colleges are normally run by either the central or the provincial governments. By centralgovernment here we mean either the Ministry of Education or the other (non-Education)Ministries which operate their own universities. The following table shows the distributionin 1981, the latest year for which such figures are available, but the proportion has remainedmore or less the same throughout the years.

TABLE II. Higher education institutions byadministration (1981)

Ministry of Education 38Other ministries 226Provincial 440

Total 704

Source: Zhongguo Jiaoyu Nianjian, 1984: 237.

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China's Recent Education Reform 263

The 'Central' or national institutions, which are located in different parts of thecountry, are financed and administered by the Central Ministries. They recruit studentsfrom all over the country and graduates are allocated all over the country. Provincialinstitutions recruit students from the respective provinces and graduates are spread over theprovince.

What is new in the Document is the inclusion of a third level: the key cities. Even theconcept of key cities is only recent. Traditionally, provinces were divided into districtswhich comprised counties. In recent years, with the reform in the rural economy, some ofthe more developed provinces have devised a new administrative system whereby the districtsystem is replaced by the key-city system. The key-city is usually a recognised townshipwhich is comparatively more urbanised. The counties surrounding the key-city then form akind of satellite structure with the key-city as the main commercial centre. The Reform .Document states that key-cities are also authorised to operate universities and other higherinstitutions.

The emergence of city-level universities (the term 'university' is here used loosely torepresent all kinds of higher educational institutions, a tradition in China) is largely aconsequence of economic reform. Economic reforms in both rural and urban areas havecreated a localised economy and a great demand for skilled manpower at the local level.Provincial universities, however, are not meant to serve the specific needs of the cities orcounties. As a consequence, quite a number of cities have started to operate local universitieswithout formal recognition by the central government. These city-level universities arelocally funded for the most part, and the local government has full control. In someprovinces, even rich counties have started to operate their own universities (Interviews in1986).

The University Boom

The greater economic autonomy at local levels has provided unprecedented incentives foroperating universities. This has led to a boom in the number of higher institutions. Since1983, universities have grown at a speed of one new institution every three days (see TableIII). The central government made some effort to stop the race, but the speed in 1985 wasnot much lower. The total number of higher institutions grew from 901 at the end of 1984 to1017 by the end of 1985.

TABLE HI. Number of higher institutions by year

End of year

1979198019811982198319841985

No. of higher institutions

633675704715805901

1017

Source: Ministry, 1984: 50; Interviews, 1985; 1986.

The way in which staffing problems are solved is worth noticing. New institutionsusually start with a small core of academics as established members of staff. They then

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appoint part-time teachers who are still being employed by some older universities. Thesepart-time members are usually highly qualified and experienced. They are normally notrequired to be in attendance outside their teaching hours in the original university, and areonly too glad to receive the extra income derived from part-time teaching. One university atNanjing, for example, has reckoned some 15 patterns of staff deployment in co-operationwith other institutions, including joint-courses, sponsored courses, accredited courses,private-study tutorial courses, and so on. At a 'macro' level, this can be viewed as a higherrate of utilising the academic staff. This better utility, nevertheless, reflects low efficiencywithin the original establishment of the older universities. In any case, this staff-borrowingpractice has provided another lever to break away from the centrally-allocated system ofstaffing.

The Accountability System

Institutional autonomy has been a hot issue in higher education ever since 1980. Thedirection of reform is best represented by the Jiao-da Reform.

Jiao-da (Jiaotong University) is a famous national key-university in Engineering. TheJiao-da Reform started in 1979 and has since received high marks from central governmentleaders, including Deng Xiaoping and Premier Zhao Ziyang; and therefore it has become aprototype of reform. In essence, the Jiao-da Reform is to institutionalise accountability(called zeren zhi, responsibility system) at all levels and in all departments. Accountability isestablished by giving every sub-unit a high degree of autonomy and making it accountablefor its own efficiency and quality.

Innovations are autonomy in staff appointments and in resource allocation within thedepartments. All academic staff members are appointed on contract. Breach of contract maylead to dismissal from the department. Members' performance is assessed on a regular basis,and the assessment is linked to salary changes (see Shanghai, 1984; 1985). All these featuresare quite revolutionary in the Chinese scene. The Jiao-da model is spreading rapidly. Otherinstitutions even go so far as to elect department heads from among departmental staff.

Such autonomy, however, is granted only within the institution. Some popular membersare invited to consider appointments offered by competing departments; but there are alsoincompetent or unpopular members whom no department would like to appoint. In fact, auniversity administration has to handle some sort of 'internal unemployment'. AlthoughJiao-da employ personnel from outside, it is extremely difficult for Jiao-da to dismiss anyof its members, because they have been allocated to Jiao-da by the State. Normally, theuniversity can work out some alternative placement of these unpopular members, bypersuasion or otherwise. One of the amazing successes of Jiao-da, however, is that it hasmanaged to 'flow' 500 members of its staff out to other places (Interview, 1986). This is anunprecedented breakthrough and has significantly broken the 'iron rice-bowl' system, a namethe Chinese intellectuals use to describe the guaranteed job security.

Non-allocation Enrolment

Centralised allocation for student enrolment is still the normal practice; but the other twoproposed modes of enrolment—commissioned enrolment and enrolment of self-supportingstudents—are to some degree already in practice.

Enrolment according to the centralised state manpower plan is the established tradition.The planning starts from national production targets and is carried out in multi-stage'upward-downward' consultations (Xu & Xu, 1984). In recent years there have been

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changes towards greater flexibility for the local government. However, as far as tertiaryinstitutions are concerned, centralised allocation still accounts for the admission of themajority of students in universities and other higher institutions.

Commissioned enrolment had been endorsed by the central government even before theReform (Gaoden, 1984) and has been practised in many higher institutions. A university inBeijing, for example, signed a contract with a city in Shanxi Province which sent 100students to study in the university, with an agreement that all the 100 students would returnto Shanxi on graduation. The condition was that the city of Shanxi, the 'client', would paythe teaching cost and an agreed'proportion of the capital cost. In order to be admitted, thestudents sent had to attain the ordinary admission scores. The Document describes this modeof admission as having 'proved effective' (Reform, 1985: 14).

There could be other modes of commissioned admission whereby the 'client' would paythe whole or part of the teaching costs of students in that university, in return for 'booking'graduates in a specific discipline for future employment. In this case, the students are notsent by the client but are recruited by the university. The whole philosophy is for theemployer to buy designated manpower of guaranteed quality by paying the university. Thestudents are enrolled by the university by creating additional places beyond the centrallyplanned quota. Such students, upon graduation, are therefore not allocated by the state plan,but are employed instead by the client employers under contract.

Self-supporting enrolment is also practised. For example, universities and colleges inShanghai have graduated students who paid their own fees. These occur in subject areaswhich provide the most needed manpower, such as foreign languages, accountancy orstatistics. With due government approval, the students are admitted beyond the state-planned quota. Students pay a token fee of 20 RMB (Chinese dollars) per half-year. Whenthey graduate, they are not guaranteed employment but are usually taken on by competingemployers. The number of such students is still trivial, just one or two in each department.There is increasing popularity for this method not only because of the favourable jobopportunities but also because the student will automatically remain in his home town,which is not always possible in the state-allocated system. The popularity is reflected in thefee which has recently gone up to 800 RMB, about 50% of the teaching cost (Interview,1985). In any case, the number of this type of students is still estimated to be small(Reform, 1985: 15).

Anyway, the door is now open for commissioned and self-supporting studies. Neverthe-less, these can only be done outside the state plan.and are possible only in the newlyemerging 'market' sector of the job structure. The popularity of non-allocated studies reallydepends on the needs of the economy. How these non-allocation practices will develop is yetto be seen, since that depends very much on how much the 'market' sector of the jobstructure will grow.

Non-formal Higher Education

Little has been mentioned in the Reform Document about non-formal higher educationwhich has flourished as a popular way of receiving higher education. Under normalconditions, there are nine types of non-formal higher education:

Radio and Television UniversityStaff and Workers' UniversitiesEvening and Correspondence Divisions of ordinary universitiesIndependent Correspondence Colleges

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Private-study Higher Education ExaminationsEducation Institutes for In-service TeachersTraining Institutes for AdministratorsPeasants' UniversitiesPeriodical/Magazine Universities

Of these, Radio and Television, Correspondence, Self-study universities are the threemost popular forms. Education Institutes also serve to train the bulk of underqualifiedteachers.

Graduates of non-formal adult higher education have a significant impact on the labourforce. Although the award of degrees is still under discussion, these graduates receivetreatment equivalent to their full-time counterparts. Many of them have been promotedeither in the original unit or upon transfer. Non-formal higher education in China has notonly provided a 'second route', but also an alternative which deviates from the centrallyplanned job structure. As the bulk of non-formal higher education students are still engagedon their studies, the real impact upon the labour system and the sociological implications areyet to be seen.

The Policy Process

The education reform in China is remarkable not only in its content but also in the way thereform emerged and is being carried out.

Economic Reform and Education Reform

It seems justified to say that the recent reform of education in China is very muchdetermined by economic reform. The youth unemployment problem in the late 1970s hadgiven rise to self-employment and other employment policies which have effectively changedthe concept of staff deployment in the country, particularly in the economically better-developed regions. This has provided room for reform in education which would not bepossible within a rigid labour structure.

On the whole, the central planning mode of student recruitment, graduate employmentand staff employment is undergoing a process of transformation. It is still yet too early tosay that the entire system will be overhauled, but it is safe to say that the changes so farachieved are hardly reversible.

That economic reforms have prompted education reform does not imply deterministi-cally that the economic-educational relationship is a one-way dictation. The vocational highschools, for example, have de facto created a 'labour market' which was never there. Thetraditional specialised secondary schools (zhong-zhuari) are following the move towardsnon-allocation and these will further enlarge the 'labour market'. This ever enlarging 'labourmarket' further nurtures development in technical/vocational education. As anotherexample, new manpower demands have changed staff deployment policies in universities, achange which has in turn caused a breakthrough in the mobility of intellectuals. It has againcreated a 'labour market' of intellectuals.

All in all, the educational reform will become a catalyst for economic reform. In theend, the planned economy will be significantly transformed. The limits of this economictransformation also pose limits for educational reform. This dialectic process will carry on.

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Decreasing Central Control

In these new circumstances, the process of the reform is more influenced by the economicenvironment than by political decrees from the central government. Therefore, the role ofthe central government requires fresh examination.

Firstly, the Document does not prescribe the actual implementation of the re-structur-ing process. Many important goals of the reform are still vague and are open to discussionand different interpretations.

Secondly, most of the major re-structuring is in the hands of the local governments.There is little sign that the central government will directly control the process of re-structuring. The delegation of legislative power to local People's Congresses is a significantmove to dencentralise the administration of education.

Thirdly, the financial implications have not been specified. The only financial commit-ment in the Document was that

For the foreseeable future, central and local government appropriations foreducational purposes will increase at a rate faster than the increase in the State'sregular revenues, and the average expenditure on education per student will alsoincrease steadily. (Reform, 1985: 15)

That is, both the educational expenditure as percentage of gross national/domestic incomeand the unit costs will grow positively. Although the Document has committed the centralgovernment not to reduce central funding, it does not commit the central administration tosupport greater expenditure. If expenditure grows further, the proportion of central fundingmay shrink. This may imply that the central government has less say in local policies(Interview, 1986).

All these amount to the general impression that control from the centre, in bothadministrative and financial terms, is much less significant than one would have expected.

Norm-setting in Reform

If the above impression is valid, then, one may ask, what is the role of a central decision astypified by the Document}

One informant remarks: "The roles of the Document are twofold: the first is pointingout the direction and the second is setting the norm".

This can be regarded as an accurate summary. In the Western sense, the Document isless a policy plan than a national appeal. This is echoed by another informant who says:"The Document simply gives, the direction and people are expected to run in that direction"(Interview, 1985).

In practical terms, the Document has done three things: First, it points to majorproblems in the educational system within the context of national development. Second, itendorses a number of innovations and breakthroughs, which have been existing, and pointsout the direction of future development. Third, it announces a number of key measures thatthe central could optimally take to support the innovations and breakthroughs.

In turn, when the Document comes to implementation at local levels, there would bea number of implications.

Firstly, there are few rules that the local governments have to observe. For example, noteachers are allowed to change jobs, and the student unit cost has to increase every year.Secondly, in a number of areas, local governments can now do things which they previouslycould not. City universities, local legislation, local training and deployment of manpower are

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268 Cheng Kai Ming

all examples. Thirdly, there are other grey areas which are encouraged by the 'tone' of theDocument. For example, counties will feel more comfortable running their own universities,although a fourth level of university is hot officially recognised; and provinces will feel atease in allowing for regional disparity (Interviews in 1985 and 1986). Fourthly, and of mostimportance, it will be more difficult for local governments to move against the tide asdefined by the Document. Those in favour of the reform will use the Document to supporttheir courses. Universities, for example, will argue for more freedom when they are notgranted enough autonomy.

. In short, the Document is a public announcement whereby the central government hasreviewed and assessed continuing developments and made a kind of 'statement of position'(biaotai). The Document sets the norm for the future development of education. Accord-ingly, local governments are expected to follow the norm and use it as the legitimation forcarrying out reforms and moving away from the status quo.

There is of course the risk that those local authorities who are not interested in reformmay remain idle, in the same way that local governments which are not keen on anti-corruption may remain corrupt.

This kind of policy-making procedure is quite uncommon on the international scenewhere legitimacy for education reform is provided either by the positive incentive of extrafunding or by the negative incentive of political coercion. Otherwise, reforms never work;and that accounts for the failure of many educational plans in developing countries. InChina, there seems to be an outstanding component, the ideological component, which actsquite separately from economic and political incentives.

This ideological component is not new in China—only it used to be integrated withfinancial and administrative measures, at a time when the Party had administrative decision-making powers. With the separation of the Party from the administration at all levels,together with the trend towards decentralisation and the accompanying move away fromcomplete central funding, the ideological component has been isolated as a separate force.

The norm-setting exercise as demonstrated by the recent reform comes near to what iscalled 'normative planning'—which should come before any strategic planning; but has beenidentified as 'not very frequent' on the international scene (Soumelis, 1983: 38-39).

What is remarkable in China is that both planners and local implementers seem torecognise this norm-setting as an essential and effective part of the reform.

Conclusion

It is difficult to predict what will come out of the reform. There is little doubt that theeducational system will move towards greater flexibility, if it can be made compatible withthe reform in the economy. The increasing tendency towards decentralisation will paint acompletely new picture of the relations between the different parties and set new prioritiesfor the basic dilemmas.

One thing could possibly be predicted. Chinese educational reform will move on a trackthat is not fully explainable by using theories or frameworks borrowed from elsewhere.

NOTES

[1] An English translation of the Document is now available. See Reform, 1985 in the References.[2] The standard is that teachers teaching secondary classes should be graduates of normal universities or post-

secondary teacher training. colleges, and in primary classes graduates of senior secondary teacher traininginstitutions.

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Gaodeng Gongcheng fiaoyu Yanjiu (1985) (Research in Higher Engineering Education) Gaodeng Jiaoyu Pinggu deLilun yu Fangfa Chutan Wenji (Collection of papers in exploration for theory and practice of assessment ofhigher education) (Wuhan, Huazhong Institute of Engineering Press).

JIAOYU BU JIHUA CAIZHENG SI (1984) (Planning and Finance Division, Ministry of Education) Achievement ofEducation iri China: statistics 1949-1983 (Beijing, People's Education Press).

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