Government Policies to improve education

If a country has a poor education system, then workers cannot get higher paid jobs, so they will not get to a point where they are paying higher taxes to the government, and the government is less powerful and has less money to invest. Therefore the government understands that it needs to increase education in order to increase the development of the country. But the CPC also recognises that the more educated the population is, the more likely people will try and question their authority. So they have to carefully manage the type of education that pupils get. They focus mostly on maths and science, which are considered to be less threatening to the authorities of the country.

Education The government has heavily invested in education – but this has mostly been spent on universities. However, the government still only spends 3% of National income on education, when in most developed countries this would be above 5%. The city government in Shanghai are now allowing migrant children to go to urban schools. They are shutting down all of the sparrow schools in Shanghai. But this is only one city, and migrant children still suffer discrimination in the urban schools. To try and encourage teachers to go and work in rural schools, the government are paying their salaries directly into their bank accounts – this stops local governments from corruptly stealing a percentage of teachers’ salaries.

International Comparisons A fifth annual ranking of 50 national higher education systems finds that China is among the most-improved countries again this year, particularly in terms of the outcomes generated by Chinese universities China and India have outranked the USA when taking into consideration average incomes in the countries Overall, China is among the most-improved countries over five years of global rankings

Pressure on kids The Chinese education system is well known for putting a lot of pressure on students. In order to get to university students have to take a nine hour exam called the gaokao, and competition is so high that getting 100% is essential. Pupils in high school frequently work from 6 in the morning to midnight, 6 days a week, barely taking a break. In 2012, pictures of a classroom of Chinese high-school students hooked up to intravenous amino acid drips while studying for the gaokao went viral on social media. Last May two teenagers in Jiangsu killed themselves after "failing to complete homework", according to state media. In 2012, a student emerged from the exam to learn that his mother had died in a car crash 12 days prior; the school and his relatives conspired not to tell him so as to not distract him.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14812822 https://www.edutopia.org/education-everywhere- international-shanghai-china-video

Rural areas http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26073747 http://www.economist.com/news/china/21613293-many- teenagers-chinese-countryside-do-not-finish-secondary- school-bodes-ill