1. SECONDARY EDUCATION IN CHINA: Challenges and Priorities
YANG Jin B.Sc M.Ed Ph.D
Deputy Director-General
Department of Basic Education
Ministry of Education, P.R.China
2018/9/17
Dr YANG Jin

2. Contents Background of education development and reform
Enhance equity and quality of general secondary education
A SWOT Analysis of Vocational Education in China
General Remarks
2018/9/17
Dr YANG Jin

3. 1. Background of education development and reform
2018/9/17
Dr YANG Jin

4. General social and economic policies
Building a well-off society all-roundly
Improving the socialist market economic system
Developing a new type of industrialization which includes higher scientific and technological intensity, better economic benefit, less environmental pollution, better use of the advantage of human resources
Adhering to people centred, well-rounded, coordinated and sustainable concept of development
Making great efforts to build a socialist harmonious society
2018/9/17
Dr YANG Jin

5. Major Challenges
Clear trend of the globalization of production and work, major multinational manufacturing and trading companies move their production and service into China.
Market mechanism has played a more and more important role in social and economic life.
Very fierce international economic and technological competition, the Chinese enterprises are facing heavy pressure for technological innovations.
The innovations of enterprises and improvement of efficiency lack strong qualified human resources support.
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Dr YANG Jin

6. Rural migrant workers: 50％ Export: 80％ Foreign exchange income: 75%
Manufacturing is China’s comparative advantage, and China is in the process to become the “world factory” (the third largest producer of the world). The manufacturing sector constitutes:
GDP: 40％
Revenue: 50％
Urban Employment: 50％
Rural migrant workers: 50％
Export: 80％
Foreign exchange income: 75%
2018/9/17
Dr YANG Jin

7. In 2001, on average, the employees in the manufacturing sector of China received 9.47 years of education, but that of Japan was years.
In 2004, on average, the population of 15 years old and above had received about 8 years of education, similar to education level of the USA population 100 years ago.
The average productivity of a worker in China’s manufacturing sector is 1/23 of an American worker, 1/25 of a Japanese worker and 1/18 of a German worker.
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Dr YANG Jin

8. The Education System in China
Schooling
year
Age 27 22 26 21
Ph.D 25 20 24 19
Master’s degree 23 18 22 17 21 16
Bachelor’s
degree 20 15
本 科 19 14
Higher
vocational ed. 18 13 17 12
General high
school education
Vocational high
school education 16 11 15 10 14 9
Vocational middle school education 13 8
General middle
School education 12 7 11 6 10 5 9 4
Primary education 8 3 7 2 6 1 5 4
Pre-school ed. 3
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Dr YANG Jin

9. 2004 Major Data of the Education System
No. of schools
No. of teaching staff
No. of students
Gross rate of enrollment
Higher ed.
3,423
970,506
18,352,821
19%
High school ed.
31,493
1,920,894
36,076,284
47.6%
Middle school ed.
63,757
3,500,464
65,762,936
94.1%
Primary ed.
394,183
5,628,860
112,462,256
106.6%
Pre-schooling ed.
117,899
656,083
20,894,002
40.8%
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Dr YANG Jin

10. Expenditure on Different Types of Education in China
(2002)
RMB 548,002,776,000 Yuan
Source: The Educational Finance Statistics Yearbook Beijing: China Statistics Press.
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Dr YANG Jin

11. 2018/9/17
Dr YANG Jin

12. Quantitative development target:
Universalizing 15 years of education is one of the major targets in 2020:
3-year preschool education;
9-year compulsory education; and
3-year high school level of education, the ratio between the enrollment of the general and vocational track will reach and remain 50:50.
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Dr YANG Jin

13. 2. Great efforts to enhance equity and quality of general secondary education
Improving education provision in rural and western areas
Making great efforts to carry out curriculum reforms
Expected changes of teaching/learning pedagogy
2018/9/17
Dr YANG Jin

14. Improving education provision in rural and western areas
800 million of the 1.3 billion people of China live in the rural areas. Of the students receiving secondary education, 70% is in the rural areas.
The Central Government of China has been earmarking special funds for building boarding schools, providing free textbooks and subsiding living expenses for students from poor families and promoting modern distance education.
2018/9/17
Dr YANG Jin

15. Making great efforts to carry out curriculum reforms
From Sept. 2005, new curriculum is going to be implemented for all new enrollment in junior secondary schools
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Dr YANG Jin

16. Language and literature
Fields of study
Subjects
Credits
Chinese 10
Language and literature
Foreign language 10
Mathematics
Mathematics 10
Ideology and Politics 8
Course structure in general high school
Humanity and social science
History 6
Geography 6
Physics 6
Science
Chemistry 6
Biology 6
Technology
Technology 8
Art
Art 6
Physical education and health
Physical education and health 11
Exploratory study activities 15
Practical activities
Community service 2
Social practice 6

17. Some features of the new curricula
Curriculum matter relates more to real life context;
More practical hands-on experiences;
More project-based inquiry learning;
Leave rooms for local and school based curricula
Offer more choices to students (core and optional modules)
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Dr YANG Jin

18. The Planning of Curriculum Reform for High School Education
Year
Number of Provinces
Percentage as of new enrollment
2004 4
13%
2005 5
15%~20%
2006
15~18
50%~60%
2007
All new enrollment

19. Challenges to curriculum reform
Developing inquiry-based, high-quality teaching materials
teachers’ professional development
Unified university and college entrance examination
Changing concept of quality of education
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Dr YANG Jin

20. Source: World Bank (1996) World Development Report 1996: from plan to market. Oxford University Press.
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Dr YANG Jin

21. Expected changes of teaching/learning pedagogy
From teacher-centred approach to student-centred approach
From the delivery of knowledge to foster the students’ creative competence
From paying attention of the commonalities of students to paying attention of the individualities of students
From paying great attention on “good learners” to paying great attention on students with learning difficulties
From a rigid and examination-oriented type of assessment to a formative and “value-added” assessment system
2018/9/17
Dr YANG Jin

22. 3. A SWOT Analysis of Vocational Education in China
Strengthens
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
2018/9/17
Dr YANG Jin

23. Strengths
The system of vocational education has been formed, and the size of enrollment is increasing;
There are several thousands of key vocational schools which have relatively favourite educational resources;
Vocational and technical teaching/learning resources have been created in many fields of courses;
Intrinsic development capacity of vocational education has been formed particularly due to the learning of international good practices such as the dual system of Germany, CBE of Canada, TAFE of Australia and BTEC of the UK;
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Dr YANG Jin

24. Weaknesses
The management of vocational education is compartmentalized and it’s hard to form congruent development policy;
The concepts of running vocational schools are out of date, and methods of teaching and learning obsolete;
The system of the administration of vocational schools is quite rigid and schools have got less autonomous power for operation;
Many vocational schools are in rather poor conditions, there are acute shortages of and practical training resources and qualified teachers/instructors;
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Dr YANG Jin

25. Opportunities
The central government of China has attached great importance to the development of vocational education;
The adoption of the scientific concept of development has create favourable conditions for vocational education;
There are great demands for skilled human resources in the labour market;
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Dr YANG Jin

26. Threats
Social and culture barriers: many people still think vocational education is inferior to general education and most junior secondary school leavers would like to apply for general high schools;
Budgetary financial resources for vocational education is very much limited, and some students and their parents cannot afford to pay tuition fees of vocational schools;
The responsibilities of trades and enterprises for running vocational schools have been weakened, and private sectors’ involvement in vocational education is limited;
The employment permission system and the vocational qualification system are incomplete, and there are difficulties for vocational schools students to get vocational qualifications;
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Dr YANG Jin

27. Major policies for strengthening vocational education
Improve conditions of vocational schools by establishing more “model” vocational schools as well as practical skill training bases;
More financial support from the central and local governments;
Reform the teaching and learning process;
Enterprises’ and private sectors’ strong involvement in vocational education;
Improve the national qualifications framework;
Enhance political and economic welfare of skilled workers;
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Dr YANG Jin

28. The trends of teaching and learning reform of VET
Concreted educational aims and goals of VET program
Functionalizing general education within VET
Actualization of vocational knowledge and skills
Actionalization of the teaching/learning process
Diversification of curricula and teaching materials
Flexiblization of regulation and control
Socialization of quality assessment and assurance
Localization of management authority and responsibility
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Dr YANG Jin

29. 4. General Remarks
In the last 20 years or so, China has made tremendous progress in social and economic development. But, after all, China is still a developing country.
China is running the biggest education system which enrolls 20% of the world’s students with only 2% of the world’s educational funding, so education in China has to be cost-effective.
On the one hand, education in China needs to inherit Chinese cultural and educational traditions, on the other, it needs to keep up with the trend of globalization.
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Dr YANG Jin

30. International Education Development
2018/9/17
Dr YANG Jin
©Knowledge for Development WBI

31. Thanks
2018/9/17
Dr YANG Jin