Primary school years
China's government has taken significant steps to provide nine years of compulsory education and eradicate illiteracy, in part by allocating special funds in poor and minority areas. But significant challenges remain. About 1 million children drop out of school each year because of poverty, particularly ethnic minorities and girls. China aims to achieve a 90 percent completion rate in primary education by 2005—a challenge, since the current completion rate is only about 75 percent. This means 5 million students a year fail to complete compulsory education on time. A number of issues pose impediments to child development during primary school. One basic issue is a lack of preparation. Because kindergartens are not part of China's nine-year compulsory education system, many children simply are not prepared when they reach primary school. Private kindergartens are available, but only to more affluent families. Incomplete schools represent another obstacle to development. Many schools in China lack the resources to provide more than two to three years of schooling. They are poorly equipped, often providing little more than desks and chairs, and their curricula are severely limited, leading to a high drop-out rate. Gender discrimination is a perennial and systemic problem, especially in poor rural areas. Although the government has worked hard to get more girls enrolled in primary school, significant differences remain between girls and boys. An estimated two-thirds of China's un-enrolled school age children are girls. Moreover, girls who are enrolled are the first to drop out when economic pressures affect their families. Gender disparity and low enrollment among girls are linked to a deeply entrenched preference for sons, so they will be difficult to eradicate. Still more attention must be paid to reducing gender disparities and encouraging girls to attend and remain in school. Traditional rote learning methods used in Chinese schools fail to encourage creative expression and independent thought, nor are these things encouraged in extracurricular activities. Yet as China develops into a modern society, it will require administrators and managers capable of devising creative solutions to an evolving array of problems. Like gender discrimination, failure to encourage creative thought is a systemic issue and one that may be difficult to eliminate completely. But the pressures of competing in a market economy provide China with a clear incentive for rearing creative, independent thinkers. To a large extent, this battle will be won or lost in the classroom.
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