Issue
China aims to provide nine years of compulsory education for every child and to eradicate illiteracy by 2007. It has already taken significant measures in this direction, partly by allocating special funds for poor and minority areas, especially in Western China. But significant challenges remain. Children drop out of school each year because of poverty and because educational quality is low. Gender attitudes also reduce school completion rates for girls in some parts of China, and children of migrant families face severe challenges in completing their basic education. Specific issues affecting school quality are: - Teaching methods. Due to traditional teaching methods, classroom learning tends to be traditional and rote-oriented. Children are passive recipients of knowledge rather than active participants in learning. This reduces students' interest and raises the dropout rate. - Learning achievement levels. The government of China has undertaken a massive curriculum and textbook reform to improve learner achievement levels and quality. Major challenges include weaning teachers from traditional teaching methods and developing appropriate competency standards. - Teaching materials. Roughly 80% of China's incomplete schools (those able to provide only three years of primary education) and primary schools in poor Western counties have minimal teaching aids and equipment. Schools are unable to invest in even simple aids such as globes or sporting equipment, and many students cannot afford to buy textbooks. - Girls' enrolment. An estimated two-thirds of China's un-enrolled school-age children are girls. If girls are enrolled, they are usually the first to drop out when economic pressures affect their families. This creates an inter-generational cycle of uneducated girls – illiterate mothers – poverty –uneducated girls. Education is the key to breaking this cycle. Early childhood care and development (ECCD). Children develop quickly in the first years of life, a critical period for brain development. In addition to adequate nutrition, children under three need play, mental stimulation, and good parenting practices—the foundations of emotional health and learning ability. In China, ECCD is traditionally perceived as pre-school reading and writing, with little attention given to children’s growth and development milestones below age three. Out-of-school children. Poverty and poor school quality are beginning to combine with the issue of floating populations to increase the numbers of out-of-school children. Most are in the 15-18 age group and have not completed even six years compulsory education. Challenges facing out-of-school children, particularly adolescents, include lack of information about work opportunities and danger of exposure to HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, violence and sexual exploitation.
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