Ministry of Education and an Inspiration

On Friday we had an opportunity to meet with an official at the Ministry of Education. There was some overlap with what we have heard previously. Grades 1-9 are compulsory. By 2020 the goal is for grades 1-12 to be compulsory. The official mentioned that equity is a challenge in the Chinese education system. Rural vs urban schools is an issue in funding and achievement. In the last ten years there has been an increase in funding for the western province schools however there is still major inequity between schools in the west and schools in the east. About ten percent of all students in the west attend university. There is a program now to double the salary for young graduate teachers who go to western China and teach. According to him 82-86% decide to stay after 3 years.

Teacher quality is always an issue in China. It was once a highly respected position and still is in many regards. Free tuition is being offered in some cases for students studying education and promising to become a teacher. 

Chinese students have many more tests than American students beginning in elementary school and at the end of junior and senior secondary school.

4% of China's GDP goes toward education. Most of the funding for education comes from the local government. Funding per pupil in China is ten percent less than the US. 

Interestingly enough the official with the Ministry said that the advantage of the US education system is that American students can apply what they have learned and use it while the Chinese student is less innovative and focused on theory or knowledge. Of note; the officials daughter is studying at an American university. 

Our second meeting of the day dealt with International Relations. Items of note from the professor who spoke. China will be a developing country for a long time. Common prosperity is the goal not just for some people. The western provinces make up 71.5% of the land but only accounts for 22% of the GDP. 150 million live on 1 dollar a day. The speaker was shocked by the poverty in the west and called this a dangerous situation. With all of the recent events or attacks one could see why. The speaker made some interesting comments. He spoke for a long time so we only were able to ask a couple of questions. I really wanted to ask him one for he mentioned that one of the challenges China has and needs to address in order to meet its 2050 goal of becoming a world power and playing a part in international affairs is the need for political reforms. Hmmm. Very interesting and surprising comment!

The speaker surprisingly also mentioned that China is imbalanced between economic and social development. That would've been interesting to follow up on as well. 

The long term goal of China is to be recognized by the international community as a major power. China's strategic choice is to become a big power in East and Southeast Asia not the dominant power. China's focus should be  in Asia. 

He lastly mentioned that the relationship between the US and China is at a crucial point is a complex relationship. Both China and the US are interdependent of each other. 

Our last presentation was absolutely amazing and inspiring!!!!!

The speaker was Wu Qing. Her parents were quite famous and I'm pretty sure she is quite famous in China. She is the chairman and founder of a rural school for women. Wu's mother was Xie Bing Xin a famous Chinese writer who attended Wellsley college from 1923-26. She also participated in the May 4th movement and supported the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests. Her famous line was the students love the country and I love the students. Her father was Wu Wen Zao and he attended both Dartmouth and Columbia. He is considered to be the father of Sociology in China. They were punished during the Cultural Revolution. 

Wu's organization has trained more than 13,500 women. They train them to be kindergarten teachers, teach them about clean water, soil contamination and the law. Wu mentioned that the government has not done enough to invest in the rural areas. Infrastructure they have but the rural areas don't have enough money to pay for the increase in water prices, seeds and electricity. 

Wu mentioned that it is difficult to speak the truth in China today. She has been blacklisted and twice for a period of three years each time was unable to leave the country. 

Wu studied the Chinese constitution and was the first to use it since 1984. As she said; if no one respects the constitution then there is no oversight. Wu was a visiting scholar at MIT. She worked with Mel King and became politically active in Boston. Her inspirations have been Gandhi and Rosa Parks. 

She mentioned her core beliefs on how to train a person. Rights and responsibilities, economic independence, protection, health and sanitation, education both formal and informal and finally peace. She was one of the most inspiring people that I have ever listened to or met. She was a peoples deputy from 1984-2011 where she represented the people in her district. Once every week she would meet with the people in her neighborhood for hours. She cast abstention votes or voted no something no one had ever really done. The communist party call her a rebel rouser. She mentioned that the whole world is turning materialistic and China is the same. Young people are not as political she said. One of the participants told her how inspirational she was and asked her if she gets lonely trying to change the world and many times being rebuffed. She got really emotional and started to cry and said that yes she sometimes feels that way however she has so much love and support from people around the world. Several of us including me went up there and thanked her and have her a hug. One of the lasting things I will remember from her was this comment. The more I travel the more I realize there are more similarities than differences amongst people. This fit in great with her opening remark to us. Hello global citizens!