Is it a fairer play? Effectiveness evaluation of China's funding mechanism for rural education

摘要

It has been a decade since China launched its Expenditure-guaranteeing Mechanism (the New Mechanism) for rural compulsory education. With enormous amounts of investment being poured into school funding, the main issue has shifted from inadequacy to inefficient and ineffective use of funds. This research project examines the ways in which education is funded in a relatively wealthy county and evaluates their effectiveness against two sets of international theories: Atkinson et al’s (2005) critique of main funding models and OECD’s guideline to education equity (Field et al. 2007).With a focus on county and school levels, the study combines three qualitative methods with a triangulated design. In the first stage of research, for the purpose of mapping the procedures and models of school funding, the study draws on data publicly available from various websites of the State, provincial, prefecture and county governments. The second stage of research features data collection through interviews, focus group discussions and a questionnaire survey. By communicating with officials from local education authorities and school principals and surveying school teachers, the study not only creates a more comprehensive portrait of the real-life practices in implementing the New Mechanism but also investigates perceived effectiveness of funding programs. The study discovers that even in an area with arguably rich funding, there is considerable deficiency in meeting the needs of students with disadvantages. In particular, students with financial difficulties and students with disabilities are not fully covered by poverty relief assistance; meanwhile disabled children may have limited access to education. Moreover students with learning difficulties are a largely ignored group. The results also reveal that the active involvement of local governments in school funding may have worsened inequity as resources have not been rationally directed. Above two findings suggest that waste of resource coexists with insufficient funding. Another significant conclusion was reached by placing the New Mechanism in an international assessment framework. The examination clearly indicates that “teachers’ welfare” is a crucial part missing in China’s current efforts of promoting education equity.