Re: Chinese human capital

[Jonathan Lassen <jjlassen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

> This article describes the Chinese policy of emphasizing investment
> in physical rather than human capital.  It gives illiteracy figures for
> individual provinces.

The high illiteracy numbers in some provinces I'm sure are concentrated
in the elderly. Adult literacy is not a priority now, but primary
education and literacy among the young is pretty much universal.

> Was there much elitism in education prior to 1980?

The conflict between two competing educational paradigms (egalitarian
vs. hierarchical) that went on within China from 49 to 77 ended with the
closing of the Cultural Revolution, and the victory of the group
committed to (among other things) hierarchy in education. After 1978,
the rapid expansion of primary and secondary schooling that took place
during the 60s-70s to the detriment of college education (which today
accounts for almost 5% of the population, but in the 70s was much much
less) was viewed as one of the crimes of the Gang of Four. Secondary
schooling in rural areas suffered the most after 78.

This historical experience, and China's vast rural population, I think,
go some way in explaining why China's mode of education is so different
from that of the Asian NIEs.

> Did a bright peasant child have access to good education?

I'm not sure if the children of the 60s-70s received what could be
called a 'good education' or not. Wish I knew. But it was the first time
in China's history that primary education was nearly universalized. And
the level of secondary education available to students was
unprecedented. Education policy during this period was decentralized and
focused more on practical and vernacular learning rather than rote
learning, so it's hard to compare with current education. This was,
again, harshly criticized after the CR.

The article unfortunately misses one very important point about why
education really sucks in many places in China: localities are required
to pay about 80% of education costs themselves. If you live in a rural
village with no revenue-generating industry to tax, then the entire
burden falls on the farmers. Many in those situation choose not to send
their children to school.

I'm not convinced that all of this is going to harm China's short to
medium term economic prospects. If they can keep society's disgruntled
disorganized, then this could go on for a long time. China's still able
to churn out 3 times as many engineers as the US, and is moving up the
'technology ladder' (barf) quite nicely.

Cheers,

Jonathan