My thinking of Educational Resources Imbalance in China

Sounds a very big and hot topic recently. The book Outliers first got me think of the impact made by imbalance of resources because this is quite new to Chinese people like me who was educated that no matter how hard the environment/ circumstance is, if we try hard enough, we will get whatever we want. We don't talk about our talents or the resources we are able to get access to, we only talk about attitude. So our role models were the students who are studying under the street lights because they couldn't afford proper lights at home. Or when a very famous leader whose name can be a sensitive word in China was young he read books in a noisy market but he still became SUCCESSFUL to the top because of his working hard. But this is not always the case.

Let's think of China in 1920, I don't have any exact statistics but I guess even in conservative estimation there would be 90% of the population led their lives without finishing elementary school equivalent education. Some of them never got to know how to write their names. But for the elite class it is different. Let's take Eileen CHANG for instance,--I think this is a quite typical intellectual in Republic of China period. Eileen's grandfather was a famous high level official in Qing Dynasty government, her grandmother belonged to an even more prestigious intellectual family. She was born in Shanghai in 1920. Her father was an English Secretary in Railway office, her mother went to study in Britain when she was 4 after divorce. Eileen started studying in a private school when she was 4, got into elementary school when she was 10, was recruited into the St.Mary's Hall which was the best junior high for girls in Shanghai. During Eileen's 4 to 10 year-old time she got to learn painting, playing piano, English and got to read quite a few classic books.She published her first essay when she was 16. At her 18, she was accepted to London University but eventually got to study in Hong Kong University because of war. She started her professional writing career when she was 22 and got famous when she was 24.

It was an honor for me to attend the training session provided by Stepping Stones in Shanghai for being a volunteer teacher to migrant children in Shanghai (they expanded to the other parts of China too!!!). It was a very informative and fruitful journey for me. We all see the astonishing change to Shanghai during these 30 years without thinking of who built it and how they led their lives in Shanghai(Official estimates put Shanghai’s migrant worker population at 9 million). How about their children? Of the approximately 400,000 school-age migrant children(1st grade primary to 3rd grade middle school) living in Shanghai, about 30 percent are not able to attend public school and instead opt for one of the 162 migrant schools located within the city. These schools lack the same resources as Shanghai public schools, and are often overcrowded and inconveniently located. I was a teaching assistant for Hands-on Shanghai for their kindergarten teacher English teaching program, thus I can tell what kind of English level those teachers were on. And for sure I can deduce how good their students' English are. Even for those migrant children who enroll in public schools, they can barely afford all the equipment their classmates have, the after school classes and the extra fees for their teachers at school.

It is not only about difference between children with and without a Shanghai Hukou, also about different regions and cultures. In 2013 I backpacked to Lugu Lake in Yunnan, a very beautiful region I can never forget. When I walked on the famous walking marriage bridge(word for word translation), I met so many elementary school aged girls selling fruits, sunflower seeds and others at the time slot they were supposed to go to school. When I asked locals about this phenomenon, people told me most of them belonged to Minority Ethnic Group Yi. Yi people normally got married at age 16-17 in this group, gave birth to babies at that age, without proper (knowledge of) contraception they can have 4-5 children each household even more. Then the children dropped off from school at Grade 4 or 5 for the tourist business I saw, then join the life circle their parents grandparents and grand grandparents led again and again. They earn normally RMB 2000 to 3000 a year which means not even sufficient basic life supplies, let alone education.

In contrast, when I was a head hunter, I talked with a lot of professional managers in top FMCG companies. For those who have been working in the same company for 20 years from a trainee background(can't remember if they were expats but based on my English level back then they were at least Chinese ethnic) in Procter & Gamble, they got international school tuition coverage from their company, meaning RMB 250,000-300,000 per year.

China has her own diversity. There are still people living on 1 dollar per day without basic supplies, but in most cities people are not that resources deficient any more. As everybody knows Chinese people take their own and especially their children's educational level seriously -- People tend to judge others partially by educational level-- parents take their children to after school classes, take them to different dancing, instrument playing, painting, martial arts even golf classes to catch up with the other children. For sure in this way we have got more and more children developed in more areas other than only recording the schoolbooks. But how many classes they can attend, how good the teachers are and how much kids can actually learn depends quite a lot on how much the parents can afford.

When I was in college during 2004 and 2008, I seldom see a foreigner in my campus area, not even to say talking with foreigners. Even for students majored in English, half of them didn't speak decent English as I know. And my university is a quite good one belongs to 211 program. My English level back then was good in my class, but when I came to Shanghai I figured it was nothing. Thus I started to re-learn in 2012 and still am trying hard now. I majored sociology and wanted to go abroad to pursue a master, with my financial background obviously I couldn't make it in 2008. Nor did I get any access to the information of scholarships, how to get the scholarships or even how to get to know what scholarships are there to help students like me.

During my volunteering journey with Shanghai Young Bakers, I got to know a super intelligent and compassionate young woman from Shanghai International Studies University. She didn't major in English, but she speaks decent English. In addition, she speaks French too. Part of the reason why she was interning with Shanghai Young Bakers was she was applying a master in Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris - Sciences Po. When we talked about her academic life and her future plans, I was amazed by her clear thoughts of getting (to know) what she wants. For her different plans, she has many different choices of scholarships, different academic programs from her university/ Shanghai City/ China to get her sponsored. 

With a background of farmer's daughter, I deeply know how hard it is for me to gain equivalent academic achievement compared to a same aged person with a Shanghai Middle class family background. But organizations like Stepping Stones, Hands-on Shanghai, Shanghai Young Bakers and a lot organizations unfamiliar to me are trying their best to change and actually changing the world.

This is only my thinking of the education resources imbalance in China, not a thorough academic paper, please kindly comment when you find any flaws

All the migrant relevant statistics are from Stepping Stones, please check their website

For the professional manager's package, it was in 2013 and it was from our phone conversation.

The picture is from Baidu picture.