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CHINA'S rapid economic growth masks many challenges. Education is one of the biggest, not just in terms of the quantity of students but also the quality. China is committed to upgrading its universities. But there are two problems. The state university sector can barely keep up with demand. And the types of courses emphasised tend to be the sciences and technology.
The Government spends more on education than ever before, but that spending has not kept pace with economic growth, so as a proportion of the economy, education spending has been almost static. A 1993 target of spending 4 per cent of gross domestic product on education by 2000 remains unmet. It is now hoped that target will be met by 2010. A 1986 requirement that all children must receive at least nine years education was not met with an adequate funding increase, so China has not yet met this target either. Nor have there been enough funding increases to meet the more than threefold increase in the number of tertiary students since 1999. The problem will get worse. There are about 15 million tertiary students today. By 2010 there will be about 25 million.
Quantity is one problem, but so too is quality. Liberal arts, which require critical thinking about politics, economics and society, presents too much of a challenge for the Government. And so the Government has placed little or no emphasis on these areas.
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