|
Make education affordable for all
By Huang Xiangyang (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-07-23 13:23
For those students who have long cherished the dream of going to university
and have worked so hard to realize it, July should be a month of harvest.
Universities nationwide are starting to send their admission notices to the 4
million successful candidates. It is good to see hardworking students rewarded
with a chance to continue their studies at institutions of higher learning,
which often leads to a promising future - as you sow, so will you reap.
Yet the proverb does not hold true for a growing number of students who have
taken the national entrance exam. They are the poor, be they from rural or urban
areas, and they account for about 10 per cent of the 4 million. Most, however,
are from rural areas, where per capita annual income is around 2,000 yuan
(US$240). Their families, many debt-ridden, believe that "knowledge can change
fate," and have used every ounce of their limited resources to support their
children through high school. For them, the average annual tuition fee of 6,000
yuan (US$720) set by universities - not including accommodation and other
expenses - could be the last straw.
This annual cost eats up the yearly incomes of three farmers combined. To
raise that amount, a rural family often has to sell valuables such as cattle and
houses, which plunges them deeper into the cycle of debt.
For poor students, a university admission notice can bring more pain than
pleasure, as they are forced to make the hard decision between accepting it and
making life even harder for their families, or abandoning this hard-won
opportunity that could offer hopes of a brighter future.
So, at this time of the year, we hear a lot of sad, depressing and sometimes
tragic tales about university recruits from the lower layers of the social
stratum. Last August, a farmer in Liaoyang, Northeast China's Liaoning Province,
hanged himself in despair, as he could not afford his son's tuition fees. He was
not the first, and will definitely not be the last victim of the current
practice of rampant tuition fee collection if it goes on unchecked.
Debate over what are considered reasonable fees has been going on for years
since the system was initiated in the early 1990s. In spite of strong opposition
from students, parents and academics, tuition fees are 20 times more expensive
today than they were 15 years ago. The average household income of Chinese
citizens, however, has risen by a meagre 2 to 3 times over the same period.
Supporters of the higher fees, mainly universities, have listed many reasons
to justify them. They argue that annual university enrolment has quadrupled
since 1998, and income from fee collection is used to expand campuses, upgrade
facilities and train teachers. This in turn sustains the growth of enrolment and
creates more education opportunities for high school graduates.
They also believe that a seat in a university classroom is a kind of luxury,
not a necessity, for ordinary Chinese families. It should be available only to
those who can afford it; and as for those who cannot, their right to education
has been guaranteed by the country's nine-year compulsory education system.
I am not against reasonable charges for education, and am a firm believer
that the financial burden of tertiary education should be shared among the
government, university and student. The question is - in what proportion?
According to policy set by education authorities, at present, an individual
student should take on only a quarter of the cost of his or her university
education, estimated at 12,000 yuan (US$1,450) a year. Based on this standard,
almost all top universities in China are overcharging their students. Yet to
people's dismay, these universities are still bent on charging more fees, while
education authorities sit by idly not doing anything substantial to check this
unhealthy trend.
Unreasonably high education charges bring more harm than good to society,
especially in China, which is undergoing tremendous social and economic changes.
The rich-poor divide is ever widening, and a deep sense of abandonment grows
among the so-called disadvantaged - factory layoffs, farmers and migrant
workers. Raising the threshold for their sons' and daughters' education - a
right highly valued in Chinese tradition - will only deepen that sense of
injustice, and sow seeds of social disharmony and instability. It also runs
against the repeated call by our State leaders for building a people-oriented,
harmonious society.
The study of social mobility shows that the more mobile a society is, the
more open, fair and stable it becomes. Yet runaway increases in tuition fees
have dented our society's mobility. They have narrowed the already limited ways
out for those who want to rise from rags to riches through university education,
which has always been considered a steppingstone to a successful career.
In the late 1980s, 70 per cent of college students came from the countryside.
At present, that number has shrunk to around 30 per cent. Is this what advocates
of higher fees call expanded education opportunities?
Japan is currently the world's most expensive country in terms of education
cost. A student there spends about US$16,000 on average for his or her tertiary
education each year, or half of the country's per capita gross domestic product.
Yet in China that ratio is three times as high, according to an article on the
website of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Education together with housing and
medical costs, have become "three mountains" weighing on the shoulders of
Chinese people.
It is high time that education authorities and universities put a lid on
skyrocketing college fees.
On the part of government, it should increase its investment in education
instead of cutting it. The current input into education, which accounts for only
3.28 per cent of the country's GDP, a rate lower than many developing countries
, means there is still large room for improvement. China, as the world's fastest
growing economy, must not be stingy in investing in its
future.
|
