Better resource allocation can improve education

In the past year, several cities in China, including Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, have witnessed shortage of seats in public primary schools in certain areas.

But while local authorities strive to increase the number of teachers and allocate additional educational resources to ease the strain on schools, the birth rate in the country has been continuously declining after a minor peak in 2016, when new births reached 17.86 million. In 2022, however, the number had dropped to 9.56 million.

Based on this year's maternity registration data, experts estimate the total number of births in 2023 could be less than 8 million, that is, less than half of that in 2016. This grim reality implies that in the not-so-distant future, there will be large numbers of schools with no students to enroll and teachers without students to teach.

If that is the case, why is there a shortage of seats in public primary schools in some cities now?

Part of the increased demand for seats in primary schools in some areas could be due to an increase in the local birth rate. But the overcrowding in public primary and secondary schools in many places is not due to the first batch of "second children" entering school after the authorities in 2016 allowed all couples to have two children. Instead, it is largely the result of the relatively good schools and high-quality educational resources concentrated in these areas, and an influx of couples with young children to these cities and areas due to the availability of better educational facilities.

Thanks to the imbalanced allocation of educational resources in different regions, about 15 percent of students at the compulsory education level, predominantly children of migrant workers, used to attend private schools in county towns.

However, after regulations were implemented restricting the enrollment quota of private schools, about 10 percent of the parents with young children across the country were compelled to find alternative channels to get their wards admitted to a public primary school.

Unable to get their kids admitted to local public schools in county towns or unwilling or being unable to re-admit them to the original rural public school, the young couples were left with no choice but to purchase property in cities which they deemed were best-suited for their children's education. Consequently, the spillover effect in some first-tier cities, not a sudden rise in the birth rate, has raised the demand for admission to public primary schools.

The nine-year compulsory education program introduced in 2000 has reached its peak and will now see declining admissions in schools due to the falling total fertility rates. So addressing the problem of population decline, rather than making desperate efforts to raise the total fertility rates, should be the priority of the authorities.

However, because of the imbalance in educational resources across regions, the problem of "crowding in cities, trickling effect in rural areas" will further intensify. As long as such an imbalance exists, the Matthew effect will continue to occur. Coined by sociologist Robert Merton, the Matthew effect means that those who are successful are most likely to be given the special opportunities needed to achieve further success, and those who aren't successful are most likely to be deprived of them.

The demand for school enrollment in regions with relatively high-quality educational resources will intensify, while educational resources in relatively weak areas will be either slowly reduced or underused.

To effectively address the fluctuations in school enrollment, the authorities need to balance educational resource allocation and take measures to improve the teaching quality in all schools. More important, the authorities should change the enrollment policy or procedure which could exacerbate the Matthew effect. By reducing the quality gap between schools, the authorities can better handle the rising school enrollment problem. Besides, education department officials must reach a consensus on how to guarantee overall good quality education to all.

Without striking the right balance in educational resource allocation across regions, the authorities cannot guarantee higher-quality education. As long as there is disparity between schools, between urban and rural areas, and between regions, parents will be forced to bear the high cost of sacrificing their health and money, and children the joys of childhood to seek quality education in newer places.

Therefore, the authorities should increase the basic education funds to ensure the equitable distribution of educational resources across regions and between urban and rural areas, as well as within cities, and narrow the gap in per capita financial resources between schools, so as to achieve equality through social security compensation and maintain a healthy educational ecosystem.

Only in this way can the authorities ensure every student receives high-quality education.

The author is a senior researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.