The goal of compulsory education is different from when it can be achieved. According to UNESCO's statistics of 193 countries and regions (data of 1996), the level of compulsory education in 136 countries and regions is set at nine years (or eight years, which is related to the academic system) or above (at that time, China's per capita GNP ranking was 134), but in fact, Among the 142 countries and regions with available data, the "gross enrollment rate" of secondary education in China ranks 66th, which is not low compared with the per capita GNP of China at that time. China's Compulsory Education Law points out that the implementation of nine-year compulsory education needs a process, and its steps should be determined according to the regional economic and cultural development. In the early 1990s, according to the actual situation of unbalanced economic and cultural development in various regions, the Chinese government divided the task of "basically popularizing nine-year compulsory education" in 2000 into three categories, namely, requiring areas with 85% population coverage to achieve the goal of "popularizing nine-year compulsory education"; The economically disadvantaged areas, which account for about 10% of the population coverage, require universal primary education, that is, "six years"; The special poverty-stricken areas, which account for about 5% of the population and are economically underdeveloped, only require the popularization of "Busan" or "Pusi" from primary schools. Therefore, by the end of 2000, there were actually 522 counties (banners and stadiums) in China that had not reached the goal of "popularizing nine-year compulsory education".
According to UNESCO's definition of universal primary education, "universal" means that the "net enrollment rate" reaches 100%, which is actually difficult to achieve completely even in the United States (the proportion of primary education in developed countries is 98%, and that in China reached 99. 1% in 2000). According to this standard, even if 85% of the areas have reached the standard, there is still a gap, which can only be said to be "basically" achieving the "universal nine-year plan". There is a statistical caliber here, that is, how to evaluate the implementation and acceptance criteria of the Ninth Five-Year Plan. China's "Nine-Year Plan" is accepted by the county as the "population area unit". An important indicator of acceptance is to require the "gross enrollment rate" of junior high schools in this county to reach a certain level (usually above 95%). If it passes the acceptance, the total population of this area (county) will all be included in the ninth five-year plan, so in fact, a small number of school-age children in this 85% area have not entered junior high school. According to statistics, the number of freshmen enrolled in 1997 18364700 was 16334500 when they graduated in 2000, which means that more than 10% students dropped out of school. On the other hand, if this area (county) fails to pass the acceptance of "nine-year compulsory education", then the total population of this area will be included in the scope of "nine-year compulsory education", but in fact, in this/kloc-0.5% area, there are still different proportions of students who have completed their nine-year studies without being counted.
It is a long-term task to consolidate the achievements of the Ninth Five-Year Plan and expand the degree of popularization. If the investment and work are not in place, the "standard" level in some places may not be maintained. It should also be noted that some areas have passed the "acceptance criteria" at once by "extraordinary measures", and the task of consolidating the existing "Ninth Five-Year Plan" results is even more arduous and cannot be relaxed at all. In recent years, many places reflect that the dropout rate of junior high schools is on the rise, which is a noteworthy signal. Therefore, for a long time in the whole country, we should still regard "basically popularizing nine-year compulsory education" as the "top priority" of education work, and we must not slack off. The above is only based on the progress of the Ninth Five-Year Plan. As for the level and quality of the Ninth Five-Year Plan, the gap between big cities and "old, little, marginal and poor" areas is even greater. Schools in big cities can have everything, while some poor areas can't even guarantee the most basic teaching conditions, and the gap is still widening. In addition, problems such as arrears of teachers' salaries, renovation of dilapidated buildings and difficulty in obtaining loans have not been solved for a long time in many places, especially in poor areas, which directly affects the normal education of some schools. Analyzing the causes of the problems, the most important thing is insufficient investment, which is closely related to the investment and management system of basic education in China and the extremely unbalanced regional economic development. The difficulties faced by poor areas that have not been "popularized for nine years" to meet the requirements of "popularized for nine years" are by no means solved by "local governments" themselves. Today, when the "Nine-Year Plan" has been basically realized in the whole country, we should not make the development progress of these areas completely "based on the economic and cultural development of the region". From the guiding ideology, "popularizing nine-year compulsory education" should be regarded as a "national task", and the central and provincial governments should jointly help "local" governments to take practical measures and steps to achieve the goal of "basically popularizing nine-year compulsory education".
For a long time, China has implemented a basic education development system of "local responsibility and hierarchical management", that is, from the perspective of finance and management, basic education is under the responsibility of provincial and sub-provincial governments. It should be said that this system was compatible with the financial responsibility system at that time, and played a very significant role in mobilizing the enthusiasm of local people for running schools, rapidly changing the face of basic education in China and promoting the development of rural compulsory education. On the other hand, according to this system, the implementation responsibility and management level of compulsory education will be gradually decentralized. In this way, China's vast rural areas have basically formed a pattern of "village-run primary schools, township-run junior high schools and county-run senior high schools". Due to the low level of economic development in quite a few areas, the financial resources of county and township governments are weak, and the financial investment in education is seriously insufficient. According to statistics, the total investment in compulsory education in China in 2000 was 183382 billion yuan, of which 108507 billion yuan was allocated from the financial budget, accounting for 5.9 17% (compared with 51.6/in 1995). Roughly speaking, the funds that rural areas need to raise are 45 billion to 50 billion, and the responsibility is mainly borne by rural areas. In order to develop education, all localities can only do everything possible to realize "educating people and running the people". The information from UNESCO will help to understand the grim fact that our government's budget allocation for basic education is insufficient. According to statistics, from 65438 to 0996, the international average recurrent education expenses (including teachers' salaries) paid by the government for each primary school student accounted for 12.75% of the country's per capita GNP. China's ratio is 6%, and only 10 out of 27 countries in the world is lower than this ratio (there are also 9 countries with the same ratio). This is a data only compared with the GNP of our own country, so this low ratio cannot be explained by economic development or underdevelopment. Of course, apart from whether we really attach importance to education, this ratio is also directly related to the proportion of a country's fiscal expenditure in GNP.
Now it seems that the basic education development system of "local responsibility and hierarchical management" should be adjusted. Basic education is divided into compulsory education and non-compulsory education, and non-compulsory education can still be implemented with "local responsibility and hierarchical management"; For compulsory education, especially in poverty-stricken areas, the central and local governments should be responsible for the division of labor and jointly guarantee the implementation. Now the central government and the State Council have made a decision to "improve the management system of rural compulsory education", which should be said to be a big step forward in this direction. Strengthening the transfer payment of the central and provincial governments is the necessary guarantee to implement this transformation, especially after the implementation of "changing fees into taxes", which is particularly urgent in rural poverty-stricken areas. In recent years, China's financial situation has gradually improved. According to this year's budget, the proportion of finance to GDP has risen to 17.55% (at the lowest, the proportion of finance to GDP was only 10.67%), and the total budget revenue has reached1801500 million. Therefore, it is entirely possible to make the gap of compulsory education funds in poverty-stricken areas that the county and township finance can't afford to be borne by the higher government through the central and provincial transfer payments, so as to ensure that all insurance should be guaranteed. For local governments and education administrative departments at all levels, it is necessary to carry out practical reforms, strictly equip personnel, and solve problems that can be solved on the spot without handing over contradictions. Recently, when the Standing Committee of China People's Political Consultative Conference discussed the topic of compulsory education, members put forward many positive suggestions. For example, the central government decided to implement the system of dividing the incremental part of local income tax between the central government and the local government from this year, and determined that this part of the central government revenue will be used to support the development of the central and western regions. It is suggested that this part should first be used to support compulsory education in the central and western regions; Another example is the renovation of dilapidated buildings in primary and secondary schools in rural poverty-stricken areas. In addition to special financial projects, support can be strengthened by including long-term national debt and other measures. As long as it is clear that compulsory education is the task of the state and the responsibility of the government, we should gradually solve the existing difficulties and problems.