CERCular: No.2 of 1997

• Minority Education in China
• Priorities in Education Management, Policy & Information
• China: Measuring Household Contributions to Basic Education
• Post Compulsory Education in China
• Cambodia: Community Financing of Education
• ADB Study of Trends Issues and Policies in Education

Minority Education in China

Gerard Postiglione was appointed by the Academy of Educational Development as Associate Director of the Asian Development Bank Technical Assistance to the State Education Commission for the project entitled "Strengthening the Department of Ethnic Minority Education" which began in May 1997. The project will last for one year and involves 12 national and three international consultants, who are working in consultation with the State Education Commission's Department of Ethnic Minority Education. It has several components aimed at strengthening work in minority education: research methodology, management information systems, policy and regulations, leadership training, and training for teacher education institutions in bilingual education. The research component involves four provinces, and focuses on bilingual education, boarding schools, teacher training institutions, and vocational education.

Priorities in Education Management, Policy & Information

In May 1997, Mark Bray assisted with a workshop in Bangkok organized by the UNESCO Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. The workshop was attended by senior personnel from Ministries of Education in 20 countries of the region. The sessions in which Mark Bray played a major role focused on privatization and community financing of education. The workshop concluded with resolutions which will help shape UNESCO's work programme during the next five years.

China: Measuring Household Contributions to Basic Education

In 1995, UNICEF's office in Beijing joined with the PRC State Education Commission in a project on the costs and financing of basic education in China. The Shanghai Institute of Human Resource Development (SIHRD) was commissioned to undertake a study of the costs of basic education to households. The study focused on poor counties in poor provinces. The SIHRD collected data from 10,000 households in 38 counties from Jiangxi, Guizhou, Gansu, Sichuan and Anhui provinces.

The study was completed in June 1997, and a meeting was organized in Shanghai to launch the report and to identify policy implications. Mark Bray was invited to the workshop (and was the only external participant). He was able to contribute insights from the nine-country comparative study which he had undertaken in 1995 for UNICEF and the World Bank. He is now assisting with dissemination of the SIHRD study, which is both a source of valuable data and an important contribution to methodology and training in the field of educational research.

Post Compulsory Education in China

Cheng Kai Ming has completed the first phase of his project on post-compulsory education in China. In cooperation with Lee Wing On and others, the project has made a comprehensive study of student choice at the completion of junior secondary education. It has looked at the factors affecting choices, and linked such factors with changes in the transitional society. Initial observations point to a spectacular shift from general to vocational education (outside state plans) in the late 1980s, but a recent rebound to general education, due to the expansion of education and the growth of the tertiary industries. The next phase of the project will look at Lanzhou for a contrast.

Professor Cheng has also started two new research initiatives. The first, in cooperation with Shinobu Yamaguchi, a doctoral student at the Columbia University Teachers' College, is an in-depth study of two counties in Jiangsu to understand the economy-education interplay. The second, in response to a request from the People's Congress, focuses on private schools in China. On the latter, he is looking for collaborators from abroad. Those interested may contact him at kmcheng@hku.hk.

Cambodia: Community Financing of Education

In July 1997, Mark Bray went to Cambodia at the invitation of UNESCO to help with a project on community financing of education. The project follows up work he had conducted for UNICEF in Cambodia in 1995. Comparative figures show that the proportion of primary education costs met by households, at about 75 per cent, is higher in Cambodia than in any other part of the region (and possibly the world). The project aims on the one hand to identify the scale and mechanisms of community financing and on the other hand to help school-level personnel to manage resources more efficiently, effectively and equitably. The project goals are being achieved with the help of school-level and cluster-level workshops. Mark Bray will maintain links with the project, the next stage of which is analysis of newly collected data.

ADB Study of Trends Issues and Policies in Education

In 1988, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) produced for the first time a booklet indicating in detail its views on priorities for educational development in the region and on the role that the Bank could play. Now, a decade later, the ADB has decided to reassess its policies and programmes.

As part of this process, a high-level team has been commissioned to examine aspects of education in the region. The contract for this was by the Academy for Educational Development, which is based in Washington DC, in conjunction with the UNESCO Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, in Bangkok.

In August 1997, the review process was launched with a workshop at the ADB Headquarters in Manila. Among participants were the persons responsible for five thematic papers and eight country papers. CERC-members Lee Wing On and Mark Bray are among the authors commissioned to prepare thematic papers. Lee Wing On is focusing on equity and access to education, and Mark Bray is focusing on the financing of education. Their canvas is broad, for it includes all of the Bank's 39 Developing Member Countries which range in size from Nauru (population 7,000) to China (population 1.2 billion). The project brings together academic research and practical policy outcomes in a challenging and fruitful way.